Despite the substantial differences between their artistic media, two of the additions to this year’s Columbus Arts Festival have something in common: They both learned and honed their crafts at the Cultural Arts Center (CAC) in downtown Columbus.
And with media ranging from the luxury of an alpaca fiber scarf to technology-driven jewelry, “substantial” is certainly the way to describe the differences.
Karen Mulier and the team of John Davidson and J.D. Shipengrover are part of the crop of Emerging Artists at this year’s festival.
Mulier is a weaver who raises alpacas on her farm, Windy Lane Alpacas, near London, Ohio. While she had extensive experience in needlework, she turned to the CAC for formal instruction about five years ago in an effort to expand her skills and make scarves to display at her farm store. She says she has grown as an artist and credits the CAC for continued support.
“There’s always a new technique that I can learn when I go down there,” Mulier says.
Mulier has two looms, one for scarves and one for shawls. As her feet work the treadle set and her hands deftly throw the shuttle back and forth, Mulier says, she loves to see the designs come to life. Her color schemes typically start with one of the natural colors ofthe alpaca fiber – browns, creams and blacks.
“It is amazingly soft,” she says of the alpaca wool she and her husband, Christopher, harvest every year. “It’s really awesome for scarves and shawls because it has a lot of drape. It’s really, really warm, a lot warmer than wool, so you can make a lighter-weight garment and have it still be warm and breathe.”
At the other end of the technology spectrum, Davidson and Shipengrover are a two-person team called the Lab Partners. They use laser cutting and 3-D printing to make science-inspired jewelry. Davidson learned his craft at CAC as well.
“We find ourselves taking historically time-honored artistic techniques,” Davidson explains, and are “transforming them using modern technology, so we’re using centuries-old silver spin casting to make jewelry, but instead of traditional lost wax processes, we’re using laser cutters to create the original models in acrylic, and then casting those in silver.”
Davidson and Shipengrover produce a line of jewelry that is both unconventional and traditional. Acrylic retro rocket ship earrings and slime monster pendants are displayed next to spin-cast sterling silver pendants.
Watching Davidson melt recycled metal with a blowtorch to extract the silver, then move to another room to set up an intricate computer design to be laser cut into acrylic earrings is like watching a modern day alchemist. Indeed, he says Lab Partners exists “at the intersection of art, science and technology.”
Much like the early days of computer development in Silicon Valley, Davidson feels we are in the midst of an artistic explosion due to the availability of high-end technology such as laser cutters and numeric controlled shop boxes (basically a big drill at the end of a computer).
“As a member of the Columbus Idea Foundry, I find that I have access to tools that otherwise would have been locked up inside of warehouses and manufacturing firms, and I can use those to create new interesting, fun, wearable art,” he says.
Davidson is enthusiastic about what he calls the “democratization of the manufacturing process” that allows anyone with an interest to acquire experience in a formerly unattainable art process.
Both ar
tists are excited to be named Emerging Artists for this year’s Columbus Arts Festival. And the CAC is equally enthusiastic about its students rising to the ranks of professional artists.
“We’re always excited when any of our student artists make waves in the broader community,” says CAC Arts Administrator Geoffrey Martin. “The CAC encourages our students to explore their talent and realize their creative potential.”
Sharone Putter – who teaches classes on printmaking, drawing and design at the center – is also an Emerging Artist this year.
Mulier encourages those interested in making art to check out the center’s classes.
“You don’t have to make just potholders,” she says.
Information on Mulier’s work can be found by searching for Windy Lane Alpacas at www.etsy.com. The Lab Partners’ work can be viewed at www.the-lab-partners.com.
Cindy Gaillard is an Emmy award-winning producer with WOSU Public Media. Learn more about the weekly arts and culture magazine show Broad & High at www.wosu.org/broadandhigh.
