Friday, September 5, 2008

Mingling


I met Brian Conley tonight. 

(Aside)
I actually went to high-school with someone named Brian Connely (spelled differently, pronounced the same). The one I went to high-school with was an all-around great guy. He was nice, smart, funny, athletic. He was an achiever and he was modest. I think he ended up marrying a girl that we went to high-school with, Liz Strauss. Anyway, he's not the one I met tonight. 

The one I met tonight is the former chair of the Fine Art Program at CCA. He was nice, interesting, I enjoyed talking with him. He's an artist that used to live in NYC. The story is that he came out here 3 years ago to do an artist talk and CCA ended up offering him the job as chair of the MFA program. He's not the chair anymore, he's teaching two classes. He's happy to have more time to be making artwork. We talked about the importance of understanding contemporary theory, and how we both enjoy allowing our concepts to decide our materials rather than the other way around. He currently has work,  Miniature Iraq War in Las Vegas, at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

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