Last Friday I was privileged enough to go to 78th St. Studios for the afternoon and get to see all the wonderful studios and artists inside. At first glance I was taken aback at how crude the building looked from the outside, even the halls to the gallery were giving me second thoughts about how excited I was, but everything proved just fine once we got into the wings and all the studios inside them. Seth, Sarah and I examined countless works of art throughout the floors of the building and enjoyed quite a few conversations with the artists and gallery managers. Of course some studios were more interesting than others; I wasn't too concerned with the artists producing jewelry or cheeses, but some of the traditional artists were fantastic. One man was dedicated to the craft of designing scenes with charcoal to give the impression that they were actually created with oil paints. I particularly liked how he left the pieces floating between two sheets of glass because he created his own natural borders in the piece for the scene to rest in. Some of the artists were quite talkative and enjoyed our company, though others seemed to shun us for how young we were. The group quickly learned not to take any pictures of any present artist's work or they generally got upset, but it was pretty funny the first few times. I was really astonished to see a whole set of work from a student who went to my high school with mine the halls of the second floor. I noticed the name, recognized the work, and then confirmed it through his facebook and personal page, it was pretty neat to see. I'd like to go to this event again sometime in the future, and even have stuff displayed here at some point if possible, but it was well worth the time to go!


As far as getting feedback from people this semester, I think my classmates as well as my professors do a pretty good job of reminding me what I should be trying to display in my own works. They help me to understand what ideas and motives I want to push throughout my work and are quick to point out flaws and errors when they can. I think it is best to have people critique your art when they know nothing of the subject at hand, that way it forces you to pick apart your objectives and themes throughout a body and break them down in simplest terms. In contrast, I think having to spar your words with something who is a bit more versed in the subject can really strengthen your arguments as well.