The Gold Standard

Tonight was the March meeting for our critique group. One of our regulars mentioned a recent disappointing critique in a class he's taking, and a lackluster critique at a place in Asbury. It seems that our monthly group in the Studio is the gold standard of critique groups- interesting art, good discussion, useful ideas, and tasty refreshments. (in honor of the season, I brought some of the jambalaya I made last night) We had 10 artists in attendance tonight, as well as a few of Molly's students.

The first people to arrive got to put their stuff on the main wall above. The art includes two paintings (dancer) and a collage (cowboy cat) from Jill, ink drawings from Trevor, a cast sculpture from Adam, a mixed media sculpture from Michelle (colored lights), plastic trash assemblages from Lisa, and my current woodblock. Later arrivals put their work up after that, including (below) oil pastel figure drawings from Vince, a mixed media painting/collage from Mary, and an abstract painting/drawing from Tim.

The finale of the evening took us down the hall to the darkened cafeteria, where Molly had set up an overhead projector. She's beginning another collaboration with dancer and choreographer Kristin Dexnis, who was in attendance tonight to see the piece for the first time. So far Molly has done a couple of ink drawings on glass, and the projected images are planned to be part of an upcoming dance piece.

As for my piece, I gave the basic explanation again and addressed some of the same concerns for some people who missed the last meeting or two. I had taken a rubbing just as people were arriving, and based on that I'm not planning any significant changes before proofing it.