Lincoln Highway Artists Studio Tour Part 2

After today's worship service, I was back on the studio tour - solo- with my first stop at the Octagon Center for the Arts. I enjoyed a wonderful conversation with jewelry designer, Gail Hashemi-Toroghi. Her work features exquisite butterfly wings that are set in silver and protected by resin. I was also encouraged by a water media painter, Joseph Murray, who shared some great tips.

CASA is Creative Artists' Studio of Ames. I have attended several open house events there and never tire of seeing what the artists are doing. Many gifted artists create within these walls. I had extended conversations with 3 of the artists. Chris Cowan is a painter who works with several media. She was a ribbon winner in this year's Iowa Watercolor Society show. Her winning painting is gorgeous. She also shared works from the IWS workshop in Sept. Norma Wolfe is another painter who attended the same workshop and she also displayed one of her works in progress from it. Norma has another project where she allows visitors to add a piece of ephemera to the frame around her art. What fun!

My last stop at CASA was with calligrapher extraordinaire, Dot Prater. Even without reading her works, they bring pleasure with her composition and the rhythm the marks make on the page. She is also accomplished at making books which are beautiful. Dot demos her art by making bookmarks. Today's image is the bookmarks she created for us. Todd joined me on the tour at this point.

The tour continues in my next post.