mariane!

Last week, the soft-spoken bookbinder Mariane came to talk to us about developing our interests and studio spaces. I found it incredibly interesting that she left art school thinking that she would be a photographer, and then after an "internship" out West with an elderly master book-maker with only the desire to learn how to bind her own photography book, she fell in love with the craft and has been honing her skills ever since. Her story had a resounding impact on my outlook: that at any point, in even the most insignificant situation (for Mariane, her medium of preference was discovered on a whim), the most important thing could happen to us. We could discover the most profound thing about ourselves in a situation that happened under the slightest odds imaginable. Fate is positively mindblowing, and if Mariane enjoys bookbinding as much as she leads on, then I desperately hope the same circumstances will arrive for me! Until then I will continue to explore!

Returning to her second resounding point about studio space, I don't necessarily agree with the degree of importance she places upon it. Although it is most certainly a crucial part of the artistic process...I just don't see it as something that needs to be addressed so early in our journey through the art program. More pertinent issues I'd find to be time management and guidance through the curriculum; studio space is something I don't plan to be particularly concerned about until junior or senior year, or even thereafter depending on whether or not I know what my preferred medium will be! And although Mariane makes a valid point - that building up a collection of tools pertaining to your medium over a long period of time relieves a lot of fiscal stress that purchasing everything at the same time would cause - the issue remains that we have no conclusive idea what we want to do with our lives. This lecture was...a little TOO forward-thinking for my taste...