Whew! It's been a long week+. May 13 saw Gears on Acid and I hitting the road for the 3rd Annual Philadelphia Alt Taxidermy competition. The plan was to stay that night with a friend, but I misread the directions and overshot their house by quite a lot. Actually, we wound up near Canada. Yeah.
All the hotels in the area were booked up due to Syracuse University's graduation that weekend, so we traveled another 30 miles in the direction we'd come from to collapse at a friendly Ramada Inn. I was super bummed but also punch-drunk and tired of driving, so it only made sense to call it a day.
The next morning we set out for Philadelphia (though our hotel was over the river in New Jersey) and moods lifted the closer we got. We had hoped to visit the Mutter Museum prior to the competition, but arrived just before they were to close (sensing a theme here...), so we grabbed some Thai food before getting to the RUBA Club.
I just have to take a moment here to praise our host, Beth Beverly, and all the artists and judges who made this event possible. I'd love to do something like it in the Midwest, but I'm not sure we could pull it off. Everyone's pieces were top-notch and inspiring.
I was shocked and thrilled to be awarded FIRST PLACE! Again, the process book made a big difference, providing the judges with a detailed explanation of the Porculope's creation. The whole night was amazing and worth every hour on the road. It's time to retire the Porculope now...I have so many ideas for new projects but am not sure I could ever really top her. She's definitely one of a kind and very dear to my heart!
