Fourth Annual Studio Trail Dec. 5,6

By Jonathan Cook
Turley Publications Reporter

REGION - “We’re not inventors of medicine,” Anna Ozolins said about artists like herself. “We don’t build bridges, but something we do is special with form and color.”
Another thing that’s special about Ozolins is her deep drive to promote local art.
Four years ago, she and Linda Early of Nature’s Gallery and Studio in Brimfield got together to start the open studio trail. This year has 20 stops in six towns and is the biggest trail yet. For Ozolins, it’s only the beginning.
On a recent weekday visit to her lakeside home studio (also in Brimfield), Ozolins was on the telephone with a Southbridge resident working on a committee to put art in empty storefronts and to paint boarded windows. Ozolins will be providing paintings as well as artist contacts.
Though in her studio everyday, she still manages to get out and explore enough to find and display artists in the River Room at 12 Crane in Southbridge every month.
“I have tenacity,” she said. “If it’s art I have to put in 100 percent, but I’m not a spunky young person.”
And now her watercolors and oils have won awards. For that, she is sure to praise Southbridge Coffee Roasters and Cormier Jewelers for their support. Both establishments always display a large number of local art works.
“It’s all part of supporting the arts and keeping the arts alive in this part of Massachusetts,” she said.
Why that is so important to her “has nothing to do with me. I noticed so many people who are gifted and I said, how come you don’t get your work out there. I’m an advocate for the arts,” as much as she is an artist herself.
That all comes together in the annual event, Open Studio Trail, Dec. 5 and 6 from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. This year will be the biggest yet with 20 stops along the trail that winds through six towns, Sturbridge, Brimfield, Holland, Palmer, Monson and Wales.
Ozolins thanks the Massachusetts Cultural Council for funds enough to print 10,000 brochures that are available at local businesses in each town.
This year each studio will pick an item to raffle for the benefit of the Kennedy Donovan Center, a community health organization based in Southbridge that helps children with birth defects and other challenges.
The trail includes a wide variety of art forms, including, furniture quilts, metal sculpture, paintings, ceramics and bell wringing among others. For kids there will be centerpiece making with greens.
After bringing the focus back on the work itself, Ozolins begins to unveil the reason she has become motivated. She talks about the connection to childhood inspiration about being an artist. She talks about the landscape that is everyday, but devastatingly beautiful when looking closely.
And that’s why she strives to open artists’ doors to the community and vice versa, because when we look at artist’s work, we are allowed to “open our eyes to the beauty in everyday surroundings.”
The connections are being made more and more. “I can see it blooming now. I can see the arts coming alive in this area. Would you know there’s local artists here? You do now.”