Painting memory

What are the most important things you’ve learnt at MCAST this year?

I feel I learnt a lot about my identity as an artist, what I would like to do and in which medium. By what I would like to do I mean what is most important to me and how to show it through my work. In the last two years specifically, a lot of self discovery was done through trial and error. When I started painting, I did not know what to paint, all I knew was that I enjoyed it. Throughout the three years, I got the opportunity to try various things and discover what I like and what I don’t

How would you compare your progress this year to that of last year?

This year for me was all about finding out what my specific area of study will be, and creating as much work as I could on the chose theme. I am very proud of the work I created but I feel that there is so much more room for discovery and so much more work to be done. This is a positive thing because it will allowed me to bridge my work for school to the work I am currently doing for projects outside of school.

My progress last year started with a lot of exploration into various themes and media, and ended up with me narrowing the two down to a few interlinked themes and the use of one predominant medium, that of painting.

What are some of your key themes and artistic preoccupations? Have they evolved in any way during your time at MCAST?

Most of the work I’ve done throughout the three years revolve around the themes of identity, memory, space, presence and absence. I do not make conscious decisions to stick to these themes when creating work, however, vague as they are, all the work I’ve produced and am interested seem to follow them.

What will be next step for you?

The next step for me is maintaining my current productivity rate in producing paintings. Throughout my time off from studying I will see how well I will cope in producing work in an independent, self-sufficient way. After that I hope to study for a Master in Fine Art, specifying in painting. I am also taking part in this year’s Divergent Thinkers exhibition, and aim to take part in other collective and solo projects.