If you don’t know about the Fall Splendor Art Meander, or weren’t able to catch it last year, you’re in luck! Back for its third year, the 2012 Fall Splendor Art Meander is happening Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 22-23. According to the Heyde Center for the Arts (one of the stops on the northwestern Wisconsin adventure), “The purpose of the Fall Splendor Art Meander is to raise awareness of the vital art community in our area and to celebrate the joy of sharing art.” The Fall Splendor Art Meander had organic beginnings. “This is our third year but I actually don’t remember how we first started the idea,” says Patricia Mayhew Hamm, contemporary water media artist and owner of Artistic Innovations. “I used to have a studio open house every fall, and when we started this, it took its place for me, anyway.  I think it was just throwing ideas around to get our art better known.  There are some awesome artists around in small towns and the countryside.  It is very hard to be a ‘lone’ artist. We all need each other for support.” The colorful autumn drive starts in Chippewa Falls, then spans east to Cumberland, north to Spooner, and back down through Rice Lake with twelve destinations. You can look forward to refreshments, nibbles, and door prizes. Not only will you be able to see the work of regional artists, but you will be able to meet the artists, see the homes, studios, and shops they work in, and take in demonstrations. “Some people are very hesitant to approach an artist,” says Mayhew Hamm. “As an artist, I love to have people visit my studio and ask questions.  It’s a compliment to me when someone asks ‘What are you working on now? ‘Even if someone asks ‘Why did you do that?’”