This year’s tour introduces 50 studios and 14 artists new to Open Studios, including Camas artist Zhanna Tsytsyn, (pictured above) whose bold figurative work is featured on the cover of the 2023 Open Studios guidebook and explores themes of identity, introspection, and transformation.
She draws inspiration from nature, music, the human body, and mysticism. Through her artwork, she presents surreal, metaphysical, abstract landscapes and figurative work that mirror our inner landscapes and the natural world around us. Zhanna was recently featured in Create Magazine’s “Art & Cocktails” podcast, where she delves into the “profound interconnectedness of Art and Nature.” Listen to the podcast HERE.
Another newcomer to the tour is Kim Wessa (pictured), who specializes in eco-printed art using botanical materials found on her acreage in Battle Ground. Wessa creates one-of-a-kind pieces by steaming leaves, plants, flowers, and stems onto various papers and fabrics, preserving their colors and prints.
The process takes about three days, and Kim states she doesn’t know what result she will get until the work is unloaded and has dried.
“Different seasons produce different effects,” she says. But for her, one thing remains constant. “The beauty that nature has to offer is breathtaking.”
Another notable stop features two mixed-media artists, Annika Larman and Pamela Sue Johnson.
Larman is an emerging abstract artist and the first recipient of Artstra’s Christine Rice Memorial Scholarship and is being mentored and hosted in Pamela Sue Johnson’s studio in Vancouver’s Lincoln neighborhood.
Johnson creates mixed-media art designed to empower and teaches creative workshops that help others with self-expression.
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