STORY AND PHOTOS BY HOLLY WREN SPAULDING

MADE: A series of conversations with artists about how they navigate impasses and discover breakthroughs in their work.

To reach Karen Dolmanisth’s studio, I must first navigate a series of stairs, metal doors, and maze-like corridors in an old mill building in Florence, Massachusetts. Then follows a tunnel of books, artwork, costumes, and other ephemera gathered and carefully placed over the twenty years she has worked in this space.