Sunday, February 24, 2013

Beginning-of-year reflection on 2012

Achievements in 2012

Started teaching at Pitt Community College, Winterville, NC (PITTCC)
  • Non-Western Art History
  • Art Appreciation
  • Photography Appreciation (yeah, this was maybe not a good idea)


Re-hired at Interlochen Center for the Arts, Interlochen, MI
  • Put together $10k Torchmate CNC plasma cutter
  • Coordinated the Collage for Visual Arts
  • Made new friends and re-welded friendships from last year
  • Taught welding sculpture even better than last year
  • Bought a new bicycle!
  • Donated old bike and bike-trailer to Dow Visual Arts Building
  • Set up their underused TIG welder.
Rehired at PittCC
  • New Class for me: Art History Survey 1 and 2
  • New Class for me: Gallery Assistantship
    • Class curated multiple exhibitions in the Goess Student Center and Art Avenue Contemporary Gallery and Studio.
    • Class matted and framed 30 pieces for exhibition

Took on commission to sculpt giant Doves in clay for Trey Martin.
  • Welded armature
  • clay modeled
  • mold-making in rubber 
  • cast wax patterns
  • sprued wax patterns
  • rammed sand molds
  • poured bronze
  • helped installation
Art Avenue Contemporary Gallery and Studio
  • filling up the walls with senior shows from the ECU School of Art and Design.
  • refitting the studio
  • Curated a sculpture show called The Ancients Made These
  • too many things to list
Random Things

Visited my long lost brother in California. Haven't seen him in 6 years. It was a bittersweet reunion.

Visited Yuma Symposium and made dozens of funny baby snake pins.

Used the snakes to have a solo exhibition at Art Avenue...which I re-named Bad Avenue temporarily. 

Got out of paying my excessive student loans by mailing them a copy of tax returns from 2011 wherein I made $6000 for the entire year (!). I blame an ankle injury, the economy, and anyone or thing other than myself.

2012 was a hard year for me. I haven't been this poor since I was in college and had to work at Ben and Jerry's to pay rent while taking out loans to attend SAIC that would forever be my ball and chain.
Spending way more time in my studio, the Dirty LAM. My life as an artist continues to evolve. 

Wrote and won a Regional Artist Project Grant through the Pitt County Arts Council at Emerge. Used the grant to help purchase a Millermatic welder.

So far 2013 has been pretty interesting and I hope it brings me some peace and happiness. Thanks for reading, I hope you have some peace and happiness as well.

Sincerely,
Andy




1 comment:

  1. those are some awesome accomplishments Andy! bravo, I have to say that I really admire you for all the work you do independently and for Art Avenue. We can't do everything and its such a struggle, emotionally and financially to be an artist. But I will say one thing, that so many people in the office world, they envy us and we should revel in the fact that we love making art so much that we're willing to sacrifice some (or alot) of money to do what we love!

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