“Nowhere to Go” by Karen Klinefelter, six-inches-by-six-inches, mixed media on wood panel.
Karen Klinefelter’s studio will be open to the public on the first BOSCO weekend.
Tagua Spokes Sculpture #2 by Karen Klinefelter.
Delia Dante welds in her studio. Dante, along with two other BOSCO painters she has invited to her space, Lauren Thiem and Mary Smith, will be on BOSCO’s first weekend studio tour, Oct. 1, 2.
“My Selfie” by Delia Dante.
“Nowhere to Go” by Karen Klinefelter, six-inches-by-six-inches, mixed media on wood panel.
Karen Klinefelter’s studio will be open to the public on the first BOSCO weekend.
Tagua Spokes Sculpture #2 by Karen Klinefelter.
Delia Dante welds in her studio. Dante, along with two other BOSCO painters she has invited to her space, Lauren Thiem and Mary Smith, will be on BOSCO’s first weekend studio tour, Oct. 1, 2.
“My Selfie” by Delia Dante.
Magic. That is often what a viewer of art perceives happens behind the closed doors of an artist’s studio. How else to explain the unexplainable beauty, to grasp the layers of its meaning, to decipher the language that will live for eons?
Once a year, Boiseans are lucky enough to step inside those doors, to see where the magic happens, to marvel at the artist’s tools of the trade — what paint brushes they use and how many; what media they employ; what surfaces they use; the different disciplines: metalmaking, sculpture, jewelry making, painting, printmaking — and on and on and more and more.
Boise Open Studio Collective Organization, or BOSCO, is a group of local artists who once a year open their doors to the community. The organization was started in 2003. This is its 19th open studio event, which always takes place over the first two weekends in October. This year, that happens from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 1 and Sunday, Oct. 2, and again, with different artists, Saturday, Oct. 8 and Sunday, Oct. 9. The event is free and a chance for the whole family to open the doors to art and artists. Ask questions. There will also be an art giveaway. Pick up the stamps available at each studio visited to fill out an Art Passport. Each completed passport will be entered in a drawing for a chance to win art created by one of the participating artists.
Boise Weekly chatted with Karen Klinefelter and Delia Dante, two of the 88 artists who will be opening the doors of their studios this year to let you peek in to see where the magic happens. Both will open their studios on the first weekend, Oct. 1 and 2. The conversations via email have been gently edited for clarity and length.
Q&A with Karen Klinefelter
Klinefelter will be on the first BOSCO weekend. In addition to her “workbench/messy painting area ... and finished jewelry pieces and paintings,” you might get to meet her red lab, Roo. And if you get there early, there might be “some free things.”
Karen, how long have you been making art and how did you start? What is your art journey?
I have been making art jewelry for over 35 years. I was bouncing in and out of college uncertain what to focus on. During a stretch of waitressing and knowing for certain that is not what I wanted to do forever, I answered an ad in the paper for a “Goldsmith’s Apprentice” and got the job. I worked as an apprentice full time and waitressed at night to pay the bills. I worked with the goldsmith for a year and gained basic metalsmithing skills in both silver and gold.
I went on to work briefly at a traditional jewelry store selling diamonds and wedding jewelry, but I quickly realized that what I loved was the hands-on making of things. Then I went to work for a silversmith in a craft gallery. I worked there for two-and-a-half years and honed design and silversmithing skills. From there, I went to work for a true artist. He was a skilled metalsmith and a bold, creative designer. I worked with him for 12 years as his studio assistant. It was the best time! He was very generous with his knowledge, his tools, and his workspace. With his support, I began to develop my own creativity and style.
In 2004, I opened my own studio and created all my own designs. I started jurying into high end craft shows/ art fairs around the country. My work was all silver and high karat gold. It sold well and as the years went by, I got into better and better shows.
Who are some contemporary artists who inspire you — and why?
Contemporary artists that inspire me must include Timothy Grannis, the designer I worked for so long. He passed away six years ago but left a legacy of several jewelers behind who “grew up” in his studio. We are all professional and all have very distinctly different aesthetics to our work. And no one is copying Timothy’s distinctive anticlastic raising style. He loved what he did and loved to share it with everyone. Those of us lucky enough to be in his orbit learned much more that bench skills on the journey to make our lives’ work be what we love.
Locally, my friend and fellow BOSCO artist Jany Rae Seda inspires me immensely. She is the hardest working artist I know. Her work evolves and evolves. Her studio space and grounds are a work of art in themselves. She is generous with her time and wisdom in the art community and always upbeat and looking forward. She is one of the most genuine human beings I have ever met.
My friend and fellow jewelry artist Jacob Albee is a rebel, a rule breaker and pushes all the limits of his medium. I adore him as a person and his evolution as a metalsmith following his passion has been incredible to watch.
How and why is art important to you?
It is hard to articulate except to say that I cannot imagine a life without “making.” It is not the most lucrative path, and I have come to several crossroads in my life where I considered going back to school and pursuing a master’s to my BA in psychology. Each time, I have chosen to stay the course and try to make my living making art.
Q&A with Delia Dante
Dante first opened her backyard “she-shed” to the public for BOSCO in 2006 and has been a member and supporter of its education and community outreach mission for 16 years. Now, with her own gallery and studio space in downtown Boise, she shares and teaches her love of enameling, welding and electroplating, hosts other teachers in various mediums and exhibits local artists, “a true dream come true,” said Dante. For BOSCO 2022, she has invited two BOSCO painters to her space, Lauren Thiem and Mary Smith, because their studios are far away. In addition, Dante will be doing enameling demos and giving away free samples.
Delia, can you please talk about how you first knew you were an artist? Do you remember making your first piece of art?
I was never encouraged to be an artist or that what I created would be considered art. I just had to be constantly making something with my hands.
I think what I would consider my first piece of art rather than a craft was during my ceramic class in high school. I did a relief sculpture of a woman’s body and the student teacher really made a fuss over it. It was the first time anyone had really seen anything of mine that made an impression. I really felt empowered to at least keep working at it and go to college to study art. It gave me such joy to create and I have somebody appreciate what I made. I guess you could say it was a revelatory experience. The power that teachers have to encourage self exploration is amazing.
I never considered myself an artist until I had my first exhibit for my master’s degree when I was 33 years old.
Do you think artists strive for perfection?
I definitely would consider myself to be a perfectionist of sorts. My past employees would’ve probably said I am fussy. I have a word for it now …Goodnuff! For me it’s about getting my message and meaning across to the viewer and that really takes time and a lot of thought. I never could afford to throw work away and always figured I could rework it later. Sometimes things need to sit on a shelf while my mind gets re-inspired or re-energized. I try to recycle everything which is probably why I have a studio full of half finished projects!
Do you see or make art in your dreams?
I don’t really think I dream of art. I really dream of problem-solving fabrication issues for the most part. Sculpting with mixed media and welding seems to create a lot of fabrication challenges. I definitely dream in color and will wake up in the middle of the night with a possible solution to something I’ve been trying to solve. I find that most rewarding in the art that I create. It’s so much about problem-solving to get to the final result I want. I really feel that you should not limit yourself in art by the lack of knowledge about how to build your vision. Dream it and if you want it bad enough you’ll figure out a way to create it.
Name your top three contemporary artists and why.
That’s an easy one for me, but hard to limit the answer to three. The masters of enameling continually inspire and blow my mind! But ultimately John Killmaster, Harold Balazs and June Schwartz changed my life and I will be forever grateful. All three are master artisans and craftsmen and revolutionized the field of enameling and sculpture.
Who are your top three artists through the ages?
Barbara Hepworth completely inspires me with her modernist sculpture. Her fluid simplicity, the raw beauty she could create with incredibly challenging materials, and the scale of her work is truly impressive.
Wassiky Kandinsky could make lines and color in his work that made you actually feel the music he was listening to. Incredible experience standing in a room of his paintings surrounding you.
And I guess my first experience with seeing sculpture in real life was August Rodin in Paris. I was completely mesmerized and felt passionately in love with the way he could create such deep intense emotion in the strokes of the metal and marble. I have never personally experienced such raw power and risk taking in sculpture before. He left a deep impression.
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