Studio Notes - The First Community Canvas
This week in the studio I had my second showing at Hope Outdoor Gallery.
The setup is for a first Friday style event. With vendors ranging from candle makers, vintage resellers, artists, and more. I of course, showed up with my paintings and a sign labeled “Sierra Koch Studio”.
I had an idea to try something new. This go around I would put out a community canvas with a laminated sign overhead that said:
“Community Canvas, Make your mark!”
The idea was born this past July at a nail salon in Chicago. Where a kind eyed woman named Kameron, an art gallery manager, would share her valuable perspective on the art industry.
It was in this conversation where words like “inclusive” and “accessible” came up often. I expressed that I wanted my community to connect through my art, even if they didn’t have the resources at the time to bring it home with them. And so, I thought about a community canvas.
An open invite, to draw something as basic as a circle, or as elaborate as a comic book character. Dealers’ choice. Simply a mode of expression, with no strings attached. Come as you are and make your mark.
Selfishly, I’m grateful to hang this one-of-a-kind piece in my studio. It reminds me that this mission is bigger than myself. Even if it’s my hands putting paint to canvas, it’s the spirits in the eyes of others that keep me going. The way they light up with interest, indifference, or indecision.
And not in some toxic external validation kind of way. It’s the way that we find community in the shared trip of the human experience. It’s the courage to be seen by another. Truly witnessed in my own imperfect mess of brushstrokes and emotions.
I had so many genuine conversations at the market. One stood out. A conversation with a woman who was coming out of a long period of grief. We commiserated over this. I am two years removed from grief of my own. It’s loss I don’t speak of often yet think about almost every day.
We discussed the spiral shape of life. The way that things change, yet also remain constant. The complexity and simplicity of it all. The joy and suffering that makes us who we are. We come out on the other end of grief with the realization that we will never be the same. And deep down, we don’t want to be.
This week in the studio I saw little girls with a glimmer in their eyes resembling fearlessness. Allowing them to take up space.
I left with the inspiration to continue taking up space of my own. To keep creating, crafting, and sharing my journey with the world. Whether anyone is watching or not.
With an afternoon cold brew and motivation to meal prep,
Sierra Koch
9-7-26