By Joyce Rudolph
Published: Last Updated Tuesday, September 16, 2008 10:23 PM PDT
Some went on Glendale’s Open Studio Tour on Sunday seeking artwork for their home, while others sought to be inspired.
The tour, coordinated by the Cultural Affairs Section of the city’s parks department, included several artists’ homes and studios as well as art facilities like the Alex Theatre and Brand Library Art Studio and Galleries. Visitors could drive themselves or take the Beeline bus.
Shaaron Casey of Glendale had just stepped off the Beeline bus at Brand Library and was heading for the galleries where the 148 artists on the tour had one of their works on display.
She stopped in front of Vic Iorillo’s photograph titled “End of the Day.”
She had seen another of his photographs, “Shadow Wall,” in the downstairs studio. It was a western-themed photograph featuring a cow’s skull and dream catcher.
“I thought that my son would enjoy it,” Casey said. “He’s got American Indian in him from his dad. And he has a dream catcher in his room.”
This was the first time Casey had taken the tour, which has been going on for five years.
“I like the different artworks in the show,” Casey said. “There is a large range of ideas and feelings.”
Along the tour, Casey got to meet artist Flavia Monteiro.
“I liked her paintings,” Casey said.
“While we were at her house, she said her paintings are on the walls in the TV show ‘House.’ If I had $1,500 and a big house, I would have bought a piece of her work.”
Also enjoying the tour Saturday was Hazel Canon, of Burbank, who was waiting to board the Beeline bus with her granddaughter, Elle Willgues.
“I paint watercolor and acrylics,” Canon said. “It’s always hard to decide what to paint.”
Canon mostly paints landscapes and seascapes.
“I taught art in schools, so I had a general knowledge of different media, clay, potter’s wheel,” Canon said.
“It didn’t leave time for me to do my own work. Now I’m retired and thought the tour would inspire me to start my own work again and get an idea of where artists show their work.”
Up at the top of Chevy Chase Canyon, oil painter Dahl Delu welcomed visitors to his home, where several members of his art group, Artists of the Canyon, had set up their paintings.
The tour provided a great chance for artists to interact with the public, Delu said.
During a six-hour period, 40 to 50 people came through his home, patio and studio, he said.
“Any time artists are able to interact with appreciative patrons, we learn on both sides,” he said.
“Artists learn from the patron the kind of impact their work has on them. We are isolated. We seldom get to interact one on one with the public.”
Visitors get the chance to see things through an artist’s eyes, he added.
“An artist sees the world a little different from everybody else, and it’s that view that expands the way the patron looks at the world,” Delu said.
Most of the comments on the event have been positive, said organizer Ripsime Marashian, the Arts and Culture Commission coordinator for the city of Glendale Parks, Recreation and Community Service Department’s Cultural Affairs Section.
Marashian has mailed surveys to evaluate the event and asked for input to make improvements.