Critique Night

The first Monday has come and gone again, and with it was the March critique.  Still having camera issues- maybe by next month I'll be able to show you again what we have going on in the Studio.

I arrived around 5 pm, hours before the event, so I could work on plans for sink construction.  I have been hired to construct a frame for a very large sink, a six foot basin.  This is for my former student Mary, who has acquired the sink, but now needs to have something to keep it off the floor.  I have experience in this area, having gotten over a dozen of Molly's tables off the floor.  Mary had dropped off a plan at the Winter Festival a few weeks ago, but looking at it today there were a few questions, things I wanted to get the answers to before continuing to design.  When she came in later for the critique, I was able to get that information.  Meanwhile, I had taken notes and measurements of the large tables I had made for the Studio, since that will be the basic plan for the one I'll be doing next.

Molly arrived about 6:45, with plans to set up something large, so she went to the cafeteria (unclaimed tonight) and did so.  Since Mary was really anxious for some reactions to her latest project, she went first.  She's participating in a group exchange folio later this spring, and has two woodcuts in progress, wanting our suggestion as to which path to take.  Either would probably work, but we suggested the portrait piece would be better.  Margery had brought a series of life drawings, something we've never seen from her before, but also ceramic human heart.  Jane (who brought her sister along for the night), had some watercolors, landscapes from the part of the state she lives in.  Our other Mary (who has been coming to the Studio for as long as we've been open) brought a series of small works in a variety of media, seeking our opinions on options.  Gwen had some sketches- potential ideas for a t-shirt, a thing Molly has been working with of late.

What Molly had set up was something she put together for Winter Festival a few weeks ago.  As part of one of her dancer collaborations a few years ago she had put a large bear on a much larger piece of cloth- now that large piece of cloth was hung up and being used as a screen for shadow puppets, back-lit from behind.  The puppets were made from cardboard, and there was a political theme appropriate to the current presidential campaigns, so her prototypes included a Hillary Clinton and a Donald Trump, plus lots of symbols.  Lots of technical questions to be worked out, including whether this is something for her to perform and for viewers to interact with, but we had fun playing around and offering ideas.  She also showed us the progress on her turtles project.