Peggy Walters is this week’s featured Art Circle artist. She is a Louisiana-based visual artist with a large collection of paintings inspired by nature and the Louisiana landscape. Peggy is also one of our most highly selected artists in the BARE Walls program (find out more about the program here).

Each week Basin Arts is featuring a different artist in the hopes that readers will get to know more about the diverse range of artists in our community.

Peggy shares her thoughts about her art circle and how the last year of COVID has changed the way she is able to connect with other artists.

Who makes up your art circle?

My art circle consists of everyone I know who makes art, exhibits art, regularly attends art events, or is otherwise involved in the arts community.

How do you expand your art circle?
Any time I attend an arts event—The Big Easel, for example—I make the rounds of the booths or displays and engage in conversation with those who are exhibiting. If I go to a gallery where an artist is showing their work, I try to meet and talk with the artist. These conversations may evolve into phone calls, home visits, and other get-togethers. So my art circle grows naturally.

What value do you see in having a creative community?
Having a creative community is of great value. I’ve learned over the years that artists tend to be a bit different from people who don’t make art, to have their own way of looking at the world. So it’s great to connect with that and realize that you really are part of a community of like-minded people.

How does your artistic approach contribute to your community?
When I meet other artists, particularly if I feel a real sense of connection, I like to move in the direction of an ongoing relationship and not just a one-time conversation. I like things that contribute to developing that community, such as the recent Bare Walls Zoom meeting, which included many participants in the Bare Walls Program. I’ve also attended meetings at Basin Arts, where new programs such as Bare Walls were presented to the artists who attended. It’s both enjoyable and encouraging to find myself in a group where everyone present is involved in the arts community in some way, whether it’s making art, showing art, designing websites, or anything else art-related.

Before covid struck I went to all gallery openings and every 2nd Saturday ArtWalk in Lafayette. It’s been a great deprivation to have all those arts opportunities either gone or severely limited in some way. For example, you can’t have a crowd at an exhibition—only a few people can go inside at one time. So instead of going to an exhibition where you look at art as well as engage with other artists, you’re limited to looking at art, with little or no conversations or interactions. That’s a very sad change. I’m really looking forward to having things go back to what we used to know as “normal.”