Today I returned for my 5th year of part-time study – in the College’s new buildings in a very large Victorian Gothic buliding in Hereford. It has been transformed over the last few months into a huge blank canvas and today hundreds of students swarmed through the building in amazement at the fantastic surroudings. It feels as if several birthdays have all come along at once – I can’t really believe that its happening – so I am going back tomorrow to check!
Our tutors have impressed on us the importance of utliising the new space fully and making the most of the new opportunities that lie before us – including working between year groups more and between disciplines, now that we are all in one building.
Very exciting times lie ahead for the degree students of HCA.
Huge gratitude to staff and contractors who have worked so hard in pulling it all together.
http://www.hca.ac.uk/About/News-and-Events/September-2013/College-Rd-Campus-Nearly-Ready!
I have had a break from the blog – holdays and the family returning to school. Its good to get back into it – and am so keen to get back to college after such a long summer break. I have been researching for my dissertation and really need to talk over ideas with peers and tutors – art is a definatley peer group activity!
I have realised that the subject of my dissertation idea is autobiographical in nature – I wonder if this will work?
I have done a lot of drawing this summer in the isolation of my studio – I am most definately ready to share my ideas and get some feedback.
I having been giving some thought to the disadvantages of being based in such a rural location. Do you need to be based in a town or city to get exposure and find work opportunities?
I am currently working on a series of representational drawings – but looking at Katy Oxborrows’ beautiful experiments on perspex I got seriously side-tracked with ‘process’ today!
I have worked on board using blackboard paint and acrylic – there is something simplistic about working in this way and I would like to explore it further.
The Learning Journal –
do we all struggle with getting grips with our learning journals?
Our tutor has endlessly re-inforced the importance of keeping a journal and how it should work for us; and that we must keep asking ‘why?’ (and the journal is a good place to be asking this question as well as in crits etc)
There are times when I havent been able to get to it – physically – but mentally too – when there have been lots of things going on outside college life.
I think this shows that it is a demanding discipline – you have to be focussed and dedicated to keep a journal and make it useful to your practice.
After a fraught first half of the year where the journal struggled to get enough attention I am very happy to say that we have really bonded this summer!
I have had time and space to use it and now enough experience to make it really work for me. I am seeing the benefits in the way I approach my work – asking questions and finding ways through. Eventually it seems to be working for me.
Whats’ your relationship with your journal like?!
I have been studying the imagery in a very old French tailoring exercise book.
I am working in pen, chalk and paint on blackboard, trying to get a sense of the perfection aimed at by the student and the tension that seeking such perfection seems to create in their work.
