Austin Artists’ Studio Tour Fourteen. Today we visited a husband and wife team: sculptor, Scott Carter and multi media artist, Heidi Schlenk.

Scott Carter , originally from Weatherford, Texas, was part of a military family and  moved around the United States every three years. He graduated in photojournalism from  UT Austin after a false start in the business school but never forgot the great education from a  smattering of  UT art classes including his favorite,  sculpting. Scott tried clay sculpting for a while but after discovering the joy of working with mysterious surprises of wood grain, he found his calling. His father was a carpenter but never instructed Scott in woodworking techniques; he learned by trial and error and asking the occasional expert.  The love for wood grew. The more he worked the wood the deeper his joy became. He felt lucky  to have found a niche that gave him such joy. To pay the bills, he’s been driving for UPS over twenty years and fortunately, now, he’s only required to do one daily run to Waco. This gives him enough time to work through the next design and any of its problems. He finds he’s very efficient when he returns home;he gets a lot accomplished in only a few hours.

Scott Carter Studio

Scott  built, by hand, his twelve by twelve  by fifteen back yard wood studio. It is separated into two sections: the general work area and the actual sawing area that is glass-enclosed to keep the sawdust contained and sound-proofed to keep the neighbors happy.

Scott instructed us in the benefits of working in harder old woods, found in salvage yards or job sights, versus new wood. The close grains make for a more stable product. Recycling and repurposing wood into art for everlasting enjoyment  is a good thing.

Scott’s current projects include building small stage settings, almost like doll houses, and  interesting abstract and  intertwining wall sculptures that include painted wood,( see Joy X) The white porous portion,  made out of layers of birch ply wood fits snugly atop a dark green sharply pointed  spheres made out of pine. You would never know that Joy X was made out of wood, The white part looks like melted or molten lava and those spheres look like they are from another planet.

Scott Carter describing Joy-X

Scott Carter sculptures

Chess Table

Scott’s makes furniture sculptures as well. They are unique in design but, very functional and beautiful.

 For the 2009 E.A.S.T. Tour, he built 13 pieces and they all sold.  Congratulations Scott.

Heidi Schlenk

Heidi Schlenk’s studio is the built-in car port of their home. She is from San Jose, California and  came to Texas to attend UT, where she majored in photojournalism. It goes without saying, that’s where she met Scott. Heidi was always artistic, which her mother encouraged by providing  all the tools and plenty of praise. She teaches at Laguna, Dougherty Arts Center,  and freelances.

Recent multi-media work-'Abundance" et.al.

Heidi first started as a photographer for the Athens Daily Review, Athens, Texas. She was also a wedding photographer, but she preferred teaching art to children, then to teens and now adults. She does it all. She works in textiles, sews, paints, draws, photographs, and creates composites, many times all media incorporated into one piece. For each piece, she works at representing a part of a larger picture or story. The images could be the crucial part of a journey or a role depiction. To show a loving and compassionate person she might use photos of close friends, people she really knows.

Potential

For her large tapestry “Potential”, incorporating the American flag motif, she inserts images that  support a commentary on how Americans are bringing up their little boys to be so violent juxtaposed to the empty expectations for little girls.

New work in progress

Heidi is working on a new piece that incorporates east Indian mythology, in particular the story of  the Hindu love goddess  Parvati. It is a love story between the god and her spouse; he was always off to war and she needed his help and guidance. There are different stops in women’s lives and then death and rebirth.  She will include eight sections with a shrine, devoted to the different roles of women for each step: play, goddess, caretaker, flirt, etc.

The depth and breadth of Heidi’s work makes for fascinating conversation. She has so many processes to make her point— nothing boring here!! For more see www.heidischlenk.com