8 to CREATE 2017

8 to CREATE was founded and coordinated by a registered student organization of the same name, housed at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and supervised by UIUC Assoc. Prof., Patrick Earl Hammie. 8 to CREATE is a live drawing event, wherein 8 artists are afforded 8 hours to fabricate a work of art, while on public display in downtown Urbana. The finished work remains on exhibit there for four weeks.

I applied to participate in 2015 and was not accepted. In 2017, I was contacted by Hammie and the organization's president, student Hannah Jihyun Kim, inviting my participation. The opportunity offered me access to rich terrain for undergraduate recruitment, and the boon of collegiality with Hammie (a luminary in contemporary figuration, with representation in Marfa, TX).

I gave interviews for local television and student newspapers, and dialogued extensively with students. A local paper's review of the event can be found at http://www.smilepolitely.com/arts/third_annual_8_to_create_is_a_blast/. I was given an honorarium of $100.