Self Reflection and Evaluation

Coil pot I made with pastoral scene decoration 

My final post for L5 second year at London Met. A strange year of lockdowns, restrictions and masks all around. I'm glad I have had my course to help me stay focused and productive.
To reflect and evaluate my work for this year I will look at what worked, what didn't, decisions I made, the impact they had and the problems I solved. Finally, I will look into how I plan to move forward.

What worked:

Film:

I feel my film from stills 'The House' was effective. A friend watched the film, with no explanation from me and she understood the meaning and said she felt moved by it. This was a real revelation for me.
I think I could improve on the film by leaving the derelict images on screen longer. There is a lot to see in them and sometimes it takes a while to work out what the images show. I think the poem, which is whispered could be a little louder too.

Documentation:

My documentation as the medium worked well. Without this I think the research would be in a pile on my desk. Once mounted on the wall I could see how far I had come, the information I held and I could draw connections between outcomes. Learning that the research and documentation can be the artwork was great for me and my practice. I often feel guilty about spending too much time researching when I 'should' be making. I would really like to re-mount the documentation in a formal way, framing each item and displaying it in a graphic style. I think this may give it more gravitas, although I did like the loose, free crime scene wall I created at the time.

Ceramics:

I have really enjoyed being in the workshops. I find I make more work when I am in the university building and with other students. I liked the feeling of no pressure to make work about a certain subject or project. Just making and seeing where it leads has been a good change of pace for me. I tried to cover the sessions I missed in L4 workshop tutorials (missed due to covid). I wanted to learn the skills I need for ceramics. Harvey has been an amazing help in the sessions.

Doily bowl made from extruded clay.

Thistle dipped in clay slip multiple
times and fir

Scoliosis pots x 12, made on the wheel 
each one affect by my spinal curve
/ dominant strength on one side.

General:

I feel I learned from the lectures and sessions each week. They helped cultivate some ideas I plan to execute over the next year. For example, doing an artists residency at a charity shop like Emmaus, starting an art club in Harlesden and going to an artists residential in Cove Park, Scotland. I think the lectures started the process of thinking outside of London and outside of the university, to help see what is possible in the future.

Group work:

Working together to create a body of work for the Imperial Trust (Charing Cross Hospital) was a great learning curve. Sometimes we hated it! So many rules to stick to when displaying artworks in a hospital. Other times we felt honoured they wanted to hang our work. It was a good way to learn about being professional in the future. Although I think I took over a bit on the admin side. I would let others do more in the future group work projects.

What didn't work:

Collage:

I had a clear idea in my mind of what I wanted to create but I think I had no experience of collaging. I chose a photograph of the side of the House as the base. I layered up photos of other buildings from the area including my primary school and the row of shops near my high school. This seemed to be working well but I wanted to introduce some illustrations. I chose to use botanical illustrations I had painted years before. They were local British wildflowers, so they tied in with the concept. However, the paper was heavy matt art paper which didn't sit well with the photo paper. It was too thick and I made the mistake of not cutting away all of the white paper around the illustrations.
I thought the illustrations had to be mine to make the image authentic. Although I put the collage in the Winter Show instagram I was not happy with it. I have since removed the illustrations and started replacing them with others in a similar weight, printed paper. It's looking better but its still work in progress.

I have learned from this process because my Charing Cross artwork was a collage and I am really happy with the results. 

Tutorial:

I had a tutorial which questioned which direction I had taken my project in. This stopped me working, I couldn't work out if I had gone wrong and wasted my time. It was good to stop and re-assess but I lost valuable time by doing this. I think in future I should be more confident in my decisions, I am happy with the direction my project took. It's an organic process and it can change direction.

Future plans:

Going forward I want to continue my work on the House project. I plan to visit the location of the house this summer when I go to Manchester. Maybe some site specific work, mudlarking in the area and maybe filming. I think I will also finish the collage that went so horribly wrong.

I am going to work with some of the cine film from my partner's parents. We have footage from 1960 which includes our daughter's great grandparents. I am thinking of something along the lines of our daughter's family tree / linage. Meeting the great grandparents in some way.

I have booked onto a course at the Royal Drawing School for 5 weeks, 1 day per week. We will be drawing and painting city gardens. It's something I wanted to try but I don't have experience in this field. I like the idea of working outside and I love landscapes. I have worked in the field before but only on small botanical work. I also wanted to try a course at RDS because they do a 1 year drawing course (for free!), which you can do post BA. This maybe something I will consider applying for in the future.

My summer plans also include doing more art with my children. Due to homeschooling and my course work we have not done much creative work together which is a shame. We have always done a lot in the past, so it will be nice to return to some art practice with them.

I am continuing to photograph my neighbours for my 'We Are Harlesden' project. It is taking a while to do, so I plan to shoot over the summer and project the images in Autumn. I have bought a DSLR camera which I am learning to use, rather than keep borrowing a camera from the university. The camera also has a filming option, so I can use this instead of my iphone for footage.

Michael my neighbour - We Are Harlesden project

There are also a couple of L4 projects I want to return to:

Scoliosis - continue with work, add photographs maybe and a vellum painting.

Mothers of Gorton - explore this area further although I am aware of this not being an easy subject.

Other areas I want to explore are textiles, embroidery, print and oil painting. I have not managed to try them out this year, so I plan to do this in the summer.
I think my practice in L6 will continue to be focused around nostalgia, lost narratives, historical everyday lives, family and home via the mediums of film, ceramics and sculpture. I also plan to continue reading and writing on CCS type work. Last summer I stopped from June to October and this resulted in a very rusty first essay!