Conference, Days 2 and 3

So after Robert Dancik's wonderful class on Monday, I continued my learning experience with a two-day class by Michael David Sturlin.  The class, entitled "Establishing Your Artistic Identity" pushed twenty of us into re-examining our designs, refining and minimizing them.  Did I establish my artistic identity by the end of the class?  No way.  But I did have an opportunity to explore some design elements in my own works.  This class will take me a while to internalize.  But I don't think it was correctly titled - I think it should have rather been titled "Refining Your Design Sense" or something similar to that.  It was a marvelous class, irregardless of the title, however. 

Michael David Sturlin

One good thing was working with 36 gauge foil in the class.  I really enjoyed the material and ended up purchasing some on Wednesday evening when my roomate Shruti and I took a quick trip north to the local Dick Blick Art Supply store.  I ended up with lots of wonderful art supplies - it's hard to beat a trip to an art supply store - and Shruti had no idea they had physical locations, she has only ordered from them on-line.  We left with much stuff and less cash - LOL.  Shruti was in 7th Heaven. 

Gordon Uyehara, artist extrordinary

The "Welcome" reception was held that evening with a wine bar and wandering hors d'ourve waiters.  I didn't get a lot to eat, but I did have an opportunity to meet up with several friends who had just arrived that day for the conference portion (the three prior days having actually been pre-conference classes).  One person who was missing was Gordon Uyehara who collapsed before teaching his class on Monday.  Apparently he had walking pneumonia and was quite ill.  He was in the hospital for most of Monday and confined to his hotel room for most of the remainder of the week.  If nothing else, he got enforced rest, but I'm sure that by the time he left to return to Hawaii yesterday, he was more than ready to leave.