Up Close and Personal: Your Only Chance

One of the guilty pleasures of being an art critic is having the chance to visit artists in their studios, ask questions, look at art closely, hear the stories, and - yes, smell the paint. When an artwork leaves the studio, the proverbial umbilical cord is cut; seen later - in a gallery or museum exhibition - the work continues to be appealing, but something is missing. And that something is the unique intimacy that only can be experienced by seeing the artwork in the midst of the creative chaos of an artist's studio.