ARTISTS TALKING

# 2 [27 October 2007]

I have been back at TVU for a month now, returning from a three week driving holiday in Spain straight into lectures. Knowing the staff already is a big boon, and key changes have made a difference to the atmosphere.

The fine art and community art students are taught together for nearly everything, where our modules run in parallel, and this is useful. The group numbers about 20, and the age mix is much as usual – mainly more mature people with a few in their 20’s and 4 men out of 20.

Physical access is good. I have a parking space next to the studio and have only a few feet to walk, so have not yet needed the wheelchair. There is a disabled loo in the studio, and I have no trouble in getting to the snack bars (apart from the gradient in the car park).

I have signed up for a printing course one evening in order to get access to that studio. It’s a good refresher, and the teacher is keen for us to develop our own practice. Because there is very little free access to this studio I am trying to set up a printing space at home, press free. The choice of paper seems the biggest problem – but my experiments are coming on. I was delighted to get back up into the print studio – felt I was home. I can only access it by wheelchair lift, and need to find staff to operate it by key when I want to go up and down. But so far so good – they were so embarrassed the first week when noone knew where the key was!

My most pressing problem has been what sort of art I want to make – confused by having an exhibition creeping up fast. This will be in the local theatre during the panto season. Didn’t want to show anything more than 6 months old , but that is not going to happen. Got so anxious I really froze.

However, I decided that what most excites me is people, and so working on portraits and self portraits.

It is 50 years since I caught polio, odd flashbacks. Work to be done in terms of self healing memories. Good place to start.

# 1 [21 June 2007]

The challenge so far.

Anyone who goes to uni faces a challenge. It is probably bigger if you are juggling a family and a partner and possibly employment too. An arts degree becomes an obsessive compulsive thing - that has been my experience and observation.

Well my husband has learnt to cope with being an art widower, the three kids are 18+ and can jolly well cope even if they insist on living at home, and I can't work. But I have to make art.

My challenge is having the late effects of polio. I walk a very short way, and badly. I get terribly tired, and am always in pain. I cannot predict when I shall feel good or bad. This makes me a bad bet as an employee. It makes it hard to be self employed. But there has to be a way to be me and do art.

So far, without too much time out, I have gone through an Access to Art and HND in fine art/ community art at what is now TVU (Thames valley University). I got halfway through the degree converison year when the previous three years caught up and I had to give up, and for a while was pretty sick.

18 months later, most of the equilibrium has been restored and I find myself surprised. I am going back to finish.

I am awaiting to for mitigation to confirm that I may return as a 'deferral' not a withdrawal, which will impact the fees payable.

I shall return on a 'disabled student's passport'. This will timetable the units and means I can spread the course over two years. I could do just one unit per year - but the course change sto another campus in 2008 - too far away for me to attend.