Well its all over now. It doesn’t feel quite real – a thoroughly intense week of talking talking talking……by the end I was mainly babbling. The whole results day was kind of anti-climactic and disappointing – whilst I did well, it wasn’t really really well and there feels something wrong about scoring art anyway – its just that sense of being shut out of an exclusive club when you don’t get the result you’d hoped for. Particularly when I felt that this project had been so much more successful than my previous one this year. I know that realistically it will never matter again – and on the bright side – I had so much positive feedback about my pieces, and I even sold a few bits of work from my portfolio. I learnt a huge amount – particularly how to engage with people and talk about my work, which is pretty difficult. I also realised that if I carry on with making books I am going to have to keep explaining that they aren’t altered books but constructed books…….that no I havn’t bought them and taken them apart. I didn’t realise that you have to deal with all sorts of preconceptions.
I was very glad that quite a few people had seen the picture of my work in A-N – I’m sure it helped people come up and talk to me; similarly some of them had read the blog which was really nice and thoroughly encouraging. I’ve come away from the Degree show with a few hopeful leads to follow up – including the Manchester Book Artists Fair this year, and an invitation to participate in a show in London. I’m now facing the rather unexpected anxiety of whether I can make more pieces – I have suddenly got all scared in case I can’t remember how I did them in the first place ! What if they aren’t as good ?! The only way to deal with this of course is head on. I’m having a short break to go to the ‘Books that Fly’ conference in Brighton which is all about artists’ books and then I shall just get on with making more. Its been thoroughly helpful writing this blog and I’m really grateful to A-N for the opportunity. I have added a couple more images of one of my fellow students’ work – Ruth Bratt – as I couldn’t resist. Its all about consumerism and excess – a really cheap foam material simply encrusted with decoration. I wish the very best of luck to her and all my year !
