Welcome newcomers and returning Labbers!

I am looking forward to the Crit Lab fall sessions. After busy summer travels and lots of changes, it feels like it's been so long since the last sessions ended. I hope you are all well- and ready to dive in to some hearty discussion.

As the NY art season bursts open, these past two weeks I've been out looking at a lot of art. There's so much thoughtful, insightful, material, political, poetical, beautiful and fiercely singular work out there, I am inspired. It is a cacophony of art- of diverse voices, full of passion and heart and soul. The variety is astonishing, the depth is invigorating, the intensity is.....intense.

This is a great time for art - with no single dominating voice, style, genre, media. All voices and discourses are needed. Your voices matter in this symphony.

What do you care about exploring more deeply this session? What and how do you want to make your work better, and how do you want to make it matter, for you, for the times we live in? What will you commit to this session? There are no "right" strategies. There is your vision- and yours to know the way your work can speak to the world.

Articulating intentions moves us into a state of being rather than aspiration. Let's start the session with an intention- for the work, for the session as a group, for how you want to take your work to the next level- whether technically, conceptually, professionally, or all of the above. Come with an intention, one to share or keep private - a goal, a question, a concern, a hope. This will be a year of turmoil and change.

Art can be an inspiring, enlightening, calming, enraging, peacebuilding, action in the world. I am a fierce believer in the power of art – and in the work we all do as artists.

benvenuto
patricia