What My Foundation Diploma Has Taught Me

This year was such an amazing experience for me. I struggled massively with education in previous years within finding enjoyment in what I was learning. Although I still passed each year of education, I never found myself wanting to continue with topics/subjects outside of education. This year this has changed massively.

This year has taught me how to think and act more like an artist, being resourceful and meaningful but also having fun with what i’m making. Instead of making work which I thought people wanted me to make, I made the work for me, how I wanted to make my work. Having this mindset has helped me develop within how I come across my art within any materials and just going with it. Each project has been an experiment for me, using different materials to create photography and sculptures in ways which I would never have thought of doing before. The way I view myself has completely changed and I consider myself an artist and am incredibly determined to make a career for myself as an artist/within the arts field. Hopefully studying at Central Saint Martins will allow me to find these connections for myself further. I would have never have gotten into CSM if it wasn’t for this course. I was rejected the year previous but with work and ways of thinking being developed from this course, not to mention confidence, it allowed me to get in to an amazing and prestigious art school. Without this course I would never have done any of this and would probably be stuck at home unsure of what to do with myself. Me writing such great things probably makes me sound like such a suck up to my teachers but I genuinely mean all of what I am saying! In Alevels I would constantly skip my lessons and had no motivation for anything. This year I did not miss a single day because of how much I genuinely enjoyed the course, it’s made me realise how amazing art can be to express yourself and how it can be anything, literally anything. I mean I wrapped tape around my head and recorded it, so I mean it can literally be anything. But having a space to experiment and create before being bombarded with independence from university was an experience i’m glad I went forward with. This skills I have learnt I will carry forward with me for the next steps of my career. I genuinely had so much fun on this course, it gave me the confidence I needed for university and belief that I can succeed as an artist.

About My Work

Throughout the exploration of my FMP it has also allowed me to experience and create art in a nonjudgmental and exciting way due to the flexibility and amount of experimenting that is encouraged. My final collection explores discomfort through personal space, anxiety and embarrassment by encouraging audience participation and manipulating textures to cause disgust within the use of my materials. By using personal experience surrounding discomfort it allowed me to personify my anxiety through soft sculptures within bodily forms with the use of latex and expanding foam as well. Creating folds and layers or exaggerate nausea, creating visceral and grotesque imagery for audiences to experience. Showing my personal experiences with anxiety and personifying them through the bodily imagery used within my work.

Where I’m Going Next Year

Moving forward I will be going to Central Saint Martins to study Fine Art, on the XD pathway. Hopefully by being in such a vibrant city it will help me produce more exciting work and find connections within the industry to benefit my career as an artist.