University of the West of England

Today I have been doing work on the dreaded ‘evaluation document’ that will be marked alongside the grad show at the end of the academic year. It is a 6000 word illustrated essay discussing our practice. I have been researching Richard Prince and his love of collecting.

Collections seem to feature in many artists lives, and filter into their work. In my own work I produce small scale paintings, which are gridded together in the form of a collection. My paintings explore women from the past in different types of institutions, be it the asylum, the school, or even the institution of marriage.

As well as my work exploring collections, I am also facinated with the past. My first degree was in History and Archaeology at the University of Exeter. As LP Hartley said: “The past is a foreign country – they do things differently there.”It is this sense of ‘the other’ that I find intriguing.

I had my first session at uni after the Christmas break yesterday, and one of the topics discussed was being on a fine art MA, and making ourselves more ‘visible’ in the art world, through social media, networking, and helping each other out, by writing reviews of each others shows etc. This blog seems like the perfect place in which to discuss the pinnacle of my course- the grad show!

Although the show is not till June, I have begun thinking about it in terms of where to hold it, and how to raise the funds in which to put on a successful show. These will be discussed in this blog in the coming months.

Another topic discussed on the blog will be my own practice, and my continuing development as an artist, and my plans for after the course ends.