On Monday there were nine. One of our group is leaving the course, as she says it’s making her really unhappy. She wants to be a ski instructor instead. And while some of us find it a bit upsetting, I agree that there’s not that much sense in carrying on with something you don’t want to do, just for the sake of a qualification that may or may not enable you to do something you don’t want to do afterwards. That’s easy for me to say, as I’ve already done the college drop-out thing, and I’m happy with my direction now; but that’s not to say this is right for everyone.
We convened in the cafe to discuss fundraising for the show, and I highlighted the essential elements we’d need to cover, such as printing, advertising/marketing and the private view evening. I’d have made a less shabby job of it if I wasn’t so knackered, but we got something out of it. I took my laptop to show the group the “Promoting Your Degree Show” article on this website, and got this year’s Degrees publication out of the library to pass around so everyone could visualise placing an ad. One important step was the delegation of the major tasks – so now we have one person in charge of design, and another researching printing costs. Everyone is encouraged to submit ideas and suggestions, but delegating responsibilities has worked for well for us so far, and I’ve still got plenty to get through before the next meeting. We’re going to discuss fundraising again, and in particular, how much we actually need, after the term resumes. To get the ball rolling, I took in a few massive bags of fabric remnants amassed during my seamstress/crafter life, which we can to sell to the fashion students. I’ve also arranged to chat with the rep for the year below us about joining together to fund the end of year show; last year the BA group jumped us with a request for £20 each, but I think we could be more clever about it if we get the HNDs on board with our schemes from the start.
My time in the project space has come to an end, and I have mixed feelings about what I’ve done there. I’ve given myself a hefty project, in the form of creating as many portraits as I can over the course of the next few months, and creating an installation with them, using their frames as an integral part of the composition. I remember going on a trip to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston with my college group back in 1999 – only a short walk down the road from MassArt – and all I can remember is the particularly pompous professor who led us, standing before some grandiose gilded confection of wood and plaster and declaring dryly that not only was he a doctor of whatever it was, he was also an expert on frames (of a certain historical period, I’m sure, but I can’t remember). It’s the effect of presentation and context on perception that I want to poke around with. I’ve had enthusiastic feedback, so although I feel that a lot of the work went into creating something that wasn’t going to be used, at least I managed to see what I did and didn’t like.
I’ve finished my first carving and managed to give myself only one decent gash with the chisels, and it wasn’t all that bad really. Yesterday I had a friend come into the studio to sit whilst I modeled a life sized version of him out of clay, and today I’ve brought it home to work on over the half term. This will become the model for the wood sculpture. The practise piece is going to be gessoed and I’ll start painting that this week as well. That and the five panels I’ve prepared… well, I’ll be starting stuff this week.
Oh, and bass practise. Otherwise the show on the 29th is going to be ugly.
