My last post as a SCAT student, but not the last post

This will probably be my last post as a student at SCAT, but it certainly won’t be my last post on this blog.

I started this blog during my first few weeks at SCAT, it’s primary objective was to be my ‘reflective journal’ for the Contextual Studies module in the first year. This was the art history module for which each week my two fellow students and I were assigned short tasks such as ‘research some isms’, ‘define modernism‘, ‘find out about a decade’, or ‘consider people who collect things’. The reflective journal / blog evolved into a blog to illustrate art and arty topics of interest to me, things I stumbled across day to day. The original concept changed. I didn’t just use it for homework; it eventually evolved into my art website. I even added examples from my body of work and it became more than a blog. This blog also became a catalyst for other related blogs, one about the Powis Castle project from my second year, another about random thoughts that bother me in strange places, and one for my final project.

So it now includes random discussions on art history that strike me as worth sharing. I’ve discussed Classical sculpture, cognitive susceptibility, Chiaroscuro, and other art-related issues here. I’ve looked at concepts such as spatial relationships, illusion, abstraction and allegory.

I had a preconception of how the form a blog should take before I started this blog. And I hope that this one, has changed my perspective. I’m paraphrasing here, in reality, it is just a blog about things I like to talk about so the form it takes evolves into whatever I want it to be.

Since embarking on the Foundation Degree, as well as starting this blog, I’ve become more experimental with my art, including a short-lived attempt at collage. I’ve learnt how to set up an installation in an exhibition. I’ve had to consider the formal elements, construction, the foreground and composition in my art. I’ve discovered the importance of how to juxtapose different elements for great effect. I’ve  I’ve used many a new medium, such as video, photography and printing. My exploration has taken me on a tough but rewarding journey. I’ve been taught the value of metaphor in the messages I want to get across.

But most importantly, I have become interested in the narrative of objects, the dialogue of the people who own or come into contact with objects. This was a new thing for me, and it is thanks to my work while on the Foundation Degree that I have found this interest.

One of the best complements I had at my final exhibition for this course was: ‘I love the symbolism‘. I’m under no illusion, though, I have a lot still to learn. Fashion for art is ephemeral, what is interesting now, might not be so in five years time. So much is influenced by the political.

Art can appear opaque, I aim to produce art that is not so. On the other hand, I don’t want it to be too transparent. It should provoke thought in the viewers. It should allow them to question their assumptions.

Simultaneously, I would like to continue to enjoy the process of art making. I don’t want to base my ideas on empirical evidence alone, I’m interested in the symmetrical influence of evidence and insight. I think it is getting the balance right that is the key.

To end, I confess, for this last blog entry as a SCAT student I set myself a challenge. I wanted to see if I could write a blog containing all the words on a list of ‘arty’ terms supplied by one of the tutors last week. I hope I have succeeded. If so, does this mean that I can now say that I am able to talk ‘arty farty bollocks’ with confidence? And if so, then the Foundation Degree has been a great success for me.

Joking aside, as a lover of words, I have enjoyed this challenge. Onwards and upwards for me and this blog so please stay with me on this journey.

The arty list - page 1

The arty list – page 1

The arty list - page 2

The arty list – page 2

 

 

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