Finding your feet in first year.

September 18th 2023. The first day entering the Fine Art Degree course within the University of Cumbria. I remember the time running incredibly quick, with freshers week wrecking through like a whirlwind and meeting many new people, some soon to be great friends. Initial deadlines and demands were made (which at the time i thought were ages away- they were not.). And for the first time ever I had my own little corner within a big studio.- potential endless. I had never felt more intimidated in my life, after coming from a small class in my local college, which we worked within a typical school classroom, those two white walls in my corner were rather daunting. However soon, the walls began to be filled with sketches I made within life-drawing lessons, and the dread slowly drifted away as soon as I remembered there was a reason I was there- to create. 

We got our first brief  , "Know Thyself", and ideas came and went, deciding to cover my family rather than directly myself. I began researching ideas I could invest in. Aiming to differ from work I had made before and looking at which materials I could use, finding loose cardboard in my eye line the ideas for my houses flourished. I aimed to recreate the houses where my grandparents have lived throughout the years, and how as the family grew and settled the home expanded and differed the same.    

Throughout making "the houses" I researched to find Artists who had made similar work before, trying to build my circle of influence which would help me 1) Fill my startling empty artist journal, 2)Keep me invested in the idea and 3) most importantly build my knowledge on other artists and how they engage with their audience while balancing their own input within the work. With working in such a big shared studio came the critiques, opinions and views of other students and tutors and although this openness took a while for me to get used to, the input was invaluable. The advice which came and different views of things which I could follow in the future kept me invested, however I will have to admit I'm not the most lenient when creating, but I did take each under consideration and looking back now after finishing first year, wish I'd experimented with those ideas a little more within that first semester.