The Monterey County Artists Studio Tour invites comers into lairs of local creators.

This weekend the Monterey County Artists Studio Tour politely dismisses the curators and gallerists from the exchange between artist and viewer.

For two days, this Saturday and Sunday, participating artists will open up their studios, garages, spare bedrooms, yards – wherever they make their work – to the public for a behind-the-scenes visit that can lead to deeper conversation or even purchases.

The tour, organized annually by Michael Duffy of the Monterey Bay Artists Equity Fund, doesn’t actually seek to encompass the entire county – it excludes Salinas Valley and South County, whose artists banded together and organized their own artist studios tour – but it corrals enough artists to fill two whole days with creative sojourns.

There are a dozen artists to visit in Pacific Grove and Carmel Valley, seven in Monterey, two in Pebble Beach. Seaside, which also has its own artist studios tour, is still represented here with three artists, while neighboring and smaller Sand City packs seven into the tour. Carmel has the most, with 18.

There are two interesting outliers. Moss Landing and Marina are each represented by one participating artist apiece. Duffy, who has seen a lot of art over the years, singles out one in particular – William Giles of Marina.

“[William] is pretty famous,” he says, of the 80-year-old photographer. “He’s [been] part of the photography tradition of Monterey County for ages. He’s truly a remarkable individual.”

According to his bio, Giles’ family, originally from Boston, was living in Argentina when the Peron government came into power and they had to escape. In the States, Giles got involved in photographing the Civil Rights Movement and marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Selma.

“Yeah, I walked in Selma,” Giles says. “I knew Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., but I was befriended by Malcom X more than Martin.”

He says many of the photographs he took of Civil Rights marches were confiscated by local police, but that during the time he was in the Navy, he could escape by getting onto base, where they didn’t have jurisdiction. This weekend he’ll show any photos that remain of that era.

But he’s also applied his eye and skill – which he honed working and studying with Dorothea Lange, Minor White, Ansel Adams, Beaumont Newhall, Jerry Uelsmann and others – to photographing, as his website states, “the fury of the ocean at Point Lobos, the serenity of the Kiva, the transitions of life and death, the rhythms of a junkyard.” (See the Arts & Culture blog for more of Giles’ interview.)

In Moss Landing, Luis Solano – co-owner with his wife Kim of a concentration of creative and culinary holdings in the sleepy seaside town – will be hosting at the couple’s Haute Enchilada Gallery and Social Club. Luis was in Mexico celebrating his best friend’s 70th birthday in the lead-up to the studio tours, but Kim pointed out that the last time Luis, who is primarily a painter, did an open studios tour was 20 years ago.

“We’ve just been busy, creating everything else we do, raising kids, growing our business,” Kim says. “The time wasn’t right. I talked him into it [this time]. He’s in the midst of a turn in his life. He’s moving forward with his ceramic work.”

He’ll be showing that new work, as well as his much-admired paintings, in the newly consolidated Haute Enchilada Gallery and Social Club, behind their Haute Enchilada Cafe.

Earlier this year the couple sold off their sprawling Haute Enchilada Gallery Uno (or was it Dos?) across the street to the Monterey Dunes Company.

But they’re not Moss Landing’s only lure this weekend. The Elkhorn Slough is also holding an open house (and native plant fair) on Saturday at their Visitor Center for National Estuaries Day. Together with the Solano’s beloved food at their two restaurants, that’s plenty of enticement to visit one of the tour’s more “far afield” spots – to use Duffy’s term.

Other notable artists on the tour: Peggy Olsen, Emy Ledbetter, Brian Blood, Mark Farina, Jody Royee, Mary Hill, Kathy Sharpe, Sandy Robinson.

Sweet Elena’s Bakery in Sand City is hosting Barbara Moon Bautista and several of her photography students.

Rachael Short, also part of the tour, is celebrating her and Evynn LeValleys’ Exposed Gallery’s 5th anniversary 5-8pm the Friday evening before.

There are 63 such artist spots. It’s a lot of activity to coordinate, but the studios tour map is one of the most sensibly laid out documents to navigate the bounty of places (and can be found in this week’s print issue of the Weekly).

And the Pacific Grove Art Center, as always, puts on an art show that lines up one piece from every tour artist into one gallery that goers can peruse in a brisk lap. That show opens 7-9pm Friday, with many of the tour artists in attendance.

Like the tour, it may not be comprehensive, but it’s indispensable.

THE MONTEREY COUNTY ARTISTS STUDIO TOUR happens 11am-5pm Saturday and Sunday at various locations throughout Monterey County. Free. See MontereyStudioTour.com for details.