The Washington County Open Studios tour was this past weekend! We chatted with artist Amy Stoner, who participated for her first time, about her work, inspiration, and arts in the Tualatin Valley.

Amy has been a professional artists since the early 2000s with a focus on printmaking, but she has been working specifically with encaustic for 15 years to add more “bulk” to her work. This process consists of using pigments mixed with hot wax that are burned in as an inlay. It can depend on the piece whether printmaking or encaustic will take centerstage.

For Amy, the joy is in the making of art and she tries not to focus on hard and fast rules that dictate she needs to have a body of work that looks similar, stating “You learn what you learn in art school, then break the rules you want to break!”

She combines her love of printmaking and a typical piece can take months to develop. She finds inspiration in the world around her and is drawn to vintage Americana, childhood imagery, the blue collar industry. However, she rarely starts out with a composition in mind and compares her process to quilting – letting the images lead her to create various combinations until one visually clicks.

Amy loves to meet other artists and art lovers in Washington County and believes that there is so much talent in this area. “Even if you don’t see my studio, go see artists working…We are just regular people and who have a passion for painting or ceramics and love chatting about what we make and hear what you make. Come see some beautiful optimism!”

You can see more of Amy’s work on her website.