Starting this blog might be the singularly most difficult thing about my university journey to date. I am required to consider my position as a Fine Artist, my accumulated experience over the course of my studies, and possible trajectories after my degree.
In some ways this is perhaps more difficult as a mature 50+ student, than as a young graduate starting out at the beginning of their career. I have reinvented myself numerous times throughout my life, I have enjoyed very varied experiences as a professional ballet dancer, a sales and marketing representative, a trophy wife, a fitness instructor, now student. In applying to University to study Fine Art, one thing was clear, unknowingly I have engaged with the arts, on and off, my whole life.
I have enjoyed almost every moment formalising my interest into study for a BA Hons. I have learned as much about myself as I have about the history of art, contextual and critical thinking. Perhaps the biggest surprise has been my discovery of academic writing, and how much I relish the challenges of dissertation and research.
From my detailed AA2A student rep profile it is clear that, at this point in my first term of my final year, my interests and strategies currently lie within the theme of appropriation and that my practice is largely situated in modification though collage and painting. I am self-directed in both practical and theory, which is not, sadly, as much fun as it sounds. Indeed, rather like a child in a sweet shop, I find myself overwhelmed by options, influences, materials, mediums and possibilities, to the point where I am paralysed with inactivity, unsure where to start.
Also unclear to me is where I want to finish, despite the massive learning curve and distance travelled over the preceding two years, I am as yet, unclear as to what might follow my degree. In the first instance, and as an antidote to the possible post degree anti-climax, I have planned to walk the full length of the Camino de Santiago’s French Way; an 850km hike I intend to complete, solo, over two months. Hopeful that I might have some kind of epiphany along the way, I am keen to explore how the journey might become part of my artistic practice. I have also planned my first solo exhibition to take place at Chester Art Centre from 19th November 2020, so issues arising from this commitment will likely appear as part of this blog. At the present time it is my intention to exhibit a broad range of my work arising from the degree and its various modules, however, as I know all too well, plans can and often do change through necessity and desire so, as they say...... watch this space!
Stones does Picasso, Acrylic on Canvas, 2019
