Introductions

Welcome to my blog

I've never done one of these before, so It'll be interesting to see what comes of it. I've never been very disciplined with things like this - I've never kept a diary - but a few fellow students have had success with keeping blogs, so I thought it was time to give it a go, plus I love the idea that a blog can be sort of like a sketchbook; something to record ideas, to keep a record of the processes of creativity and thought.

I'm currently half way through my MA in Fine Art that I'm studying for at the University of Wolverhampton. I graduated from the BA course there in 2006 then took a year out to think and figure out where I was going, then started the MA the following september. A year on and I think it was one of my better life decisions as my practice and ideas have developed no end since BA. My BA was largely painting: for my degree show I produced a series of paintings using text that I overlayed I was interested in things being half hidden, partially legible. I also made a video where I stripped off and covered my body in writing. My mum hated it but it did gain me a bit of noteriety in the university (when i went for the interview for the MA, Matthew, the course leader, remembered me for my video). That all seems so long ago now, because my practice has shifted so drasticly, and all for the better. This past semester over the summer (you get no holidays as an MA student) - which, admitedly, hasn't been the most productive - I've, for the first time, given up painting, maybe temporarily, maybe less so, and I think that has thrown me. I've shifted towards film and photography, I've spent a large part of my summer playing with cameras (just to define a few terms: when i use the word 'film' I refer to the format I've been using rather than anything narrative based, although there are narrative elements). I bought a super 8 cine camera a while back, so I spent my summer filming with that. I had ideas of fragmented naratives in my head, ideas developed from my painting practice that I'm trying to translate into a medium that will hopefully allow me to explore them and articulate them more fully. I tend not to start off with a clear idea of what I want to do when I work; I tend to just go out, play around and see what happens then go from there. I don't like saying 'I let my practice develop organicly' because I can't really see how you can fail to let your practice develop organicly, lets just say I try not to force things and I let my ideas take me where they will. At the minute that seems to be towards film.

I also work with photography. when I was making paintings I would always photograph my studio space, any canvas' I was working on etc, but photography became an important part of my work when I realised that the photographs I was making were just as interesting, if not more so, than the paintings I was making, which at that time were what I was focused on. My current photography centers on ideas of psychogeography; spacial practices that try and get to grips with place and space. I photograph my flat, the journeys I make every day, I look for details. I try not to overly complicate images, I try to record things as I see them.

Hopefully that serves as an overview of what I do. I plan to post lots over the next few weeks while I have the motivation. I'm hoping it'll keep me organised and motivated to produce work.