You can meet them this weekend. 🖼
I moved into my Shandon home a year ago this month, and I’m still cringing at my leftover empty + sad walls (decorating is a process y’all – and money doesn’t grow on my stubborn kudzu vine in the backyard). Grant me the patience to fill my walls with meaningful and local art.

It just so happens that this Saturday + Sunday are Columbia Open Studios – a home + studio tour of 70+ local artists throughout the Midlands, where you can meet the artists themselves, explore their workspace + materials, and purchase their art. And what is more meaningful than filing your walls with local artists who you’ve personally met?

This self-guided driving tour is a big deal for Columbia. Each year, 50+% of the ~14,000 attendees are from out of town. Nearly $250,000 worth of art has been purchased right here in the Midlands since the event’s inaugural weekend in 2011. And 33 of this year's 70 artists are brand new – participating in Open Studios for the very first time or returning to the tour after a hiatus.

Here are 12 local artists we want on our walls, floors + on our shelves. Find them this weekend (tour map here). And find me at one of the studios on Sunday, hunting for more deer art (like this Teil Duncan painting from Christenberry Collection) – deers are becoming a theme in my home.

Judy Bolton Jarrett | 108 Beaufort St., Chapin | mixed media + paint

Photo by Judy Bolton Jarrett, ArtCan Studio Gallery

Amanda Fangue | 664 Carriage Lake Dr., Lexington | ceramicist

Photo by Amanda Fangue

Caroline Harper | 3505 Yale Ave. | indigo dye + textiles | she partners with local farmers to grow indigo and make dye powder at a farm near Kingstree, S.C. (an area that was known for the quality of its indigo in the 1700s)

Photo by @chidesignindigo

Clark Ellefson | 1001 Huger St. | lamp creator | co-owner of Art Bar

Photo by @lewisandclarklamps

Chris Lane | 1121 Woodland Dr., West Columbia | oil on canvas

Photo by @laneartworks

David Yaghjian | 413 Pendleton St. | paint | resident of Stormwater Studios

Photo by @davidyaghjian

Noelle Brault | 2305 Park St. | oil paint | specializes in Southern landscapes

Photo by Noelle Brault Fine Art

Melinda Cotton | 978 Reynolds Dr. West Columbia | photography

Photo by M Cotton Studios

Michael Dwyer | 206 South Waccamaw Ave. | paint

Photo by Michael David Dwyer

Tyrone Geter | 321 Deer Run Rd., Elgin | paint | Did you catch his exhibit at the CMA?

Photo by @tgeter001

Julia Moore | 3142 Carlisle St. | paint

Photo by @overthemantelgallery

Alicia Leeke | 3821 Edinburgh Rd. | paint

Photo by @alicialeeke

Before the Columbia Open Studios tour kicks off, you can party with the artists (and pick up a physical guidebook) at the Preview Party tomorrow night, 7-9 p.m. at 701 Whaley St. Tickets ($15) can be purchased here or at the door.

See you out there,

–Beth