Marie Watt's studio

One of my very favorite things to do is to visit the studio of an artist, even more so than going to a museum.  It's the place where ideas are born and masterpieces are created.  Yesterday, I spent a couple of hours in the SE Portland studio of artist Marie Watt.  I first mentioned Marie's art a few weeks ago (read post here).  Marie has this amazing gift of turning old wool blankets into stunning works of art.  She is currently working on 50+ cameos for her Forget-me-not installation.  Each piece is a meticulous process of cutting and sewing, as seen in the above photo. 

I love browsing the walls of artist studios.  Shown here is Marie's tag installation that was recently on display in a museum.  Above the water cooler are three works in progress. 

One of the reasons I stopped by Marie's studio was to see a shelving unit that used to be in my shop.  They were originally designed and built by craftsman Ben Hull. They look great in the new space! 

photographs: Tom Nutt

This is Marie's 2008 Forget-me-not: Mothers and Sons installation featuring cameo portraits of men and women who made a significant mark on our community and culture.  The display is 20' in diameter and 10' tall.  To see the complete collection of cameos, visit Marie's Flickr page here.