This will be my last post here – THE GRAND FINALE (the opening of my degree show) was last Friday and I have spent the last week oscillating between relief at having finished and sadness that it has finally come to an end. I started this degree 7 years ago – a 6 year part time course with one year out when I moved from Leeds down to Plymouth. It has become part of my life so the transition to not studying will be strange – I have it in the back of my mind to maybe do an MA in a couple of years (am i mad?) – we’ll see – but for now I am keen to get my art practice established – I will miss the feedback and support of my peers and tutors, the group and individual tutorials and hope I can find some kind of substitute structure. Writing a blog has been really valuable and rewarding and so I will be moving over to Artist’s Talking to continue this as part of my practice – as this is my last post on Degrees Unedited I would like to thank everyone who has commented especially Richard who has given me ‘food for thought’ on several occasions.
My degree show was an installation which I titled ‘It hung over the bed’ – a forensic investigation. I presented the scraped painting on an easel with a magnifying glass/lamp. I included a work table of tools and instruments, a chair with white coat, a shelf with a collection of the residue pigment in 6 glass bottles and fragments from the framing. It also included a wall of photographs, details of the painting and I think this was the weakest part of the installation. I made 50 paper boats and placed one of my business cards in each one for visitors to take away. The blog book of the artist collaboration was displayed with my professional portfolio.
On reflection I think my degree show was too busy and that I needed to edit it even more – but this will give me something to think about in terms of how I present this work in the future – I don’t feel I have quite finished with it yet………………..
