Topic: Around Town
Yesterday was the first day of the Gowanus Artists Open Studio Tour, which continues today. Joined by a couple of friends, I wandered the northern section of the tour, close to where I live, and saw many of the same studios and artists that I visited last year. I was pleased to see so much good art, and one of the nice things about the Gowanus scene is how unpretentious it is. It’s very craft-oriented, to the extent that in some studios, sweaters and jewelry hung right next to paintings.
My absolute favorite artist on the tour by far is Elyse Taylor, whose fantastic ongoing work, Growing, covers one wall of her studio. I can’t say enough good things about this work, or the rest of her work, so instead I’ll just point out that A) she’s an incredibly sweet lady who will welcome you to her studio if you email her at taylorgrowing@aol.com, and B) she sells at least some of her artwork for cheap. I bought an actual honest-to-goodness painting of about a foot square for twenty bucks. Beat that!
There’s much more than just Elyse Taylor on the tour. Today I hope to make it down to some of the far-flung studios that I didn’t visit last year.