DEGREES UNEDITED

# 2 [27 August 2009]

I think I’ll start with a short summary of how I got to this point.  Partly because I don’t know where to begin looking forward – it’s quite scary – and partly because I have a lot on my mind and need to clear it out.

In exactly 5 weeks time my final year truly kicks in, and in order to get my head in the right place for the forthcoming mayhem I've been reflecting… and I really don’t know where the last two years, no three years, have gone.  It feels like only yesterday I nervously gave up work and embarked on this artistic journey, starting on a full-time foundation course.  Now I’m two-thirds through my BA with no regrets, loving every minute of it and not wanting it to end.  It’s only when I look back through my sketchbooks and work filling up my room at home that I realise how far I’ve come.  How much I’ve progressed and indeed how much I’ve surprised myself.  You know having a dream is one thing realising it is totally another.  This course means so much to me, there are no words to even come close to describing it.

From here on in it all counts!  I don’t know how your courses work but our degree results are all purely based on our "final year" performance.  Of course we have to pass each preceding unit/term/year but the results don’t actually figure in our degree classification.  Which is good and bad right!  So its now all engines go, pull out all the stops and peddle to the mettle, right!

Summer seems a blur, for two reasons 1) because I have been buried in books  (research for dissertation) and 2) because I’m just settling back into a home routine, having spent four months on Erasmus exchange in Zurich – which now seems a lifetime ago! 

I really enjoyed the exchange experience and would totally recommend it to anyone given the opportunity.  I spoke/speak very little German, and even less Swiss German, but still had a great time.  It was almost more productive because you find yourself paying more attention to the visual; you start to think more about what you see and about what you yourself produce.  Don’t get me wrong the language barrier was a hindrance, you felt you could contribute more, gain more from class, had you better knowledge, but it was one-sided, they could all speak great English on a one-to-one basis although classes were conducted in German. 

The body of work I produced was as a result of inner reflection, why was I there, what was I missing in UK, what did I hope to gain from the experience.  I was fascinated by how different the genre of studio work was out there to what I’d left behind in London.  You don’t realise I guess when you’re in the midst of it how much you feed off your peers, how much you are influenced by each other.

# 1 [25 August 2009]

Well here goes.  I've been mulling this over for over a week now - will I won't I, should I, shouldn't I... start blogging that is.

Reading through a fair few of the existing blogs there's a lot to live up to.  There's some amazing reading, not to mention work on display.

The common thread seems evident though - everyone seems to enjoy sharing their thought and working processes with "the www" Almost as if by doing so, it helps them make decisions and move on, finding success as they do so.

So, following in all your footsteps, though possibly not filling them, I also aspire to use this blog to clear my head, make sense of ideas and move my art practice forward.

I hope I don't bore you too much and in turn the readers of my blog gain something from my ramblings in return :O)