was pretty amazing!

First artist I gathered the balls to meet was Milivoj Ceran who flew in all the way from Croatia and he was really helpful! I wrote notes from every professional to give my portfolio crit and his section was the longest. Apparently he's also an art teacher. AND after the award ceremony, he played the guitar like a pro and sang beautifully- including the WANNA BE LIKE YOU song from the Jungle Book. I got to meet Noah Bradley who was incredibly nice, Steve Belledin is super chill/kept trying to give people his candy and although I didn't have a chance to talk with Todd Lockwood, everyone I know that did got amazing feedback from him that they passed on. I got to stand behind Donato Giancola and watch him paint in oils which was SICK! And David Palumbo, one of my most favorite figure artists was there as well to offer crit. Chris Rahn was also there and he's super nice and holy crap young, and was awesome enough to give me two magic cards to get signed (one by Noah and one by Steve Prescott) I talked to Steve just about art in general for a little while which was really fun and I am stoked to do this again next year! Some in our group want to try to apply to be a part of the showcase too which would be so sweet.

Thank you and Mike and Zach for making it a really memorable weekend!
and insane congratulations to the couple of my buds up there that practically got job offers <3