Local Artists Throw Open Their Doors for Edmonds Studio Tour This Weekend

“It is hard to get [the studio] clean, but not too clean,” explained printmaker and painter Mona Smiley-Fairbanks. “People are really interested in the strange world of the artist.”

Perhaps it is this interest, coupled with the obvious appreciation for art, that draws hundreds of people each year to the Edmonds . It is a rare occurrence that more than 20 studios throw open their doors to the public, with 42 artists displaying their work, most of them on hand to answer questions and assuage the community’s curiosity.

“As the visitors wend their way through the various studios they will see everything from in-home studios to stand-alone studios and studios remote from the artist's home,” said Sue Robertson, who like Smiley-Fairbanks was an initial founder of the tour. “They will see organized artists and unorganized artists, though I am sure they will have cleaned up a bit. They will see paintings, sculpture, jewelry, wood, ceramic and fiber art. We have it all.”

The tour, presented by the Edmonds Arts Festival and funded in part by the City of Edmonds Arts Commission Tourism Promotion Fund, runs today and tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is free. Open studios are in all corners of Edmonds, from downtown and the Bowl to Maplewood and Meadowdale. Free maps can be downloaded from the tour’s official website.

Robertson, a mixed media and acrylic artist who has a passion for creation, works from a studio in the lower level of her home in the Edmonds Bowl. She has been experimenting with various mediums over the past 15 years, but always finds herself coming back to acrylic.

“I do not know where the painting is going when I start,” she said about her process. “I go where it takes me and I am done when it makes me happy. It is about the process for me. I sell my work in order to paint more. If something does not sell, or I lose interest in it, I paint over it. I just want to paint!”

She said she initially got involved in the tours because she felt it was a good way to reach the public with her art, but thinks that both artists and visitors can benefit from interaction because it gives visitors a chance to ask questions and actually see where the art is created.

“It is valuable for the artists to have the opportunity to meet with the people that enjoy and buy their work,” said Robertson. “Often, artwork is sold in galleries and the artist and customer rarely meet. I have found it quite wonderful to spend two days talking about art with people who are really interested.”

Smiley-Fairbanks agrees.

“The attendees get a rare chance to step into the artist world and not only see where and how they work but have a dialogue about the work itself,” she wrote in an e-mail.

Her studio is also attached to her home; 10 years ago she converted her garage to her studio. Before that she was working on kitchen counters.

Like Robertson, Smiley-Fairbanks has been involved in the tour since the initial run six years ago, and she has been on the steering committee each year since. The tour was the brainchild of a group of artists who met at the monthly ArtistsConnect group, and they approached the Edmonds Arts Festival and the Edmonds Arts Commission. Both groups worked closely with the artists and the event was born in 2006.

Smiley-Fairbanks, like many artists, has enjoyed experimenting with her medium of choice.

“I am interested in any medium that expresses my ideas whether it is metal, paper, fabric or wood,” she said. “The older I get, the more adventuresome I get, and the less important it is for me to label my medium. I am primarily a printmaker but I often add found object or sew my work together. I am interested in the whole art piece and how the mounting works with the piece.”

Just as these artists are interested in the combination of materials that make the whole of their work, the Edmonds Art Studio Tour provides visitors with a chance to see how the artists, from painters to sculptures and jewelry makers, combine to create the inspired and unique artists community in Edmonds.

For a complete list of artists and studios, visit the Studio Tour website.