Annual Open House
October 22-24, 2010
October 29-31, 2010
Vernisage: Thursday Oct 21, 6-9pm

Intimate Worlds

I am a night painter, so when I come into the studio the next morning the delirium is over. I come into the studio very fearfully, I creep in to see what happened the night before. And the feeling is one of, "My God, did I do that?". Philip Guston

Artists tend to work and excel in environments of organized clutter bordering on chaos. We are professional makers, and amateur hoarders, while cleaning obtains only hobby status. The worlds we call our studios resemble worn handbags or wallets. We can reach inside without looking and pull out exactly what we need. This suits us fine, however, once in a while we have to turn that bag upside down and expose the contents to see what has accumulated. We toss out the three month old receipt for groceries, for obvious reasons. Conversely, without explanation, we keep the brightly colored button that has fallen from some unidentified garment.

For the past 18 years when October arrives, the artists that work at the Enriched Bread Artists studios turn their intimate worlds upside down to see what may have accumulated. Keenly aware that company will soon be coming, this ritual prepares the spaces for public consumption. What our visitors see, just past the gleaming gallery spaces, when they enter the working confines of the building is a choreographed moment of pause, a moment of renewal. Artists pausing just long enough to greet and entertain their guests then steadily returning to their intimate worlds.

This year the Enriched Bread Artists invited award winning Ottawa photographer Justin Wonnacott (R.C.A.) to document our studios prior to preparing them for our annual public extravaganza. This photographic essay will capture the intimate working environments that the general public seldom sees.

amy-andrew