When Kate Clapper designed her north side basement studio some two years ago, she had Open Art Studios in mind.

The sixth annual event, which runs this weekend, allows visitors to tour the studios of local artists and watch them at work.

Clapper, a printmaker, book maker and owner of Flying Rabbit Press, wanted to make her working space accessible to visitors.

"When I set the studio space up, it was knowing two things: that I wanted to do the Open Art Studios and I wanted to work on developing a custom letterpress printing business," Clapper said. "When I first set the studio up, I set it up thinking, 'How is the easiest way for people to come in?' You know, (to) make it most comfortable for people."

It was a great idea, but ultimately it didn't last very long.

"About three months ago, I moved everything," Clapper said with a laugh, "because, truth is, it flowed beautifully to walk in the studio and look at things, but I couldn't work in it well."

The new design is open to the public this weekend, and it's still fascinating to see. Clapper is one of 140 artists in and around Madison opening up their studios or displaying works in progress the weekend of Oct. 4-5.

"People think it's a place to buy finished art," said Cora Hardin, an organizer and one of the artists displaying at the Lussier Community Education Center. "But it's about artists working while people come and ask questions."

Making visual art is often a very solitary practice. Artists labor in their studios, communing with the brushes and paints, the canvases and the colors. To show an audience unfinished work, that very personal space where they wrestle with inspiration and thousands of tiny decisions, can be as nerve-wracking as it is liberating.

"What this event brings out is that no two artists are the same at all," Hardin said. "Everyone uses the same materials differently. It's just as much about the art as the artists for this, to understand how people live with such a creative profession."

Creative cubbyholes

Barb Rothwell uses gourds of all shapes and sizes in her art, but her basement studio is tucked behind what is probably the most elaborate miniature train set in the state, if one can even use the word "miniature" for a structure that takes up several adjoining rooms. The tiny people, houses and cars reflect her colorful artistic work -- she painted many of them -- and the meticulous nature of her creativity.

"My father had a print business. He was a commercial artist," she said. "I've always had some level of artwork throughout my life."

On a recent visit to Rothwell's Fitchburg home, gourds of many shapes and sizes hung from the ceiling of her small studio: dipper gourds with long handles, birdhouses shaped like apples, little "spirit people" made from banana gourds. She uses heavy gourds and "cannon balls" to make boxes big and small, wound with rope and adorned with beads.

Rothwell is one of many artists who began seriously pursuing artwork after retirement. After many decades working for the state of Wisconsin, Rothwell threw herself into home projects, like landscaping her yard and painting tiny scene pieces for the model train set.

Then her husband said he wanted to do a section of the train himself, which motivated her to seek a new creative outlet.

"I had a couple gourds and I had just made birdhouses out of them," she said. "This is a way I can let my creative juices go."

Virginia Huber, a watercolor painter, works out of her basement every day beneath carefully chosen pink and blue fixtures to reflect natural light. Ripping her canvas into large chunks ("I like to tear paper," she said) and painting without a sketched "skeleton," Huber has adorned her studio with completed works and laid out works in progress.

"I tend not to be able to finish a painting unless I've done some sort of personal growth," she said, "and understand more about whatever it is, the person or the situation."

These basement spaces are so intimate, it's hard at first to imagine a steady stream of people coming through, chatting, munching on cookies and watching the artist work. The first time Huber opened her studio for an event, she couldn't decide whether to be a host or continue with her painting.

"People would come and I would greet them," Huber said. "And then at one point a woman said she'd come to see me paint, and I wasn't painting. So I went over by the window and started painting and people gathered around. And then another time, I was painting and somebody came, and she said no, you don't need to greet me, just keep on doing it.

"That was lovely."

Opening a home studio to the public takes a certain kind of vulnerability because at an art gallery, people see the artist's work presented just so, with the right lighting and frame and only the context the artist (and gallery) choose. At a private studio, works are half-finished. Some didn't come out right, while others may be overdone because the artist didn't know when to stop.

"When people come to your studio, they're seeing paintings that aren't going well," Huber said, "as well as paintings with their Sunday clothes on, in frames. What I find is that people are very, very understanding about that, that there is nothing for me to be worried about."

Professional pads

Dave Tilton and his wife, Paula Oeler, have only been in their professional space at 2001 Atwood Ave., Carta StudioWorks, since May. They're looking forward to Open Art Studios as a way to tell people where -- and who -- they are.

"This is kind of our debut," Tilton said. A shorter, smaller exhibition of his digital photography of botanicals at Driftless Studio in Fitchburg was well-attended, but "this will be first time the large pieces are going to be shown."

"It's very exciting," Oeler said.

Expanding into the new space was key because Tilton's main focus now is creating very large, bold digital prints using a 60-inch printer.

"Once we got the studio we were actually able to start producing the pieces," Tilton said. "Many of them were created before, but we never were really in a position to print this large and control that process."

Tilton's studio is deep and streamlined, with the printer and workspace near the back and a display area toward the front. Enormous examples of the work, which is abstract, many-layered and inspired by nature, immediately catch the eye.

"I'm interested in landscape, and I'm interested in color," Tilton said.

Leading up to Open Art Studios, he and Oeler will also participate in a related event, Gallery Night (see page 6), on Friday, Oct. 3. Tilton's reception runs 5-9 p.m. at Off-Center Studios, 2716 Atwood Ave.

For Gallery Night, the twice annual event, more than 50 local galleries throw open their doors for an evening of artist receptions, gallery tours and demonstrations. Visit mmoca.org for a full list of participating venues and artists.

Group gatherings

During Open Art Studios, some artists with far-flung or inaccessible studios will move their work to central locations. Don Spencer, a mosaic glass artist, has a basement full of mirrors and many-colored panes, not to mention work displayed all over his Waunakee home.

"I've been in MAOAS for three years and almost no one will come this far out," he said, "so I'm sharing a group space in the Lussier Community (Education) Center on the west side."

Many Madisonians have seen Spencer's glass work before; he designed and created a cow for "CowParade Wisconsin." His "Cows Can Dream" features a bucolic Wisconsin scene created using mosaic glass. The bovine was displayed on the Capitol Square, Spencer said, and sold at auction to Veridian Homes for $10,000.

The bovine sculpture weighed 125 pounds when it arrived unadorned at Spencer's studio, but had doubled in weight by the time Two Men and a Truck hauled it downtown covered with glass. It took Spencer 400 hours to build (a complicated piece will generally take him about a month).

For the two days at the Lussier Center, Spencer said, "I thought I'd bring a few pieces in progress." That way people can see the challenges of working with a medium that involves an ever-changing element: light.

"Unlike a photograph or a painting, a piece in the window changes during the day as the light changes," Spencer said. "That's fun and also difficult. Sometimes I'm putting pieces together and I think everything looks great, and then I hold it up and two pieces that looked very different without light through them look just about the same, and I didn't want (that)."

West side artist Ruth Herbin will move her work across town to the East Madison Community Center at 8 Straubel Ct. for display along with the work of 13 other artists. Herbin began painting textured canvases of whimsical cats, dogs and elephants about two years ago, following a serious car accident.

"I went to the art shop and bought some cheap watercolors and fussed around with it," Herbin said. She then began taking classes with UW-Madison Continuing Studies and was encouraged to explore "experimental" watercolor, using various textures in the background of the paintings.

"All of this stuff just comes out of my head," she said. "It's just a lot of fun."

This is the first time Herbin has participated in Open Art Studios, though even in the short time she's been painting, she's started her own business -- Ruthie's Originals, through which she sells original work, giclee prints and greeting cards. Many artists like Herbin hope the Open Art event will bring more visibility to their work and lead to sales, and support.

Herbin currently has a piece at the Pyle Center, and several of her paintings are on display in the office where she works at Middleton High School.

"I create the art to make people smile," Herbin said, "and this is exactly what happens."

So much art, so little time

With so many studios open for only two days, how does an art lover decide where to go? One place to start is Overture Center, where three galleries on three floors off the rotunda will display work by Open Art Studios' artists until Oct. 10.

"The artists are so honored to have a piece in the Overture," artist and organizer Hardin said. "For many it's the highlight of their careers."

The idea, Hardin said, is to allow people to come and look at the pieces and find something that fascinates or intrigues them. Then they can seek out that artist using a printed map or an easy-to-use interactive map online at www.maoas.com.

"It's difficult to get the word out because it's in so many different places that people don't think of it as one big event," Hardin said.

Part of the goal of Open Art Studios is to demystify art-making and the creative process, she added.

"People think it's very mysterious, but this is someone's job," Hardin said. "If you go into someone's studio, it's because they opened it up to you, they agreed to be part of this event and they want people to come see it. They won't be offended if you ask questions. These artists are very interested in the public learning about what they're doing."

So don't be afraid to ask, look, or simply respond to the work. Tell a story, make a comparison. Huber said her art can serve a social function, and Clapper, the printmaker, agreed.

"The gallery experience is so proper by comparison," said Clapper. Printmaking is so physical, and she loves to be able to point to things and let people handle items in the studio (if their hands are clean, of course).

"I think breaking down that mystery between not being an artist and being an artist is one of the best ways to gain access to art," she said. "You can ask me anything you want. If it's too personal, I can just say that."

What makes Clapper the saddest is when people are afraid to ask questions about art because they think they don't have the right background, education or language to talk about it.

"It doesn't have to be high-falutin' artspeak," she said. "It's easier to get to real conversation about your reaction to the work if you just skip over that. I like to get feedback from people who don't speak artspeak."

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Seven in one go: See art in progress at these central locations

If you don't want to trek around to too many different locations during the Open Art Studios tour, one alternative is group locations, where you can see many artists in one place.

Artists display at these locations for multiple reasons; Karen Wilkins Ragus, for example, has her studio in Lake Mills but has participated in Open Art Studios off and on since she lived downtown six years ago.

Open Art Studios, Ragus said, is "a wonderful experience for the public to see how art is made, what goes into it, meet the artist and also support the artist's work."

Ragus will display her paintings at the newly renovated

Goodman Community Center (formerly the Atwood Community Center) at 149 Waubesa St. with five other artists.

Other locations with multiple artists include:

The Lussier Community Education Center, 55 S. Gammon Road. Linda Grimmer (photo weaving and monotype prints), Don Sylvester (photography) and Jill Weinberg Pfeiffer (sculpture) are among the 11 artists showing here.

Weston Place, 625 North Segoe Road. See Cheryl Hillard Breunig's watercolors, Joanne Schilling's mixed media and Jim Sykes' photography. Eight artists in all will display their work in this space.

Henry Vilas Zoo Visitor Center, 702 S. Randall Ave. Jayne Reid Jackson presents printmaking, Dana Slowiak exhibits drawings and Bobbette Rose showcases paintings. Two of the seven artists showing here work in mixed media.

East Madison Community Center, 8 Straubel Court. Like paint? Head east. A whopping 14 artists are displaying here, and 10 of them are painters. One photographer, Dorith Steinberg, joins them; the three remaining artists work in mixed media.

Check the interactive map at www.maoas.com for a complete list and more details.