People have made amazing progress today. Everyone is working hard, and you can tell by the pleased smiles -- and sometimes clenched teeth -- that it's coming to an end. Two weeks is an incredibly short time to create a large piece of sculpture, especially in conditions that test the tools and the physical endurance of the people doing the work. Several people have mentioned that the works they´re completing are not the visions they originally had in mind. The things you can do in your own studio with your own equipment and the luxury of time are not the same as when you´re working under the constraints of a symposium.
This afternoon we had lunch as usual at another local seafood restaurant , and Ylda showed up with her daily afternoon snack and coffee. A reporter and photographer from Costa Rica's upscale design and architecture magazine came by, so work stopped for a few minutes for some group photos, which I´ll post later. Tonight we´re having our last group dinner at the restaurant across the street from the beach where the work has been going on. It's really nice of them to feed us, after putting up with the dust and noise for the past two weeks. We´ll come back here after dinner for a slide show retrospective of the past two weeks. And probably a beer or two.
Tomorrow will be a finishing day, with our closing ceremony tomorrow night. Some people will head back to Alajuela to catch early flights out on Sunday, and the rest of us may get a day to relax.
In some respects this time has flown by, especially when I look at where everybody started less than two weeks ago. In others it seems like we´ve been here forever and have become a part of the town, succumbing to the easy rhythms of life here. One thing is certain, all of us will come away from the experience changed, as artists and as people.
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