Happy New Year!
And Welcome to 2014.
This year, I have had a change of mind (cliché I know with the new year and all); no holding back and going all out for what I want.
January 2014.
This year is making me rethink everything. So I have made a declaration to myself which needs to be completed by the end of this calendar year.
(more on this to come)
Time for another Adventure!
This time to East Carolina University for the ECU Symposium. There, I met up with a few old friends, and get to hang out with a few new ones. This time on my journey I had a friend and fellow metalsmith, Amy Green along for the ride. We ventured on the almost 10 hour drive to North Carolina without knowledge of where we were going to stay the night. Probably not so smart of a plan, but something in my gut told me to just go and everything would be fine.
I should listen to my gut more often, because when we got there, among the many artists, was Jessica Todd (whose work is pretty incredible, check out her site by clicking her name), a friend I had only recently met at 2013’s SNAG conference. Jessica was gracious enough to let us crash with her for the conference.
Throughout the conference, Amy and I heard some amazing talks:
- David Clemons – *Keynote speaker*
- Adam Kenney – Balancing Act: Successfully synthesizing person, professional, financial, and artistic goals into a sustainable creative career. Touchstone Center For Craft
- Teresa Faris – Mindfully making (absolutely Beautiful work)
- Marlene True – Pocosin Arts Folk School
- Sue Amendolara (Glad I could finally hear her speak about her work)
- Bruce Pepich – Museum as Muse, Racine Art Museum
Gallery Exhibitions with pretty spectacular work:
- I do. … Do I? @ The Art Room, curated by Nicole Jaquard
- 50/50 Equal Parts @ The Gray Gallery at ECU, curated by Tara Locklear
- Reliquary Redux @ Burroughs Wellcome Galley at ECU, Juried by Danielle James and Kate Speranza
- Material Matters: Making Connections @Art Avenue, curated by Maria Lee Ross and Samantha Clarke, Juried by Nick Heyl
Not to mention the Cocktails and the Saw File Solder Races @ Dirty Lam Studios
There were also some great Demo’s:
- Cappy Counard – I have been wanting to see Cappy do a demo since I’ve first seen her work, which is amazing! Here are some photos from the demo.
- Chris Ramsy – Hey Look What I Found! – Chris had some really cool techniques and finishes I will be experimenting with in the future
- Alison Pack – learned some new techniques on forming 🙂
- Andrew Kuebeck – I’ve known Andrew since Bowling Green, he graduated as I was starting to take metals courses. Over the years I’ve watched Andrews work, and exposure with admiration and respect. It was great to final take part in a demo of Andrew’s and see some of his photo etching techniques and tricks.
This was my first ECU conference, I knew there would be a lot of familiar faces, and man was I right! This conference was spectacular, chock full of inspiration, great talks from some amazing artists, gallery crawl/art walk, laughter and outstanding conversations. Even learned an interesting few things about Renee Zettle-Sterling that you would never find in her bio. Lets just say, I thoroughly had a blast, and will be attending the ECU conference again in the future.
Great company, traveling, conversations, lectures, demos and all around great trip.
Next up: Winter Vortex
Until next time,
take care.
-Meredith S. Tibjash
Meredith S. Tibjash 
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