My voice is shot, my brain is mush and I don't think I can hear anything through my left ear.

So I am back from SNAG's 2009 Conference in Philly (whoa nelly). SNAG is always a whirlwind. So much to see so much to do. One of the hardest things for me is trying to decide what to spend my money on, books or tools? This year I went with tools. I did a lot of looking and found some AMAZING stuff. All of that will have to wait for another post.

I spent most of the conference hanging out with some good friends and meeting new people. For the most part I had a blast. I unfortunately didn't get a chance to talk to a lot of other people during the conference which really sucks. I feel like an A-hole when someone buys me a beer and then I never get to buy them one. Anyhoo, instead of giving an account of every little thing that was questionable or strange I thought I would only talk about what I loved. I will leave the complaining to the experts. Don't get me wrong there was a lot of things that could be improved (number one the freaking student slide show, another epic failure of technology) For some reason I really hate myself for that. It went soooooo well in the dry run on Wednesday. Sigh.

Moving on.
I wanted to thank Doug Bucci for being a freaking trooper through all of this. I am sure it was INSANE. Also the usual suspects, the board, Evangelina, all of the volunteers and the students most of all. Truly the future of our field.

So the first thing that rocked my world was the Pin swap. Totally unprepared. I only made 12 or so pins. HUGE mistake. I missed trading with some people that were rocking some really cool stuff. I did however score some sweet pins from Jillian Moore , Sara Tropper and Rod McCormick . Oh man. Really good stuff. The next thing that was great was Myra's lecture. Sooooo inspiring. What a power house. Standing ovation! On to the Gallery tour. Unfortunately I missed most of the openings but for once I feel like I went to the best of the best instead of the worst of the worst. The Wexler was really nice. I loved some of the pieces in Neoteric Matter (The white necklace that Doug Bucci made was killing me, All I a wanted to do was touch it. I am going to have to come visit him in Philly) Upstairs, it was really nice to see Myra's work all together. Some of the pieces I had never seen before so seeing those pieces next to other pieces I hadn't seen before made it a great show! I could have stayed up there all night but I started getting really hot. Sara Tropper convinced me to walk from the Wexler to Bambi to see Unbalanced Forces. It was a long haul but I am so glad that I did. What a great show. Some of the work blew my socks off (rubber band ball ring, Gold star "prints", freaking studded band aids!). I think all of them were SUNY alumni. Go figure. Earlier that evening I went to the Philadelphia Art Alliance to see Stanley's show, rEvolution and Challenging the Chatelaine. All really good. I loved John Rais piece (the chartreuse underneath was a really nice touch) and of course Lola Brooks piece was really nice to see up close. Her work is like trying to figure out how a magician saws someone in half. Then finally the Sub Octo Gallery to see STUFF. That was a great show. I loved Anya's blacklight piece as well as her sister, Natalya's felt and enamel pieces!

Whew that whirlwind is still going. I spent a little time nerding it up with Anthony Tammaro as well as having a "what is my future" talk withTracy Steepy. I spent a little time with Gabriel Craig but really not enough. I wanted to pick his brain about so many things. Mostly input on the conference. I had great time at the UA, SUNY Alumni party. That was the highlight for me. That bar was a riot. The bartender drank my beer. She was Awesome! I am sure as the dust settles by brain will spill the beans on what my body did and I will try to put it into words on the blog. In the mean time here are some photos in no particular order.



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