An A.R.T. Atist's Day

This year A.R.T. has 35 artists participating and they cover a wide diversity of mediums. Today we'll follow the Web/Blog creator for A.R.T. (Bruce Morrison) as he works in the studio/gallery on his snow "buried" acreage along the Waterman Creek valley in SW O'Brien County -

High Summer Skies - Oil on canvas
(private collection)

I'm a 'full-time' artist but freelance in related areas to pay the bills. I try, for my sanity sake, to keep work related somehow to my interests - those that also benefit my art work. I do natural history related websites for instance...contributing images from my photographic files to illustrate client's pages. One example of this would be my county's nature center (The Prairie Heritage Center), I also do museum display work and touch-screen computer kiosk work in this field as well.

One job that has helped contribute paintings, drawings and photography for my studio and gallery is a regional grant for Watchable Wildlife in NW Iowa. I was contracted to design a site and build pages that encompass various natural areas in NW Iowa...these pages have information on each site (given to me by the grant administrators) and I supply the images to illustrate that information, the google maps to locate the sites, and do short video productions to give a brief "feel" for most locations. These videos are embedded in the pages but can also be downloaded to i pods and such for travelers visiting the area. The site currently has about 35 locations but I have spent the past year visiting about 75 more places and photographing/videotaping and am spending this winter and spring putting these together to add to the current project.

How does this contribute to my artwork? The image near the blog's beginning is an example of a plein air painting from one of the locations along the Watchable Wildlife site; working at these locations give me great opportunities and ideas for landscape painting and photography!

September Dawn, Little Sioux River- Oil on canvas
(private collection)

Here's another location example (this time an event - a canoe race I video taped and photographed); I found more places to return to for working with the landscape.

Today I am working on the next 75 sites...I'll likely be throwing in slots of time for other paintings or drawings as work permits through the days and weeks ahead.

Many artists on A.R.T. also have websites, blogs and a presence on social networks, I am no exception as you may surmise. You can keep track of what artists are up to on a daily/weekly basis by following their blogs or face book page! All of this information is available on each A.R.T. artist's page on the Artisans Road Trip web site, just go to the "Gallery" link and select artists from there.

But be sure and subscribe to this Artisans Roadtrip Blog and learn more about the artists of A.R.T.!

Join Us!

Join us for a year of creativity; for a spring, summer and fall of painting, throwing pottery, printmaking, photography, glass blowing, stained glass, mosaics, making jewelry, you name it!

We are the Artisans Road Trip of Northwest Iowa, and our member artists are working in their studios, showing in galleries, and even working afield - toward the ultimate art studio tour to come on October 1st, 2nd and 3rd in 2010.

Join us for some weekly commentary from many of our artists...commentary about what they are up to, obstacles they are hurdling, artwork they are making, goals they are progressing toward; see what transpires!

Join us for the year on the road from studio to studio - then on to the Artisans Road Trip!