I soaked up another enlightening Oxbow Visiting Artist lecture this week at Copia. These lectures are such an amazing resource for Napa. Even times when I am tired and cranky, I make an effort to go and expose myself to a new idea. (see calendar at right for upcoming lectures). This week it was sculptor Katy Stone from Seattle. I had never seen Katy’s work but was intrigued by her use of mylar and duralar—materials I have experimented with minimally. Her work is indeed sublime (as she says she aspires to be). It references nature in an unpredicted way. She exploits color, texture, and light simultaneously while producing spontaneous gestural works. You can see photos from the lecture taken by Ashley Teplin at the following link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/studio-707/sets/72157603994295383/ Thanks Ashley! The thing that struck me about Katy was her fearless approach to scale. She went from creating 3-inch high blossom paintings to a 4-story waterfall piece in one slideshow! She suggested to the students that they should start with something small, do it over and over again, and without realizing, they will have made something monumental. It is an appropriate proposition for approaching the local arts scene. Let’s start with something small! Informal art gatherings, artist-run spaces, networking and back-scratching. It’s all about sharing and collaborating and growing from this promising potential into a great big waterfall of creative juices. Yum!