Work Week

Most of this past week has been filled with studio work. We have all been preparing our projects for our 'final' critique that we had on Thursday. I place final in quotes because we're not anywhere near done with the progression of our projects. After all, we only had three weeks to work on them. A large amount of development is still needed before any of us can claim to have a finished product.

The crit was great though. Some of us got better responses from the jurors than others, but all of us received valuable feedback. We were hosted at Richard Goodwin's studio for the event and you'll all have to google his work because it's something else. Trained as an architect, considered one of Australia's greatest artists, he has a marvelous mind. Deconstructed/exploded models of vehicles litter the shelves what used to be a meatpacking plant. The original sheet metal interior wall cladding and industrial sized drains remain, but the meathooks have been removed. However, the space holds no feelings of it's former life. Richard has adorned almost every surface with is work including a full scale motorcycle blown apart and held in a static state as if frozen in the midst of an explosion. I think we were all a little awestruck and humbled by the whole experience.

Of course Richard was only one of our jurors. Stefan Lehman, Janet Laurence, Nick Seemann, and Naomi Shediezki were also in attendance. I know most, if not all of these names will be alien to you, but believe me, they are all masters in there fields (art & architecture). If nothing else the networking opportunities alone merit the value of this trip. Then again, it's so much more than that, and it's all a bit surreal.