Beers and Tears

a couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine (Katie Lee Mansfield), and I were talking about a book that she is in the process of reading called 7 days in the art world (or something to that effect). Anywhoo, she was telling me how in one of the chapters the author writes about her experience with a studio critique... of sorts... at Cal Arts. The author describes a series of critiques that last for hours. Katie and I were talking about how our crits only last a day (there are 10 grads as opposed to like 35... but even so, each crit is only about an hour... if that). I told Katie about a friend of mine, from The Art Institute of Chicago, who told me a similar story, where crits would last all night. Well I thought this was quite interesting and wondered why we don't have crits like that. A couple days later, I spoke with other fellow grad mates and we all came to the conclusion that this was something that we had to try. Last night was the first night; it was amazing! We all brought our "poison" and had one of the most fun and informative nights so far (of all time!) We will be organizing more of these Beers and Tears nights(Jamie Uretsky is the clever bee that came up with this glorious name). If you are sharing a studio space with fellow artists I suggest you do this... it is a must! Whether you're in grad school, undergrad, or out in the "real world". DO IT!