For the first studio tour of 2009, I visited the workspace of artist and illustrator, Lora Jost. I first met Lora when we worked together on a poster for the River City Reading Festival and I was so amazed by her illustration that I asked if I could visit her studio to see her workspace and more of her beautiful art. Lora uses several unique techniques in creating her work including scratchboard, ceramic mosaic, and collage. Her pieces draw from personal experiences and collected stories which are depicted with elements of beauty, whimsy, darkness, and joy. From her artist statement:

“I am drawn to experiences that are mundane, whimsical, and socially urgent. I like to mix these themes, and find how they link in spirit. I hope that viewers will identify with the stories my pictures tell. I hope that my art, in some small way, deepens our collective appreciation and compassion for each other and for life itself.”

Before moving to the studio, I wanted to show some of Lora’s artwork first. These black and white pieces were all done using scratchboard which is incredible to me! It is a very time intensive process, but Lora is able to etch extremely fine lines into the surface that create wonderful texture and a wide tonal range. I think these are fun to look at from a distance, but also very close up to appreciate the intricate detail of each line.

I asked Lora to show a little bit of her process on creating these. They generally start out as a pencil sketch before moving on to the scratchboard.

Using a variety of sharp instruments, she slowly scratches away the dark surface to reveal the white board underneath. It takes a very steady hand and a lot of patience to carve out the final image.

Some of Lora’s art is more child/family oriented and inspired by her experiences as a mother.

Her son has gone through some phases of art making as well and there are stacks of his drawings which were a lot of fun to see.

Lora has done a number of commissions and one that many people in Lawrence may have seen was for the KU Endowment Association. I love the colors in this piece! You can see the original art on the right and the printed version on the left.

The endowment piece shows a mixture of the scratchboard work and also some collaged elements which is another medium that she frequently uses.

This piece is a combination of paint, photography and thread. There are a lot of layers in her work and I like the effect of transparency that she uses.

A detail of the previous photo . . .

. . . and another. Although not necessarily a theme throughout all of her work, elements from nature and organic shapes and lines often appear in her pieces.

I also really enjoy her use of hand written type to help convey the story within the work.

This new piece was one of the highlights of a recent exhibit at the Lawrence Percolator gallery. Lora told me that she wasn’t sure if people would actually read the text or not, but it turns out that most people took the time and I encourage you to as well since it’s beautifully written.

This work is based on another personal story involving a police helicopter that hovered over her neighborhood one night.

In her studio, Lora has a great wall space for hanging her artwork. Although each piece tells an individual story, it’s neat to step back and see a large group of it all together.

She has an amazing art studio that was built as a second floor addition to her home. The windows and gallery lighting make it a bright workspace that welcomes creativity.

Lots of room for reference material and an office.

I always enjoy seeing the inspiration on studio walls.

The variety of materials that Lora has at her disposal is amazing and she has found very creative ways to put them to use.

She has also created a number of mosaics using broken ceramic pieces. Most of the bits come from dishware and mugs found at garage sales and thrift stores which give her a huge range of colors to work with. What a great way to reuse discarded and unwanted items!

After roughly sketching out the image on board, the tiles are glued into place one piece at a time until the final piece is completed.

The results are beautiful! Again, these works are fun to look at from a distance, but also up close where you can see the individual textures and patterns in each tile.

A huge thanks to Lora for inviting me over to look at her studio. I had a great time! You can see more of her artwork on her website at www.lorajost.org and also over at the Lawrence Arts Center. In addition to her artwork, Lora is also an educator and writer so be sure and check out the book Kansas Murals: A Traveler’s Guide, a book that she co-authored with muralist Dave Loewenstein (available on amazon.com).

Update: I’ve done a second post with more fun robot items for kids!

I thought this would be a fun way to learn ABCs!

We also have some great robot artwork from friends of ours. The Howdy Robot print on the wall is a piece by Tad Carpenter. The color match was purely a coincidence, but it’s a perfect fit! The orange robot was hand-knit and has been a guest in the house for a couple of years now. We’ve appropriately named it “KnitRobot”.

Heather Smith Jones is a Lawrence-based painter and mixed media artist. When I first started doing my studio visit series, her name came up again and again in conversations with other local artists. I had seen some of her work at local gallery shows and we had met a few times through some mutual friends, so when I had the chance to hang out and visit with her in her studio, I jumped at the opportunity! She is an extremely kind and gracious person and allowed me to interrupt her on a recent Saturday morning to give me a tour of her work space.

Heather’s work is wildly creative with beautiful line work and great use of color. She has mastered a variety of techniques including watercolor, oils, acrylics, pinholes (more on that later) and has even mixed and tinted her own paint. Her work is often a blend of media and the result is fresh and unique.

There is a very personal quality to Heather’s art that I really enjoy. Her recent work is done on a small scale which forces you to get up close or hold it in your hand and really study it. It is clear that she puts a great deal of time and thought into each piece. Her delicate pinhole work is astounding.

Heather also does a lot of collaborative work with artists, photographers and writers from around the country on a variety of projects. The two images above are from the Inspired project, a collaboration with photographer Jen Causey.

The Noticing Project is a joint effort with Alicia Alferman in which both artists take a photo a day for all of 2008. In their words:

The notion of the project is to look intently and observe the small or ephemeral moments around us.

In addition to her work for galleries, she also does a number of smaller scale pieces that she sells online. The photo above shows some custom stationary she’s designed using the pinhole technique.

All above photos of artwork courtesy of Heather Smith Jones

The art studio that contains all of this creativity is a work of art in itself. The room is very open with great natural light streaming down from the skylights above. The dark wood and clean, bright walls make the room feel very comfortable. This is a view looking in from the doorway.

The details of the studio are really interesting. The space was built by Heather’s husband Matt Jones who is a woodworker, carpenter and builder. Matt builds wonderful custom furniture and is also a partner in the design/build company Struct/restruct Associates, LLC.

All of the wood used for the flooring and trim is reclaimed lumber from an old farmhouse. Despite being newly constructed, it still has a warm, lived-in feel.

Some examples of Matt’s furniture in the sitting area.

Heather has some of her own work adorning the walls of the studio, but most of her wall space is covered with the work of friends and other artists that she finds inspirational.

The two works above are from the Inspired project and it is neat to see the work in person and notice all of the little details in each piece.

There are also great collections of reference material scattered around including some old books of illustration.

Imagery from nature often appears in Heather’s work, so there are lots of collected items like these as well.

I’m very impressed at how prolific Heather is. She has amassed a large collection of work and, although much of it is small, there is incredible detail in each piece.

Love the colors!

One unusual technique that Heather has really developed is the use of pinholes. By punching many, many small holes in paper, she creates a stunning effect that has both intricate line work as well as a 3 dimensional texture to it. The end result has the look of delicate lace.

To accomplish these pinhole pieces, she created her own custom set of tools with a variety of different pin sizes. She and Matt worked together to make the custom wooden handles.

Hanging out in the corner of the studio is an old Vandercook proof letterpress that was handed down to her from within her family. She has done some work with it and is still experimenting with the process.

Her collection of metal type would make any designer’s heart skip a beat! In addition to the fonts, there are lots of intricate, ornamental pieces as well as some handmade blocks.

In August of 2007, Heather did a cool project with Polaroid photos that incorporated photography, writing, and painting called the August Polaroid Project.

Special thanks to Heather for taking the time to let me into her studio to see her wonderful work! You can visit her on the internet and purchase her work at:

Heather Smith Jones website
Heather’s Blog
Heather’s Etsy shop
Noticing Project