Graham Budgett: Open Studio, 1979 - and: A Mythology of Structure, 1982

Palo Alto, September 1979: fresh off the plane from the UK and a bit culture-shocked, I start work as a grad student artist in a fabulous studio out in the fields surrounding "The Farm", Stanford University. It's close to the stables where Eadweard Muybridge photographically proved that horses hooves all leave the ground at once.

They operate a system of Open Studio/Grad Critique here that means I'll be going public already in October and also that I'll have a familar audience every 12 weeks or so for at least 2 years. Procedural Sculpture?

October comes with a hard rain. The Californian Hills turn from golden brown to bright green [the very opposite of October]. I open up the studio's double garage door, scrounge some wood and enclose the space covered by the large lofted door, piercing the new 'walls' with partly visible objects and selected things from my actual space - behind the scenes - closed off by the 'Open Studio'.