MOUNTAIN VIEW — It’s one thing to purchase a handcrafted item in a store. It’s another to talk to the artist. And it’s a totally different experience to visit the artist’s studio and talk through his or her process. Mountain View is a bed of artists in Arkansas, and Sept. 14-16, people will get a chance to take a glimpse at artists’ creative spaces and practice at the 17th annual Off the Beaten Path Studio Tour.
“The main purpose of the Off the Beaten Path Studio Tour is that it really showcases the many talented artists in this rural area that you don’t normally see,” said Becki Dahlstedt, founder and organizer of the tour.
The tour was born out of Dahlstedt’s desire to put local artists in the spotlight. She had seen similar tours work in urban areas and was determined to make such an event work for the rural town of Mountain View.
“We realized we’d have to have some kind of defined area to do it in a weekend,” she said. “Since that first year, our basic criteria haven’t changed much.”
All of the studios on the tour are within 30 miles of the courthouse square in Mountain View, and the artists are all private working artists.
“It has to be a private studio,” Dahlstedt said.
There are usually between 25 and 30 studios that participate in the tour, and this year, 29 studios are signed up. The tour is free and self-guided and will take place from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sept. 14; from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sept. 15 and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sept. 16.
“I really like meeting all types of new people who appreciate the arts,” participating artist Linda Rawlings said.
Like many artists, Rawlings has been involved in the arts for a long time. She has been drawing and painting since she was 14 and started taking photos in college. She has taught and worked in fashion retail but is now back to her first love of creating.
“I always come back to the arts,” she said.
This will be Rawlings’ third year on the tour, and she primarily works in photography and ecoprinting.
“Ecoprinting is making clothes ecofriendly and sustainable,” she said. “It allows you to steam leaves into the fabric. It’s a very interesting process.”
Rawlings said she introduced ecoprinting on the studio tour last year, and it went over very well, so she plans to bring it back in 2018.
“This year, my studio will be 50/50 photography and ecoprinting,” she said.
Her photography centers mainly around barns and landscapes, and she tries to stay in Arkansas when she’s taking photos. As both an artist and an art lover, Rawlings said, she loves what the Off the Beaten Path Studio Tour does.
“It’s very cool to see where the artists work and where they get their inspiration,” she said. “It’s a very rewarding experience as an artist. You don’t always get that if you’re selling somewhere else. At your studio, it’s a very interesting look at how you work.”
That’s exactly what Dahlstedt wanted when she organized the tour — positive interactions between artists and patrons.
“[The tour] gives the visitors a firsthand look at where people live and how they work,” she said.
Showing how art is made just adds to its value, and sometimes artists get their studio-tour visitors to participate in making some of their pieces. That adds to the experience, and it gives visitors a new appreciation for the work, she said.
“Anytime you have a demonstration, it gives people a look at the process,” Dahlstedt said. “They look at the finished work in a different way.”
The tour will include a meet-and-greet at the Arkansas Craft School from 7-9 p.m. Friday.
For more information on the Off the Beaten Path Studio tour, including a map and a list of participating artists, visit www.offthebeatenpathstudiotour.com. The tour’s Facebook page is another resource where artists post sample images of their work. This can be found at www.facebook.com/offthebeatenpathstudiotour.