Karol the Artist

My BA (Hons) Fine Art degree course, year 2, began positively, with me promising myself that I would not miss a single seminar, class or lecture. I would go on every trip arranged to art galleries and join in every party or celebration I was invited to, even though I’m some 30 years older than most of the students! and I meant it and I kept my word…Well as the Yiddish proverb goes: “We plan and God laughs”…

One night, the night of November 3rd, 2017 I broke my ankle!  I had run to get my dog Noel,  who decided to bark and ward off the evil perpetrator (after doing her final pee for the day) who had dared to walk down the alley at the side of my house at a few minutes to 11 pm, the neighbours, in the beautiful area of Purley, hated dogs barking after 10 pm, they could bark a minute before but not after! so I rushed to get my savage, fearless, chihuahua Mini Pinscher before her high pitched yapping became unbearable, as I rushed towards her, I slipped and fell on wet grass on the mound at the back of the garden, and in the darkness I  heard a ‘crack’ sound which was the sound of my ankle breaking.

After three hours in A&E, the cast was applied to my ankle,  I was given two crutches and sent on my way! this meant months of recovery, missing so many classes, all the Monday lectures, Friday Seminars and Gallery visits, quality time in the studio, I missed almost 3 months.  I tried to stay with the Fine Art course from home, keeping up with assignments and required reading and lecture PowerPoint presentations uploaded by my tutors to the ‘My Learning’ app on the Middlesex University website.  I worked on my studio work, sketches, blogs and assessments. Some of my tutors support was so brilliant , they really worked with me to help me feel a part of the course.

When I could finally get into Uni with my crutches! in January 2018, I accepted the offer alongside many other students, to create a piece of artwork or two to be displayed at the Islington Arts Factory in February 2018.  It was a fantastic experience. 2 weeks to create a sculpture with no experience in sculpting feet! I had the idea while recovering at home and was excited to make my idea a living entity! I named the small art work ‘EQUAL’  It depicts feet as though dead in a mortuary, with a white sheet over the legs, when you go to the other side of the model, you see that one of the feet are black and the other white. We all die, we all share the same end in this life regardless of our colour.

Then came the usual end of year, essays and assessments, including finishing a final piece of art to display at the end of year show. I had started a self portrait painting in October 2017, in the cubist style,  and completed this for the end of year show, I also made two other pieces of art from the same painting which I also displayed along with EQUAL.

I had created a presentation for one of the final assessments, it includes a video with the song I had written, sang and produced to describe my art practice.

I have loved year 2! I felt connected to the course and learned a great deal about myself: Who my favourite inspirational artists have been, I find I want to emulate the work of Cornelia Parker, as in, taking photo’s of every day objects and images and making them three dimensional installations that can fill a room. Pablo Picasso’s journey was so fascinating to me, I feel I owe it to myself to carve out more time to research him and his work.

The main aim of year 2 was to encourage us to decide our own personal art practice. I discovered that through experimenting with art, soul searching and looking at my creative history and patterns that my practice is two fold:

1. It is firstly about holding Art classes for adults which I have named Spaart Class, these art classes were launched in September 2016. Spaart Class is about using art as a tool to improve mental well being. In support of this, I recently partook in a Saturday taster course in Art therapy and have since made the decision to become an art therapist, as apposed to an art teacher, as a therapist I will have the privilege of working with people with serious mental issues caused often by traumatic situations. I will also continue to run art classes for people with busy lives, therefore still get the opportunity to teach art.  I have been offered a place to study with the institute for Arts in therapy and education, and will be starting a course in Advanced Diploma in the Therapeutic and Educational Application of the Arts in October 2019, God willing of course!
2. The Second passion of mine is to bring awareness about inequality by encouraging equality, specifically racial equality as I have been effected by this, being a black British woman. I would like to work with the black and white community to bring awareness and a like-passion for change. We have come a long way where racial discrimination is concerned but there is still a way to go. I would like to contribute to creating positive change, encouraging unity.

For the Fine Art year 3, I have chose to use Fine Art, Art and Social as the core of my practice, Art and Social, (quoted from the Middlesex University website) ‘approaches art practice in its social contexts and offers you the opportunity to engage with a range of communities and institutions with the common goal of making a positive impact to the world around you’  So once I have completed the Fine Art course, the full title of my degree will be BA (Hons) Fine Art Social Practice. The tutors heading this block are amazing, they’re living the life of an artist and sharing their many years of knowledge and wisdom, unselfishly, with the students, I’m looking forward to year 3 so much, pray no breakages!