Art Saint Louis is pleased to present our fourth round of our ASL Artist Q&A
weekly series highlighting our artist members, focusing on what
inspires them--both in their own work as well as work by other artists and taking a look at their studio spaces and the where and how of their artmaking process.
We encourage you to connect with the featured artists through their
websites and/or social media accounts, all hyperlinked in this post.
Our
continued gratitude to the participating artists to ASL Staffers
Roxanne Phillips and Robin Hirsch-Steinhoff for their work on the blog.
This
week we are featuring artists Marilynne Bradley, Jim Burwinkel, Nicole Cooper, Morris Fletcher, Bill Perry, Mary Beth Shaw, and Jerry Walters.
Please stay tuned & visit again next week for more ASL Q&A.
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MARILYNNE BRADLEY
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Marilynne Bradley at work in her home studio.
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Roxanne Phillips: Describe your studio space – size, location, set up, what qualities must a studio have, what would you change about your current studio?Marilynne Bradley: I have a studio room 18’x24’ off my kitchen and a special wc with a kitchen sink to clean art materials. Large windows face East,West and North glass doors let more light in.
My desk is a 4’x8’ piece of plywood on top of a table. The room is full and I need more space for storage of paintings.
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| Marilynne Bradley's studio. |
Roxanne: Do you have a studio routine? Most creative time of day to work? Process of thinking or setting up before you begin making? Marilynne: I’m a morning person and usually begin painting at 6:30 a.m. until noon. In the middle of the night I may wake up and paint.
The watercolor painting
Ship Reflections. (2020. 15”x22”), is my newest geometric work.
My life has become my palette of observations. Much of my ideas are from a series of my photos.
I record the world through my vision, which I transfer to my brush. Every day presents a new adventure. Some days, I paint the literal image; other days, an impression of color and design
takes over. It is due to my love of painting and passion for history that I work a time line of special moments.
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| Marilynne Bradley. Ship Reflections. 2020. Watercolor, 15”x22”. |
JIM BURWINKEL
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| Jim Burwinkel's 'dirty' studio space is sized about 850 square feet. |
Roxanne Phillips: Describe your studio space – size, location, set up, what qualities must a studio have, what would you change about your current studio?Jim Burwinkel: I live in an old storefront with an enormous attached garage. My main (dirty) studio space is built out in the garage and is about 850 SF, but it continues into the first floor and basically gets cleaner and cleaner as I go to the front of the house. The back room is used for staging and finishing pieces (and storage of finished stuff) and the front room is where I have a computer workstation for projects requiring CAD. The main studio is a wood and metal working shop with most everything on wheels so it can move around depending on what is in the works at any given moment.
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| Jim Burwinkel. (work in-progress) Flutter. April 2020. Steel, Paint, Light 54”x10”x6”. |
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| Jim Burwinkel. (completed work) Flutter. April 2020. Steel, Paint, Light 54”x10”x6”. |
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| Jim Burwinkel. (detail view) Flutter. April 2020. Steel, Paint, Light 54”x10”x6”. |
Roxanne: Do you have a studio routine? Most creative time of day to work? Process of thinking or setting up before you begin making? Jim: My routine varies a lot depending on all the other things that are happening at the University. On a full day in the studio, I’ll work for 7 or 8 hours on projects. I have a notebook of rough ideas where I jot/sketch down ideas as I think of them. While I usually have an idea of what I want to do next, revisiting the notebook to refresh my memory is something I do often. There are usually a couple projects in various stages of completion in the studio at any given time. Some are just in phases that require curing or drying, some are in the maquette stage and some are just things where I got stuck and need to let them stew in the back of my mind. I usually have some music playing or a documentary running on the laptop to “keep me company.” Otherwise I tend to talk to myself out loud as I wander around working, which I was surprised to find very distracting even to myself.
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| Jim Burwinkel. Drifting Falling Floating Weightless. March 2020. Steel, 11’x6’. |
Roxanne: What is your favorite piece of art that you have made and why?Jim: If I had to choose a favorite piece of mine it would be
Shore that I finished in 2013. It’s inspired by a quiet sunrise on a Delaware beach that was one of the most peaceful moments I have ever experienced. It’s hanging in an office in Clayton hopefully bringing a moment of quiet contemplation to people throughout the day.
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| Jim Burwinkel. Silence Solace Sleep. May 2020. Cast Plaster, 76”x32”x2.5”. |
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| Jim Burwinkel. Study maquette for Silence Solace Sleep. May 2020. Cast Plaster, 76”x32”x2.5”. |
Roxanne: What is your favorite artwork by another artist and why? Jim: As far as a favorite piece of work by someone else, that’s even harder to nail down. There is so much wonderful art to consider. I really like Rudolf Belling’s
Organic Forms (Striding Man) and Renee Sintenis’s
Daphne and visit them fairly often at Saint Louis Art Museum. But the artist who most influenced me is probably Edward Hopper. He works with light so well and does some interesting things with the horizon and point of view that have influenced the way I design scenery and lighting for theatre since day one. And that interest in light on form as a generator of ideas and wonder is still with me and is at the center of pretty much all the work that I do. A particular favorite is
Early Sunday Morning at the Whitney Museum of American Art. For all the talk that Hopper is a realist, the way he uses the paint says to me that all art is abstraction.
NICOLE COOPER |
Nicole Cooper's temporary home studio area.
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Roxanne Phillips: Describe your studio space – size, location, set up, what qualities must a studio have, what would you change about your current studio?Nicole Cooper: I have a lovely studio space in Maplewood that I share with fine art jewelry artist Allison Norfleet Bruenger. It’s a once-upon-a-time 2nd story apartment that’s been converted into artist workspace. We have a welcoming gallery area in the front, which showcases our—as well as guest artists’—work during open studio events. I paint in a roughly 12’x6’ room in the back with access to the balcony. Painting with the windows open on a breezy summer day brings me great joy. My challenge is finding uninterrupted wall space wide enough for my large-scale paintings.
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Artist Nicole Cooper in her studio (2018).
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However, during the pandemic I’ve temporarily moved my practice to my home basement studio (pictured above). Filled with positive creative energy, I feel very much in my element while working there. It is a large space, affording me room to make 10’+ paintings. The downside is water leakage during periods of high rainfall, making it not so ideal to work or store anything valuable in for long periods of time. Between this and my Maplewood studio, it sort of balances out.
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Nicole Cooper. Equilibrium. 2020. Oil on Canvas, 30”x30”.
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Roxanne: Do you have a studio routine? Nicole: My routine is consistent, but flexible, to balance my life. I’ve developed a system of organization/planning that helps set my studio goals and expectations for each week/month/quarter/year. Currently, I have a full 10-hr day plus several other chunks of time through the week dedicated to studio focus. I am generally most productive in the mornings, sometimes beginning as early as 6:30 am. That is precious paint-to-canvas time, so I reserve other studio activities for other hours of the day. Stretching before (and sometimes while) working helps connect my body and mind. I am always listening to music… an eclectic variety always selected by my mood. I had a teacher once say, “be who you need to be in your studio to make the work you need to make. If you need to be a badass, be that badass.” I have a crusty ol’ painting apron from my Mom that’s sort of like a super suit. Putting it on can transform my mindset to be ready to work.
MORRIS FLETCHER |
Morris Fletcher's main studio area.
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Roxanne Phillips: Describe your studio space – size, location, set up, what qualities must a studio have, what would you change about your current studio?Morris Fletcher: My studio space is on the lower level of our home. The mid-century modern is two levels on the rear and one level on the street side. We had a large, long family room with a fireplace on the exterior wall. I partitioned an area with 6’ high book cases to create a space approximately 8’x8’ square with the bookcases open to the studio side and some to the family room side and corridor. The painting area contains shelving, cabinet space and a drafting table.
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| Morris Fletcher's main studio area. |
Additionally I have a space that is an extension of the painting area with a table and exterior door that is approximately 8’x12’ where I do flat work. I varnish and package work on the flat table. There is also an adjacent space I use as an office with my computer and files.
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| Morris Fletcher. Forest Park Autumn. 2019. Oil on Canvas, 24”x36”. $800. |
Roxanne: Do you have a studio routine? Most creative time of day to work? Process of thinking or setting up before you begin making? Morris: I do not have a regular schedule to work. I tend to work when I have a painting I am working on with my students and/or when I am inspired. Sketching and generating ideas is done on the drafting table and then the canvas is prepared and painted on the easel. I usually listen to music or NPR when I am painting and other wise working in the studio.
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| Morris Fletcher. River Road Red Barn. 2019. Oil on Canvas, 18”x24”. $600. |
BILL PERRY |
Bill Perry's studio space.
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Roxanne Phillips: Describe your studio space – size, location, set up, what qualities must a studio have, what would you change about your current studio?Bill Perry: I used to do a lot of clay work, but now I am concentrating on drawing and painting. I work in a 7’ wide by 11’ long second floor studio space, with a 7’ ceiling, adjacent to our bedroom. On both the north and south side of the room is a built-in desk running the length of the space. Each desk has a 30” adjustable section that can function as a flat table or an upright easel. This enables me to work with different kinds of materials, from pen-and-ink drawings to acrylic paintings. I am currently working on a series of paintings, so for the last two years the room has been a painting studio.
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Artist Bill Perry.
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The desk on the south side of the room has drawers for tools and shelves for materials. The east end of the room is filled with windows. The rest of the room is lined with bookshelves. I made and installed the desks and shelves. The room tends to accumulate books and art materials.
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Bill Perry. Image from his sketchbook.
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Roxanne: Do you have a studio routine? Most creative time of day to work? Process of thinking or setting up before you begin making? Bill: When I get up each morning, after I take a shower, I get myself a cup of tea and a cookie, do a little spiritual reading, and draw a quick picture in my sketchbook. I maintain a nine by twelve, standard 50-page, black, hardbound sketchbook at all times. As I read and sip my tea, an image often comes to mind, and I draw that. Or sometimes I just start drawing without any idea, and develop the image as I go along. I only draw on the right page, because if I draw on the back of the page or facing pages the drawings print on one another.
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| Bill Perry. Image from his sketchbook. |
I do these drawings at the kitchen table. I draw in number two pencil. Over the years I have filled well over a hundred of these books. Many of these drawings have found their way into work for display. The south wall of the studio, the side you see in the picture, is lined with these completed sketchbooks.
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Bill Perry. Christelle. 2020. Acrylic on Canvas.
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Right now I am painting a series of acrylic portraits of immigrant women living in St. Louis. These are life-size, waist up, full color traditional portraits. I am working on the 26th of 27 portraits. I work as often as I can. I always pray before I work, and offer my work, little as it is, to God. Then I just work. I take a break every hour or two. On a good day I paint for about four hours.
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Bill Perry. Work-in-progress. Acrylic on Canvas.
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Learn more about Bill Perry:
https://moleculefarm.wixsite.com/bill-perryMARY BETH SHAW
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Mary Beth Shaw's studio space at the Barn at Lucerne.
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Artist Mary Beth Shaw.
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Roxanne Phillips: Describe your studio space – size, location, set up, what qualities must a studio have, what would you change about your current studio?Mary Beth Shaw: I rent an 800 square foot space in the Barn at Lucerne which is a few miles from my house. It is one large room which I have organized according to job function. There is a wet area where I can get super messy and fling paint. There is a clean area where I do assembly of collage. I also have a filming set up for the video work I do and a couch for naps. The studio is great but would be perfect if the ceiling was taller.
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| Mary Beth Shaw. Baby Steps. 2020. Mixed Media, 20”x20”. |
Roxanne: Do you have a studio routine? Most creative time of day to work? Process of thinking or setting up before you begin making? Mary Beth: I am in the studio nearly every day. I usually go in around 10 a.m. and work till 5 or so. I find I am most productive in the morning. My in-person classes have been cancelled for 2020 so I am working on a lot of video, filming and editing. I stay on task using written lists which I make at the start of each week.
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| Mary Beth Shaw. Fading. 2020. Mixed Media, 8”x8”. |
JERRY WALTERS
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Jerry Walters studio in Farmington, MO.
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Jerry Walters at work on a woodblock in his studio.
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Roxanne Phillips: Describe your studio space – size, location, set up, what qualities must a studio have, what would you change about your current studio?Jerry Walters: My studio is a addition that I added to my house some years ago. It is a large room approximately 24’x36’ with a cathedral ceiling and large windows facing east and north it also has a deck where I can work outside.
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Jerry Walters. Woodblock work in-progress. Currently untitled, but will have something to do with Queen Anne's Lace.
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Roxanne: Do you have a studio routine? Most creative time of day to work? Process of thinking or setting up before you begin making? Jerry: I usually spend between four and five hours early in the morning working in my studio, however with the current situation I'm also spending more time in the afternoon working that I otherwise would be traveling or being outdoors. I am currently working on a large woodcut 32"x48" that you see in the photographs.
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