Mizzou alumna Riana Bovill and Mike Nolan of Blue Note are team members for the Access Arts CelebrARTy fundraiser from 5:30-9:30 p.m. on Wednesday, September 6, 2023 at The Blue Note. Access Arts is a local organization that offers classes and studio space to learn or practice a variety of art mediums including fibers, clay, and 2-D art.

Riana received her MFA in 2020 when she started experimenting with different processes within the realm of fibers. She learned hand-papermaking, bookbinding, basketry, and shibori dyeing.

Riana and Mike used the MU Fibers Studio's paper equipment to collaborate on this project. Kailyn Hill, a recent BFA graduate from Mizzou, also assisted with this collaborative project. 

Read this Q&A from "Como Magazine" to find out more about the project:

What medium did you select to work with and why? Please describe the project.  

Riana: We decided to do a project that focused on papermaking because it’s such a fun and interesting process. It’s also a process that we felt could really engage the public during a “maker event.” We wanted to create artwork that embraced the spontaneity of making large sheets of paper, while also including an exciting extra step — pulp painting! 

Our “maker event” was held in the outdoor space at Rose Music Hall, where we set up a huge mold and deckle, and had children and adults help us pour 30-inch by 40-inch sheets of paper. There were so many buckets of paper pulp to choose from, and we had a table filled with colorful pulp paints in squirt bottles. On the day of our event, we poured four sheets of paper, and had an amazing time engaging with the community, having fun, and teaching everyone a little bit about the process of papermaking.  

What intrigued you most about this opportunity? Briefly describe your own artistic background.  

Mike: I like to use the creative side of my brain as much as possible, so this sounded like a super fun opportunity! I loved taking art classes in high school and was also involved in theater growing up. Now, I’m fortunate enough to have a career in the arts and entertainment sector 🙂 

Give some examples (locations, specific works, etc.) of your work that Columbia residents might be familiar with.  

Riana: While I was a graduate student in the MFA program at Mizzou, I exhibited work at the George Caleb Bingham Gallery; and was also part of a two-person exhibition at Talking Horse Productions in Columbia.  

What is your connection to and interest in Access Arts?  

Riana: When I moved back to Columbia this past April I started volunteering with Access Arts. I helped with the Youth Fibers class, and also worked to prepare the gardens for summer planting. I am now their new Administrative Assistant, and absolutely love the sense of community that comes with working for Access Arts. It is an inclusive and welcoming place for students, community members, and employees.  

Mike: The Blue Note partnered with Access Arts in quarter 1 of this year. We made a charitable donation to Access Arts and worked on an event with one of the artists in residence (Women’s Day of Music, back in March). It was really fun and immediately became a fan of Access Arts and everything they stand for! 

Describe the creative process for this project – from concept and design to achieving a finished work.   

Riana: We started the process by talking about some of the things Mike was interested in. The artwork he likes, the types of processes he wanted to try, and what kind of “maker event” we would like to have. The process of making paper depends heavily on the type of pulp you’re using, the size sheet you want to make, and what you’re eventually going to do with the paper. So, we had a lot of planning to do at the beginning, and came up with a project that was going to engage us all, and was doable in the time-frame we had. 

Since the process of making paper is lengthy, we enlisted the help of Kailyn Hill, a senior art major at Mizzou who specializes in printmaking and papermaking. In the fibers studio at Mizzou, me, Mike, Kailyn, and Ismaeel–our filmmaker–worked together as a team, and poured our first test sheet of paper as a group. Armed with buckets of colorful pulp, we poured in tandem and then let the pulp paints fly! That was such a cool moment, and we all knew that this process would make a great “maker event” at Rose Music Hall. And it did! 

Everyone who participated had fun, and we were so pleased that the paper turned out beautifully. With the exception of one sheet, the large sheets of paper made during our “maker event” were left untouched. But, with that one piece of paper we just couldn’t help ourselves, and decided to take it back to the fibers studio and have a little more fun with pulp paints!  

What did you learn during the process? Did anything surprise you? (If so, what?)  

Mike: Making paper is way more involved than I ever could have imagined. It was really cool to learn that you can almost treat it like paint. 

What words of wisdom do you have for artists or local celebrities who might consider participating in future CelebrARTY creative projects?  

Rianna: A really great part of this process is that you can step away from your own studio practice and approach this project in a totally different way. A lot of my work involves careful planning and a meticulous eye for detail, so I loved working on this project with Mike because we were really spontaneous. It took me out of my comfort zone, and now I find myself really excited to make large sheets of paper. It’s so much more fun making these big sheets in a group setting! 

Mike: It’s super cool! Do it!