Mercy Vale
BOOKS OPENTraditional · Blackwork · Script
Bold traditional that will still read at eighty.
I tape the drawing to the wall the night before. If it stops me on the way past, it is ready.
@mercy.strayanchorLIC 00000 (sample)
Artists · books · styles
The roster
Five chairs, five lanes, no overlap. Find the hand that draws your style, check the stamp on their card, and request their books.
Dutch Holloway
BOOKS OPENTraditional · Panthers · Banners
Twenty years of panthers, daggers and roses, none of them twice.
People ask for small first. I talk them up one size, and they thank me at the healed photo.
@dutch.strayanchorLIC 00000 (sample)
June Okafor
BOOKS CLOSEDFine line · Botanical · Single needle
Single-needle botanical work with the patience it demands.
Fine line is not faint line. It has to hold, so I build it to hold.
@june.strayanchorLIC 00000 (sample)
Sable Quinn
BOOKS OPENBlackwork · Ornamental · Dotwork
Ornamental blackwork built to the body, not pasted on it.
I draw on the skin as much as on paper. The shoulder tells you where the pattern wants to go.
@sable.strayanchorLIC 00000 (sample)
Marisol Vega
GUESTING · 2 WEEKSColour · Neo-traditional
Guest spot: saturated colour that heals as loud as it goes in.
Colour is a promise you make at year ten, so I pack it in properly the first time.
@marisol.vega.inkGUEST PERMIT 00000 (sample)
The sixth chair
Guest spots & residencies
One chair stays open for guests. If you have a book and a clean permit, bring both. Residencies start as guest weeks.
Off the wall
Recent work, healed and fresh
Pulled straight from the artists' books. Style and placement noted on every sheet, the way the wall has always done it.
The honest pair
Fresh is easy. Healed is proof.
Any needle looks good on day zero. We photograph the same piece at week six because settled, matte and sharp is the only review that matters.
Same dagger and rose, same arm. Left: wrapped at the counter. Right: six weeks later, healed flat.
The style index
Find your lane
Six lanes the studio actually works in. If yours is not here, ask anyway; we would rather point you to the right room than take the wrong job.
American traditional
Bold outlines, limited pigments, built to hold for decades. The house lane.
Mercy · Dutch
Blackwork
Solid black, ornamental patterns and heavy coverage that reads across a room.
Sable
Fine line
Single-needle botanical and script work, drawn fine but built to last.
June
Black & grey realism
Soft-shaded realism in black and grey, one careful session at a time.
Dutch · Sable
Japanese
Large-scale composition, wind and water backgrounds, planned as a whole limb.
Mercy
Colour & neo-traditional
Saturated colour with a modern drawing hand. Guest lane while Marisol is in.
Marisol
Request your artist's books
Found the hand? The request takes four steps and your artist reads every word of it.