Thursday, April 29, 2010

SCAD….

Furniture design show

I spent my night, last night, scurrying through airports trying to get to Savannah, Georgia.  I arrived in Atlanta at 2:30 a.m. due to a variety of plane reasons and was able to get to my hotel, and fall asleep around 3:30.   I set my alarm to 6:30 and set off for Savannah.

Despite  just getting three hours of sleep, I felt refreshed and ready to go.  Why?  Because I was going to SCAD, the Savannah College of Art and Design, to act as a mentor in a project where their furniture design students were going to present their best ideas for me to critique.

Now, I grew up on a turkey farm and have no formal design training, except experience.  And yet, Antonio Larosa, a renowned furniture designer and chair of the department, asked me to share my ideas with his students. 

He told me he cancelled a project with Natuzzi, the great Italian leather company to work with me.  An honor?  I’m pinching myself.

But, this isn’t about me; it’s about the students.  And, he wanted me to give his students the unvarnished truth.

What a day!  These students modeled and graphed and researched and contemplated and presented.  Smart doesn’t begin to describe the quality and talent of these kids.

I felt so proud to be in this room, with this much passion and talent all around me.

Was it worth it?  Youbetcha.

4 comments:

  1. Woo-Hoo! Go TOOOOOM. It was their extreme pleasure just as much as it was your's. One kind of creative mind meeting another. Congrats.

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  2. It is always encouraging to hear GOOD things about our young people! So often it is the negative comments that get our attention. Thanks for sharing!

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  3. CONGRATS Tom!

    (Apologize if this has gone thru twice.)

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  4. I am a bit late on this post but this is awesome. Glad you were able to get to SCAD and mentor. I lived in Savannah two years ago and it was amazing. I think it was more of SCAD and the historic nature of Savannah that made it great...and my hair dresser (yes I went there - good ones are hard to find). There are a lot of talented kids at SCAD. I am just hoping that with all the talent there the kids coming out of SCAD can take Savannah to new heights!

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