Doom and Bikes...

This afternoon we had a giant painting meeting in studio 21. I thought that they were going to give us a nice little talk about the GSA like they have normally been doing... but I was wrong. A woman that I didn't recognize was standing in the corner. She wore a long dark skirt that draped over her large frame and a matching knit sweater thing that was pinned together by a large mother of pearl square brooch. Her hair was gray, and cropped short to her ears with the standard artsy-fringe brushing the tops of her eyebrows. She introduced herself as Sam, and firmly stated that Sam was NOT short for Samantha - it was a name that she gave herself at 12 years of age because she HATED the name her parents gave her. ("And DONT ask what my real name is, because that will NEVER be said out loud.")

Then she launched into a manifesto about how someone told her in art school that she should NEVER have enough time in a day to do everything she wanted to - and if she did she was wasting time. She expected us to TREASURE our time at art school, because there would never again be a time in our lives where we had all day everyday to make art. She said that she expected all students to be in the studio eight hours a day, and if she had it her way it'd be twelve... Sam continued along these lines until she had thoroughly intimidated all of us, read a passage from a book about living, breathing and drinking art, and then handed us a written paper called "An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth" by Bruce Mau. It listed all sorts of pointers, or rather, orders on how to grow as an artist:

#2. Forget about good
#5. Go deep
#7. Study
#8. Drift
#12. Keep moving
#13. Slow down
#14. Don't be cool
#18. Stay up late
#25. Don't clean your desk
#34. Make mistakes faster
#37. Break it, stretch it, bend it, crush it, crack it, fold it...

and so on, there are 43 of them, all with accompanying descriptions.

Then Sam said that she was going to be doing individual and group critiques with us on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Welcome to the Slaughterhouse, Sam is going to rip us apart. (!)

(im not scared, im actually excited)

More news:
I got my bike tonight - put it together all by myself!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND THEN I WENT RIDING IN THE RAIN!!!! tomorrow im getting lost in Glasgow in the AM - on a bicycle!

love,
steph