Last night many former students of The Drawing Workshop came together to attend the premiere of a new documentary, An Honest Living, by director Jordan Freese. It features four artists, one of which is George Sotos, our former teacher of The Drawing Workshop. The film explores the concept of artists having to do their day jobs: teaching, office work, house interior painting, in order to make a living to support their own art. It has special meaning to all of George's former students, but regardless, I highly recommend this film to all artists because most of us are in the same position. The director himself is caught in this too, which brought about the making of this film. He is an IT guy by day, and has made this film for over three years in his spare time between attending classes and working around the artists' schedules. It was well worth all the hard work!
(A photo from after the screening. There were several other larger group shots. We'll have to try to get those.)
It was such a joy to reunite with George and former classmates last night in an evening we will never forget!
There is another screening this Thursday night January 30th at 8:15 pm at The Gene Siskel Film Center. Please check it out if you're in the Chicago area or follow the film's Facebook page to see if the film gets into film festivals.
Here's a wonderful short review of the film: http://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2014/01/24/an-honest-love-letter-to-chicago-arts