Life After UAL

I remember an unexpected feeling of grief wash over me in the final days of my Photography BA, I didn't want the euphoria to end and if I may be unashamedly honest it's partly the reason why I signed up for the Masters. But that too is drawing to an end, I don't see myself doing a PHD anytime soon (then again I believe in saying "never say never") so what next?

I'm under no illusion that as one gets older opportunities diminish, certainly in regards to the workplace, and I'm at peace with that. I have no desire to become a professional photographer in a highly competitive and cutthroat industry which I already feel somewhat removed from. I view myself in more of a supportive role; my current job as a Technician at University of West London offers me the rewards of assisting students to develop and deliver their ideas and I feel that this is where I'm most effective.

Making art will remain an essential part of my life and it's fair to say that completing the MA has provided me with firm foundations on which to build my practise. It's helped me recognise where my weaknesses are and armed me with the confidence to embrace my strengths. It's provided me with a strong network of capable and inspiring artists that I'm proud to call friends. At this stage I'm not even concerned with achieving great grades (or passing at all), it's the journey that has proved most valuable.

One of my biggest challenges has been talking about my work, partly because I wasn't sure where my art sat, who I was speaking to and an undercurrent of imposter syndrome pulling me beneath the surface. Overcoming that fear is a work in progress but five years of research, essay writing, project development and exhibiting have gone a long way towards easing what shouldn't be there in the first place.

I'm not as prolific as I could be, I'm guilty of allowing situations (money, health, relationships, depression) to stifle my ability to create, but I'm striving to make said situations catalysts for producing work. My current project on nostalgia is an attempt to communicate on a more personal level, dipping my toes into the water if you like. It feels like a natural transition considering my admiration for artists who paint their vulnerability.

In conclusion I enter the next chapter with a positive outlook and a plan, it's not cast in stone and I'm happy for it to meander, but a plan nonetheless. I'm semi-retired now which allows for more time to think, and live, and create. What I cannot allow to happen is for me to slip into an existence void of art, now that the monster's out the closet that would be unthinkable.