'Concurrent' at West Virginia University

Oct 20, 2009

Poster announcing my lecture at West Virginia University. Last Thursday and Friday (Oct. 15-16), I had the honor of being the visiting artist for the latest installation of Concurrent, the traveling exhibition featuring works by Natalie Alper, myself, Diane Simpson, and Larry Webb.

I arrived Thursday afternoon and gave a lecture that evening, right before the opening reception. The crowd was composed mainly of very attentive art students and faculty. My talk went on for just over an hour, which surprised me because I remember thinking months ago that I'd have a hard time filling up that time. Once I started talking, the time flew by.There was time for a short question and answer session at the end, after which everyone went upstairs for the opening reception and out to dinner afterwards.

Friday morning, I met with three out of four graduate art students who had signed up for crits. The fourth was sick and couldn't meet with me. I was a bit surprised that more students hadn't taken advantage of me being there and available to talk with them about their work, but it left me with more time for the ones with whom I did meet.

I left WVU later that afternoon for a plane out of Pittsburgh that was scheduled for a 5:40pm departure. That turned into a 6:50pm delay, which turned into a cancelled flight, leading to a mad dash for the 'special services' desk for US Airways. There were no more direct flights back to Philly, but they put me on one that went to Washington, D.C. with a connection to Philadelphia. A flight that should have only taken just over an hour took 6 hours, instead. At least I was able to get home. I felt bad for those who had more complicated situations to deal with.

Overall, the two days were great, and were made much easier thanks to Chris Barr, Bob Bridges, Michael Sherwin, and everyone else in the College of Creative Arts involved with the exhibition.