Long Island City Open Studios

Several large studio buildings were holding open studios today, so we went around and looked at artwork. I work for a ceramicist in LIC Arts Center, so it was nice to go say hi to him (I'm starting work again tomorrow), and there were a lot of other artists who were interesting to talk to. I didn't see a whole lot that I found especially memorable, but it was the conversations with artists that were more valuable to me. It seems that as a young artist people are very interested to talk to me and excited that I've chosen something that I really want to do - some of them came to it from a job they were less passionate about and so they envied my course. Although, we'll see how it goes!

Artists who caught my eye:

Violet Baxter, who does beautiful paintings of New York

Karen Dimit, who makes votive-looking assemblages of stone, wood and metal 

Charles Birnbaum, who makes amazingly detailed ceramic pieces and is very influenced by Lee Bontecou

I also spoke with Yukiko Kobayashi, who besides being a talented artist might be interested in helping me practice Japanese!

I'm excited to go to more events like these, and pleased that there are so many inspiring people here!