Tuesday June 7th

We had some rest period this morning since we didn’t have to meet with the group until noon. Anna and I both slept in and took it easy, which was much needed. At noon we met up with the group at the Kunst Historiches Museum to see the Pieter Bruegel exhibit. We spent most of the time in the Bruegel room, but I was able to also see some Ruben, Carravagia, and Tantarino. We sketched almost the entire time we spent at the museum. There is so much to see, and we are lucky to have student passes, which allows us to come back anytime; I will have to stop by again soon to see the other exhibits as well. At 3, we all headed out to Windelin Pressl’s studio. Pressl is an architect and a conceptual artist. He was absolutely adorable and extremely humble. His stuff was definitely interesting and intriguing; he creates art to invite conversation. There were some great opportunities for photography, sketches and chances to get to know Pressl’s thought process better. It was an inspirational talk, as everything thus far has been. Everyday I leave these artist’s studios and work space with a newfound motivation to create.

Since most of us had skipped lunch, Anna, Adam, Kathy, Kevin, Katie, Will and I decided we would get late lunch and coffee at another Gregor space, Kunstale Café. I ordered a Viennese hamburger, which was delicious and a side of fried potatoes. Some of us had plans to go to an optional architecture lecture later that day, so we all headed out to the Institute of Fine Arts. The speaker was Hani Rashid, a renowned architect who is best known for his architecture work in Seoul, Korea and his use of unusual skin for the exterior of his work. He talked for an hour about some of his work but mostly his philosophy; the presentation overall was very optimistic and up beat which was great to hear. After the lecture, Alexandra ran into a professor there who got his graduate degree in architecture from UPenn. He took us around the institute and gave us a tour of the studio space and talked to us about the masters programs they offer. I was surprised to hear that the graduate program tuition was only a $1000; I might start considering this as a future alternative to paying around $45,000 a year for a US graduate program. It was great insight to the architecture program and we were lucky to run into him. He invited us back to see the final project works sometime in the next two weeks and I am really looking forward to it.

When we arrived back at the apartment, we found that our host parents had some guests over. So we decided we would go get a late night snack at McDonalds. Earlier Will had told us about Brie Snitzen, which are basically small wedges of deep fried brie cheese that is served with cranberry sauce. We decided we would give it a try. Anna absolutely loved them, but after three wedges it just got to be too much for me. We had a long conversation about Rashid and again about being artists (this is starting to be a routine) and then headed back to the apartment for a good nights rest.