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At a conference in Mobile. E., a friend from highschool who has her Ph.D. in art history and a tenure track job, invited me to give a paper at her conference session.
I flew down Wed. Since E. is at the host institution she is helping to run things. I've been hanging out with her so we've spent a lot of time at the registration table. This has been a nice way to meet people and pass the time chatting. After Wed. night registration the Pearson reps (textbook sellers) took us out for a nice dinner. My filet mignon was amazing and the creme brulee was also good. We shut the place down.
Had the second night of 4 hours of sleep. We had to get up early for registration. Gave my (mediocre, but finished!, paper) Thursday morning. I love presenting the first full day of the conference rather than the last. E.'s paper was great as was the other woman's in my session. One of E.'s undergrads enjoyed my paper and asked some great questions about how it relates to dada. E. and I went out for Thai food for lunch, then more session and registration time in the afternoon. We were exhausted that night so we got takeout (fried catfish) and watched Top Chef and Project Runway in our pjs.
Mobile is nice, smaller than I thought, and really friendly. At the airport the cab driver, who already had one passenger, told me to get in the cab too and only charged me half the price. The guy was also at the conference, and we chatted. I went to his session on the perils of artistic biography and it was really interesting.
Friday we got to sleep in a little. I decided to miss S.'s talk that started at 8am. Went to a morning session (Veilings, great paper on Roman textiles), then to the official conference lunch. E. and I sneaked out for gelato before heading into a semi-boring session (I was sleepy, we wrote notes to each other). Finished the afternoon with a Rauschenberg session (excellent talk on his Dante series for TIME). We went home to rest for a bit before heading for the reception. They went all out on the catering, lots of southern food: shrimp and grits, fried green tomatoes, fried pickles, other fried things, also more traditional party food (deviled eggs, fruit, veggies, spinach dip), and cookies displayed in glass cookie jars. Good thing we decided not to go out to dinner beforehand.
The final event of the evening was the keynote address by Joel-Peter Witkin. Often IMO when artists talk generally about their work it reminds me why we need art historians. He did the best thing; he showed his photographs and talked about them. He described the ideas behind the work, gave anecdotes about the shoots (these were the best), and shared some technical info. He was funny! (This is particularly amazing if you know Witkin's work.) His talk was supposed to be an hour. I didn't check my watch, although at one point I thought that it must be getting close to an hour. He spoke for a hour and 45 minutes, and it didn't feel like that at all, he was so engaging.
My freshman seminar (1st class I took in college) was "Offensive Art". We talked about Mapplethorpe, Serrano, etc. Witkin was the only artist from that class that affected me deeply and viscerally. I remember having a hard time looking at his books in the art library, but also not being able to look away. His work is so beautiful and the photos are very rewarding when you spend some time looking closely.
The Witkin talk and spending time with E. are by far the highlights of the trip. Since highschool I see E. maybe once a year (if that) for a few hours. I've forgotten how much we have in common, although being in the same field and coming from the same hometown that shouldn't be too surprising. She's farther ahead in her career than I am so it's been nice to talk to her about work stuff too (also work/wife/future baby "balance"--read sacrifice. E. is tenure track and is working on turning her dissertation into a book, but may end up moving to small town in AL and becoming a doctor's wife. I feel her on the less-than-ideal choices re: tenure track and babies).
Tomorrow E. has to be there at 7:30, but I am sleeping in. Her friend K. will pick me up (K. is super nice, teaching, working on her dissertation, and also plays WoW). I want to go to one session (there is supposed to be a paper on Hedwig and the Angry Inch, I hope that person is still presenting and that the paper is good). Then off to the airport and home.
I'm tired, but good tired :)
I flew down Wed. Since E. is at the host institution she is helping to run things. I've been hanging out with her so we've spent a lot of time at the registration table. This has been a nice way to meet people and pass the time chatting. After Wed. night registration the Pearson reps (textbook sellers) took us out for a nice dinner. My filet mignon was amazing and the creme brulee was also good. We shut the place down.
Had the second night of 4 hours of sleep. We had to get up early for registration. Gave my (mediocre, but finished!, paper) Thursday morning. I love presenting the first full day of the conference rather than the last. E.'s paper was great as was the other woman's in my session. One of E.'s undergrads enjoyed my paper and asked some great questions about how it relates to dada. E. and I went out for Thai food for lunch, then more session and registration time in the afternoon. We were exhausted that night so we got takeout (fried catfish) and watched Top Chef and Project Runway in our pjs.
Mobile is nice, smaller than I thought, and really friendly. At the airport the cab driver, who already had one passenger, told me to get in the cab too and only charged me half the price. The guy was also at the conference, and we chatted. I went to his session on the perils of artistic biography and it was really interesting.
Friday we got to sleep in a little. I decided to miss S.'s talk that started at 8am. Went to a morning session (Veilings, great paper on Roman textiles), then to the official conference lunch. E. and I sneaked out for gelato before heading into a semi-boring session (I was sleepy, we wrote notes to each other). Finished the afternoon with a Rauschenberg session (excellent talk on his Dante series for TIME). We went home to rest for a bit before heading for the reception. They went all out on the catering, lots of southern food: shrimp and grits, fried green tomatoes, fried pickles, other fried things, also more traditional party food (deviled eggs, fruit, veggies, spinach dip), and cookies displayed in glass cookie jars. Good thing we decided not to go out to dinner beforehand.
The final event of the evening was the keynote address by Joel-Peter Witkin. Often IMO when artists talk generally about their work it reminds me why we need art historians. He did the best thing; he showed his photographs and talked about them. He described the ideas behind the work, gave anecdotes about the shoots (these were the best), and shared some technical info. He was funny! (This is particularly amazing if you know Witkin's work.) His talk was supposed to be an hour. I didn't check my watch, although at one point I thought that it must be getting close to an hour. He spoke for a hour and 45 minutes, and it didn't feel like that at all, he was so engaging.
My freshman seminar (1st class I took in college) was "Offensive Art". We talked about Mapplethorpe, Serrano, etc. Witkin was the only artist from that class that affected me deeply and viscerally. I remember having a hard time looking at his books in the art library, but also not being able to look away. His work is so beautiful and the photos are very rewarding when you spend some time looking closely.
The Witkin talk and spending time with E. are by far the highlights of the trip. Since highschool I see E. maybe once a year (if that) for a few hours. I've forgotten how much we have in common, although being in the same field and coming from the same hometown that shouldn't be too surprising. She's farther ahead in her career than I am so it's been nice to talk to her about work stuff too (also work/wife/future baby "balance"--read sacrifice. E. is tenure track and is working on turning her dissertation into a book, but may end up moving to small town in AL and becoming a doctor's wife. I feel her on the less-than-ideal choices re: tenure track and babies).
Tomorrow E. has to be there at 7:30, but I am sleeping in. Her friend K. will pick me up (K. is super nice, teaching, working on her dissertation, and also plays WoW). I want to go to one session (there is supposed to be a paper on Hedwig and the Angry Inch, I hope that person is still presenting and that the paper is good). Then off to the airport and home.
I'm tired, but good tired :)
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