The annual Open Studios Art Tour (OSAT) allows visitors the chance to step into the creative spaces of San Luis Obispo County artists and simultaneously gives the artists the opportunity to share their work and processes while building community. But don’t take it from us—hear what participating artists have had to say about what OSAT is and the importance of art and the creation of art.
It’s important for me to create art because it seems to be my destiny. I have always liked working with my hands. Having art in my life at this point is pretty much my entire life. It fills my days and keeps me sane.
Rod Baker, Los Osos
Creating for me is a necessity not a pastime. Painting for a few hours is my meditation. Painting shifts my brain to my non-verbal side, releasing my creative self. When there, I am in my happy place, where I feel noble, a better person: Just like meditation, but more productive. Thanks to life-drawing classes at community colleges wherever I lived, I always had an outlet. Now I make art my total life as both painter and gallery owner/curator.
Eric Von Berg, Arroyo Grande
There is joy in creating things, whether a fused glass clock or a hand sewn bag or a three layer Death by Chocolate cake. Each step of the creation process is its own wonder. There is a little triumph when it comes out perfectly and a little despair when it doesn’t. Art is like the icing on a cake. It makes life a little more spectacular.
Sheri Klein, San Luis Obispo
Many of our art commissions begin with a visit to my studio and sculpture garden. Clients can see design and color choices first hand and figure out dimensions so we can adjust the scale of the piece to their room or garden focal point.
Dan Rider, Nipomo
I think a studio is a magical and sacred place. Being invited in is like getting to almost walk into a painting itself… but in some “world” where all of the wonderful flotsam and jetsam of creativity that floats around before, during, and after the work is made is alive and well. I LOVE visiting others’ studios and am always inspired!
Timshel Matheny, San Luis Obispo
Open Studios has given us the opportunity to reconnect with past customers and students. It’s extra special when someone saw our work as a child and is now pursuing art too, or is ready to become a collector.
Rosey ‘n’ Barb Rosenthal, Los Osos
I love the opportunity to mingle with people who are getting their first time exposure to art as well as seasoned collectors. When a visitor is passionate and has intimate engagement with my work I am pleased.
Gayle Rappaport-Weiland, Pismo Beach
[Creating art] is an attempt to turn my love and observation of nature into something tangible. Working in clay or other materials is not optional, it satisfies a need. Time in my studio is essential. The importance of handmade utilitarian objects is disappearing in contemporary society.
Ariane Leiter, Atascadero
When I paint, I bring my body into calm, my mind into focus, and my spirit into coherence. It lowers my stress, yes, but more than that — it transforms what I carry inside into something that can be seen and shared. It's how I make sense of my own journey, and how I give voice to truths that words cannot hold. For me, art is both medicine and message — it keeps me alive, aligned, and in service to something greater than myself.
Julie Christine, Arroyo Grande
It's not just about the finished painting, because the joy in the process of painting is the best part. Creating art is more important to me than other aspects like selling or recognition or awards. We artists see everything in the world as art: the form and light and shadows and colors and edges and atmosphere. We create our own art to express that, and we have pieces from other artists because it allows us to see their view of the world too.
Jim Tyler, San Luis Obispo
It is beneficial for viewers and art supporters to see the artist in their creative space, whether the studio is large and glamorous or small and utilitarian, we are out here always creating. It isn’t all about the gallery show, or being seen in the pristine environment of a gallery. I hope to show the challenges, complications and often messy side of our work lives!
Jennifer Randall, Santa Margarita
As artists, we take in the external, process it, then create something that is a barometer of the present reality, whether it’s to inspire, educate, heal, brag, punish, etc. It’s a way to document our time in history. I personally feel an obligation to create, as I use it as a way to heal myself and others and connect communities with my large scale murals. Creating is self-care. In the process you care for humanity when you create.
Colleen Gnos, San Luis Obispo
[The 2024 Tour] is my 2nd OSAT and each time I’ve been in another artist’s studio. I love sharing space with other creatives because you get to meet a variety of people with varying tastes.
Gwynnie LaChance, Templeton
[2024] is my first time participating as an artist in the OSAT so I'm excited to share my art with the public and to share my new studio space for the first time! The space was designed to be used as a classroom for the community to use for gatherings to share creative, positive mental health experiences.
Chenda Lor, Morro Bay
As a first-time participant in the [2024] SLO Open Studios Art Tour, I hope to benefit by connecting with the local community through sharing my work.
Zoë Hruby Linstrom, San Luis Obispo
My reasons for painting the landscape are first and foremost out of a deep emotional need to paint what moves me. I don’t want to contrive a landscape so much as discover it. There is no irony, no theory, no theme connected to most landscape painting, and certainly not mine. But there is a sort of austere seriousness, and a recognition of an essential, profound intelligence in our natural environment.
Bruce Everett, Templeton
When I’m painting, everything else fades away and it becomes a very meditative experience. After my spinal cord injury, getting back the ability to paint was one of my biggest motivations. Having art in my life fills my life with meaning. It’s a splash of color on a drab day, a source of inspiration when I’m feeling unmotivated, or a spark of joy when I’m feeling low.
Kelly Ferguson, Morro Bay
I create art as a way of giving shape to my experience - it is a visual language that helps me communicate what memory and time leave behind. Each image is layered, built upon, and scraped back, sometimes revealing what was hidden beneath. The act of discovery is why I feel art is important. When you engage with it, even for a moment, it can spark a connection and reflect back what matters.
Kathleen Yorba, Arroyo Grande
One of my favorite things is when someone comes to visit a pottery studio for the first time and I can show them how pottery is made. It’s an amazing process that takes many weeks and patience, from throwing and hand-building to glazing and kiln firing.
Christine Silbaugh, Los Osos
I’m excited to invite art lovers into my special space… to see where I create art and what I create… to get to know me and my work. I hope to meet many new artists and art appreciators during the weeks of Open Studios, and to carry those relationships into the future.
Lori Wise, San Luis Obispo
I love sharing my space with people. Often they are curious about how it all happens from start to finish with ceramics. They also get a snapshot of a working mom of littles. Finding Lego guys and hockey sticks and Nerf bullets mixed among glaze buckets and pottery tools.
Sara Schultz, Cayucos
Our Studio is private, and only open to the public by appointment. During the SLO County Open Studios Tour, we are provided with a wide range of clients, the art curious, students and other artists in the county that we may never have had the chance to meet otherwise. Many have become great friends and visit us every year at this time. We look forward to it.
Randy Stromsoe, Templeton