Editor's pick: Artists’ studio tour

Wayne County Arts Alliance’s Open Studio Tour

Fri., Aug. 26 through Sun., Aug. 28, 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. each day. Wayne County, PA. Map available at waynecountyartsalliance.org.

The Wayne County Arts Alliance’s Studio Tour, now in its third year, offers a cornucopia of experiences: photographs, paintings, puppets, ceramics, sculpture and the artists who create them, all set in the context of a progress through the late summer landscape of northeast Pennsylvania.

There are 19 stops on the tour this year, ranging from Susanne Wibroe-Fost’s sculpture park, anagama kiln and studio in Damascus as far south as designer John Russo’s studio at Whitney Lake. Along the way you can stop to see the works of New York Times photojournalist Ruth Fremson, whose photographs of 9-11 and the war in Afghanistan earned her three Pulitzer Prizes. She will exhibit in Honesdale in the studio of caricaturist John Kascht, whose works are collected in the National Portrait Gallery. For objects that combine utility with art, you can visit the studio of David Brinkerhoff in Galilee to see birdbaths and basins of Pennsylvania bluestone and furniture crafted of local wood or travel down to Milanville for Richard Miller’s stoneware.

John Rocklin’s candid and perceptive photographs of musicians—especially blues and American “roots” performers—will be on display in his studio in Beach Lake. And of course there will be paintings, from Michael O’Neill’s “kaleidoscopes of color,” as critics have called them, to the tranquil simplified masses of Roger Hill’s landscapes.

The tour is not just about the art but also about the artists and the process of creation. A tour of their studios is an opportunity to view works in progress, learn something about how they are made and speak to the artists about their inspiration, motivation and perceptions. Given the depth of the Wayne County artists’ community, it is a rare opportunity.