Every morning, Kimberly Meadowlark makes breakfast and packs a lunch for her seven-year-old son before sending him to school or camp.
This summer, however, a special opportunity allowed Meadowlark to take her son Levi to a small gallery in Downtown Baton Rouge where the two could draw, paint and create with other members of the Baton Rouge community.
Meadowlark is a mother, artist, photographer and musician based out of Baton Rouge, and from May 25 to June 14, she was one of the two resident artists at the LSU College of Art & Design Open Experimental Studio located in Glassell Gallery at the Shaw Center for the Arts.
Courtney Taylor, Director of Galleries for the LSU College of Art & Design, created and launched the Open Experimental Studio for the first time this summer.
The program provided studio space in Glassell Gallery for both the resident artists and Baton Rouge public to create in.
“I really wanted to see this space activated,” Taylor said. “In the summer, you know, town is a little bit dead, and there usually was like a three to four week lull where we didn’t have anything, so I thought ‘Well why not just open it up and not have a finished product exhibition, but make it a space that’s in flux and invite people to do a residency?’ And the condition was they had to invite the community to make with them.”
Meadowlark set up a painting studio in the gallery while Richard Boehnke, an MFA (master of fine arts) candidate at the LSU School of Art and the other resident artist in the program, brought in materials to create a handbuilding pottery studio.
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At any time from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays, the gallery doors were open for the public to learn, create and immerse themselves in painting and pottery alongside the resident artists. Visitors of all ages had the chance to contribute to the gallery’s community art pieces and to attend special workshops led by the artists including handbuilding and painting sessions.
“So my goal is to kind of relaunch the galleries and make it a place where it’s like ‘Learn with us, design with us and make with us,’ that way students are getting experience, being responsive to the community, learning how to teach in an informal setting and everyone is getting to come in and make and learn too,” Taylor said. “There was no reason not to do it.”
For Meadowlark, who was accustomed to painting in her home studio, working in the gallery altered her daily routine and offered the artist new personal challenges.
In only a short amount of time, all of Meadowlark’s paintings, finished or unfinished, went from the privacy of her home to the open studio downtown. Having incomplete artworks on public display was, a at first, a step outside her comfort zone, but eventually proved to be an opportunity for personal growth.
“I’m leaving a piece in a window to be viewed that’s not done for weeks, and that’s absolutely nuts to me,” Meadowlark said. “I want to explain like ‘Oh woah woah it’s not done,’ or ‘Here’s what I’m gonna do,’ but it’s like no, that’s not what the point of the studio is. It is an open studio for people to view that. That has been a major point of vulnerability, just like letting people watch you in a glass box.”
Another new experience for Meadowlark was working alongside an artist who specialized in a medium completely different than her own. Because they often alternated days in Glassell Gallery, she and Boehnke spent a lot of time learning about each other’s techniques and how to help visitors work with the other artist’s materials.
“It took us being able to really communicate with one another, being able to really work with one another well to understand each other’s process that way we could guide people whenever one of us wasn’t there,” Meadowlark said. “So even though I have never touched clay before, I was guiding people through clay, and he was doing that for me with painting.”
For the first time, Meadowlark even hosted a painting workshop with some of her tips and techniques like incorporating paint markers, doodles and even her son’s drawings into her artworks.
“Almost always you can spot a little piece of Levi’s drawings in a painting,” Meadowlark said. “I encourage it. So he’s co-creating with me.”
While the open experimental studio altered her daily experience with art, Meadowlark kept a few things about her work consistent, like carefully selecting her outfit each morning and having a coffee or tea by her side at all times. Most importantly, she constantly kept music playing in the gallery.
“We keep joking because I have just, like, left my JBL speaker there because you can go like a week without charging it, but it’s music all the time,” Meadowlark said. “And like I’m always in charge of the music when I’m in there too, and that makes so much sense because it’s already what I would do at home.”
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From her time in the residency, working alongside the public and with a fellow resident artist, Meadowlark’s own artistry has evolved.
“I’ve been a little bit messier, and, like, allowed myself to be a little bit messier on some pieces,” Meadowlark said. “It’s honestly because of Richard. Getting feedback as something is going is something that I’ve never experienced. I’m allowing myself to be a little less critical of myself. That’s definitely changed.”
Shrinking the focus on perfection and leaning into the joy in the process of creating is the primary purpose of the open studio program. Through their residencies Boehnke and Meadowlark were able to share this joyful experience of creation with the community.
“I think one of the most exciting things for me with people making is they’ll come in, they’ll sit down, they’ll grab the material–paints, clay, doesn’t matter–and they’ll be like ‘What do I want to make?’” Boehnke said. “And then, there’s this moment where they’ll need some coaching of ‘It’s not about what you make. You’re not here to make art. You’re not here to create something that has to have a lifespan. Just make.’ And then people wrestle with that for a moment, but then it’s like the shackles come off. And then the smiles open up and people just start making.”
Following the residency, Meadowlark will return to her home studio to continue working on her paintings and sharing playful and artistic moments with Levi. Although she’s sad the open studio has come to an end, Meadowlark feels inspired by her experience at Glassell Gallery.
“The turnout and response from the community was by far the most surprising part for me,” Meadowlark said. “Just watching everyone be in there and co-create and like that’s a memory they get to have and maybe a prompt to do something else, like that’s incredible to me.”
