It is such a cliche to talk about “journeys” in a narrative but in having to look back over my last course modules I really wonder if I’ve been making a very significant “journey”. I came up with this idea whilst writing my course summary but then thought, this is too personal and not that relevant to the course assessors so decided to write a more detailed version on this blog and just give the assessors the bare bones.
Ok, so here goes, these are my thoughts, maybe completely wrong, about what I am doing:
Unlike many of my artist friends I did virtually no drawing, painting or creating as a child. Instead I lived in my head, in my imagination, fuelled by books. I have wondered about why this was the case, I have theories (traumatic, life altering event aged 4; obsessional mother, especially focussed on “not making a mess”; an extended family that only saw value or kudos in academic pursuits).
And when I look at the last 2 pieces of work I made, I wonder if I regressed right back to where I left off, aged 4, and engaged in an accelerated catch up for lost years? And if so, am I going to carry on making child like work or am I going to "age"?
So for the mini graphic novel, entitled “What’s so special about Graphic Novels?” as part of my research project, I used very primitive forms, which looked as though they could have been cut out by a small child.
And for my final Assignment in a parallel module, I made a model of my gran’s house deliberately cack handedly, that could have been made by an 8 year old.
(My tutor wasn’t impressed and told me he was unsure if “my work was just bad or so bad it was good” but I thought that what I was doing was working at childlike artistic level, deliberately naive but with sophisticated concepts under pinning the work. Which I am ok with).
But since doing so much research into animation and model making and finding a great website (David Neat) about making sets, I’ve made a set for the cover of our community magazine that is by no means professional but it is not as childlike as my previous pieces.
So now I’m confused….. did I need to return to the beginning, do an accelerated catch up for the lost artistic years and will now move beyond age 8?
Does my muse have a variable age? Is she getting older? I liked the 8 year old muse!
Well I don’t have any answers, all I can do is KEEP MAKING WORK and not worry about outcomes.
I’ll tell you something though, I’ve REALLY ENJOYED making these sets, so I’m surely on the right course, wherever I end up.
