I am a self-taught disabled and disability artist, and mainly a non-representational artist with a strong use of colour.  I am interested in how colour can convey and affect our thoughts and emotions.  I would therefore like to undertake an in-depth exploration of colour – where different pigments come from, the history of colour etc., - and somehow incorporate chromatography into screen and digital printing, and maybe also 3D printing to give colour a shape and structure. 

This opportunity will help me to develop my work as it will give me access to information and facilities that I do not have and have never experienced, and also the resource of fellow students who are undergoing art education and so have different ideas, experiences and perspectives than me, having had no formal art education since the age of 11. I am hoping that I will be able to get together with other students and share and learn from each other.  I will look at how disabled people are seen as inferior, using textiles purchased in charity shops to show how we are seen as ‘charity cases’ at best or malingering scroungers at worst.  I’m not sure at the moment, the work would develop a life of its own as I did the research and learned about the techniques, equipment and materials.      

My main aim is to experience the world of formal art education and share with and learn from fellow students.  Having space, facilities and equipment available I would be able to produce work that it would not otherwise be possible for me to produce.  I would have time and space to devote to a line of art enquiry that I don’t have at home, with no distractions and interruptions other than ‘arty’ ones.  I use the artist name Ceridwen Powell.