STUDIO VISIT: MEGAN WILLIAMSON

Megan Williamson talks about form in her garden paintings

Visiting artist's studios instills a sense of privilege that we should all seek and savor like fine wine or the last kiss of autumn. Think what it would be like to share a worn sofa with the comforts of Brancusi or Matisse - let alone Picasso who was known to start out with "a brief run through" that led to capturing people for ten hours and four meals.

When I host a studio visit I feel a little like an attraction - like Disneyland or the Eiffel Tower. And maybe my visitors feel like they've seen something and have been able to absorb the signs and symbols of a mosaic. Some don't but I also like the way it forces me to clean up a little - less of a fire hazard.

I visited Megan Williamson's detached studio in Wicker Park a few weeks back and it was such a pleasure. Her work and her approach to the way she engages the community are noteworthy - and nary an environmental hazard in sight - just beautiful art, comfortable chairs, delicious soup and a sensitive but deeply pragmatic artist.

A Wall of Megan's Studio

Megan's approach has various arms. It's organic in form, concept and delivery like a dendritic cell starting from her interior world to the community that will see the work.

Her creative space is a much coveted brick garage in the ever increasingly dense Wicker Park neighborhood. The late 19th century red brick house that fronts her studio includes those delicate incised carvings and details of the Aesthetic Movement that are not neglected in this three story survivor.

She is the muse of a structure that includes a son of middle school age, a husband who is both a work at home, self-described computer geek who has been "writing code since the eighties" and is also the love affair of Megan's life. And almost at the center of their lives is an unforgettable, mature but frisky standard poodle with a coat like your grandmother's Persian Lamb collar and a tender, disciplined disposition that knows to stop short at the carpets which provide a border for the forbidden zone. No dogs allowed.

Her plein air work runs the gamut - from a lot of

David Adler and Shaw designed gardens on the North Shore to...

Viaducts Near the Kennedy Expressway

Still Life

Her work has a common respect for the intuitive eye which sees thing through the lusciousness of paint and material. I think it's a graphic and material sensibility common with Matisse and Cezanne - where the light and the mind and the surface lead the hand and the brush to places that are unseen by a camera.

Garden View

On our way out of the studio, back to the house for a bowl of fresh soup and great bread, she opened a file drawer to reveal a group of hand made books. It great to hear about the "Please Respond" Series. She has been inviting artists to correspond with her through these stiched and collaged pieces. They are exactly what I love - heavily encrusted, spontaneous communications with a secret language like fragments of a broken mirror on a carpet in a luxurious room. And she should really be admired for rising above the egotistic isolation that most visual artists indulge in.

The "Please Respond" Project

I got my invitation to "do a book" in the mail today.

I look forward to a meaningful correspondence

with this great Chicago artist.

Visit Megan's website