the lecture

urban brooch by ecu grad student, kat cole

on friday i gave a lecture at the "making a living/making a life" symposium. there were 6 speakers total and we each had 50 minutes to talk. my lecture focused on my career, how i built my business, and what is happening to my work and my career now that i am a resident artist. i was nervous as per usual, becoming more so as my time drew closer. i also felt nervous for the first few minutes and then began to relax. once i started to settle down the fact that i know what i am talking about kicked in and allowed me to speak more freely. i practiced during the week beforehand and that also helped the nerves; being prepared is like a tool i can use to manage my feelings. i was not able to have my notes in front of me again--i write them in the powerpoint but for whatever reason the technology at the venue never seems to allow for their use. i did forget things and spent some time kicking myself afterward for forgetting them. but, now that some time has passed, i feel more pleased than anything else. i have one more public speaking experience under my belt and have learned that much more about lecturing. there is always room for improvement and next time will be a little bit better.

as for the day itself, it began at 9am with a talk by holly garriott from emerge, a local non-profit gallery that offers arts administration internships to ecu students. it seems like an excellent resource for college art students and i was very impressed. the other lectures were all quite different, but each focused on how the artist has made a living and a life for themselves. i particularly liked the talks by jim gallucci and clark whittington. next we had a panel discussion, followed by a reception. after that we all went to emerge for the opening of "rebel53", a juried show featuring the work of ecu students.

the next day a wonderful group of metals students toured me around greenville - breakfast at a diner (i love a good diner!), the farmers' market (pickles, cheddar bread, and sweet potato pie), and some antique stores (scissors and sewing kits). they also showed me the metals department and i did one-on-one critiques with a bunch of grads and undergrads.

it really was a fantastic weekend! thanks to everyone who made it so!

thanks for reading.