1,2,3 Advice

Here are the three pieces of advice I've heard/found this year which have helped:

1 - "Create work that you love and try to keep a consistent style." Susan Farrington

My interview with the artist Susan Farrington helped me a lot, with both my current practise and advice on the industry I want to work in. This quote, taken from the interview, is just one of the pieces of advice which had an affect on me and will be useful not only now but in my future career. The point about developing a style in my work is something I think I'm starting to gain but obviously it will involve a lot of work. The idea of just enjoying the process of making the work and not worrying over every detail (which is something I tend to do) continues with my second piece of advice.

2 - Embrace the mistakes/imperfections created in your work. Holly Wales

During her lecture Holly Wales stated that due to her loose and fast style of working her drawings are never perfectly done. She feels that the mistakes she makes add to the piece and likes to leave them in. I have found while working in collage that by almost letting the material I'm using take the shape it does on its own helps me to create a character or a piece.
 
3 - "The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt." Sylvia Plath

Throughout the first year of the course I found that I was always second guessing myself and questioning the quality of all my work. While being able to self-assess your own work is important I just felt that everything I was doing wasn't good and needed reassuring. This constant worrying over my work meant that I wasn't doing enough and it was taking a long time to do as I wasn't confident in my ideas or my creative style. Now at the end of second year I think I have lost a lot of that self doubt that bothered me earlier on and although I'm still critical of my work I can see now what is good and what needs work.