I Am

... is the title for our third and final Pathway project.

Start of a new term, a new year, it's probably a good time to reflect on what I've learnt about myself so far from completing the first term of the course:

- most interestingly, I now know that I don't want to be an artist. I don't have the technical skills and neither, it now appears, do I have the sustained interest. I will always be a maker (and hopefully now much more of a designer maker) but I have no desire to go onto art college and study fine art in any form. And that's a really good thing to know. It's an itch I've always wanted to scratch. I've now scratched it and found it not as addictive as I thought it would be. And, to be honest, that's a real relief.

- it's shown me just how much I love words. I love writing and am most happy retreating to this blog. My sketchbook is extremely word-dense (with virtually no drawings) and I often want to incorporate words in things I do.

- I am confident in my creativity (be it abstract ideas, prose-led work or anything else for that matter). I was confident before but, with a few blips when the tutors come up with better ideas than I do, I am still happy to call myself creative.

- I can draw. Not well, and not without something in front of me. But I can draw. And that's a massive plus. The course has taught me to draw much better. And one day I might even enjoy life drawing!

I have really loved doing the course, and feel very privileged to have had the opportunity, especially seeing the amazing work of other students. But I feel I can now move on and concentrate on building a future career in areas in which I am much more able.

So, onto this term:

I Am: an exploration of all aspects of self, but avoiding self portraits and busts

My current thinking is two fold. The first is that I think that Descarte's 'I think, therefore I am' has some interesting mileage in it. I was most impressed that Minnie was able to tell me the exact philosophy behind it, and that it was a Descarte quote, although if I'm honest I then didn't understand what she explained. Philosophy was never my strong point; far too abstract for literal me.

NB: I was just googling the quote and couldn't find anything I was able to relate to in the same way that I did Imani's three-pronged explanation (much as I didn't really understand it in the first place). So I'm not sure that's a goer.

I know that I really want to push myself to explore and develop work this term. It's good that we don't have to do both a 2D and 3D piece, as I think it was prompting me to: decide, sort, finish last term. Having no expressed outcome means I'll be able to meander along the journey more.

Leaving Descartes aside, the other idea I've been mulling over is that of personalities being complex layers of emotions, and colours representing those emotions. I was wondering about some kind of moving piece of work incorporating a myriad of colours.

Then today Annie and I were having an interesting discussion about the word 'jealousy', wondering whether it was more or less negative than 'envy'. It got me to thinking that even with some of the basic emotions there are varying aspects, degrees of emotion.

A 'spectrum' of emotion, along with a 'colour spectrum'.

Given that words and colours are two of my favourite things, I think that this is the path I will explore.

So, off to find a more positive word for jealousy...

Bowl Done

So it's a Happy New Year, and a happy me that my second bowl didn't crack the kiln.

Ok, so there's some finger prints on the inside and some other mistakes (it would be a thirds bowl, not a seconds!) but I'm still pleased with it.

I like the fact that it's not uniform as I think this works well with the finish. I love the roughness of the top blue rim against the smoothness of the inside and the bottom. And I really love the colours.

I would love to make another and see if I can get it perfect, but I'm not sure Denise will let me!

(NB: having just posted the photos, trust me, it actually looks better in the flesh! Really Pete, you will like it...)