Being a direct entry student has been very difficult, but immensly rewarding. For much of the first half of the year I felt as though I was playing catch up with the other students. I had to get used to a new campus, new facilities, technicians, tutors, all while having to create new work and engage with people who were not in the slightest familiar with what I had been making the year before. Of course, my work evolved anyway, and as I became more familiar with my surroundings, I realized that most of the other students who had been on the course the first two years felt just as lost as I did!
Last year I was mainly painting, so it was a shock when I started making more sculptural objects. Most of the work I made at the beginning of the academic year were not finished pieces, but became a process of thinking for me, as a way to help me understand my practice. It took me awhile to pin down what I was most interested in, especially after the shakeups of our first few tutorials and group crits.
It has been really interesting to see how far we have all come in our personal practices since the beginning of the year, and I am looking forward to the degree show. We are on our easter holiday at the moment, and I have been frantically trying to work on my research folders needed for assessment. I am confidant that I am not the only one maniacally typing while scouring a towering pile of books, and that does make me feel a little bit better, if only slightly.
