Some thoughts on my first year of the MFA

Yesterday I took down my exhibition and continued to sort out my studio space. As I look at all of the things I have in my studio, I realise how much work I made over the past year, and the wealth of materials that I have collected. I'm trying my best to reduce the amount of things I keep in my studio so as not to clutter it, but it is challenging given that I work in such a varied way and make use of lots of materials, both found and made. I often have materials in my studio for a while before I decide what I am going to use them for. It is almost like I am getting to know them and try to understand their properties before I make use of them.

Going through my year's work also made me realise how much I have embraced the course and really challenged myself, and I feel as though my work has moved in a different direction, and into the a place of possibilities. I have grappled with the notion of play and playfulness. I started out thinking that in order for artwork to be playful, it had to be fun and look cheery. I now realise that this is not the kind of work I want to make as it often appears childish and is very literal. What interests me much more is how artists can be playful in their approach and process. These ideas are going to be explored further in my dissertation.

My work started out brightly coloured and made of art materials such as plaster. Over time I begun to move away from what had become a somewhat familiar way of working, into the unknown. I introduced found materials, and begun to use materials not usually associated with art such as jelly. This made the work less predictable. Who knows where my work will be in another year?!