Evaluative statement
In the next year I want to reapply to the Royal drawing school in London. I would like to go there to become an artist and to get more time to develop my practice in the art world. I think that the level of expertise that they offer there I will find hard to get anywhere else in the world. I would like to become a practitioner who is able to inspire others and become a collaborator in the industry. I think that this will help me in two ways. For one it will mean that I can learn other skills and be inspired by a new project, and two it will enhance my exposure in the art world by being involved in other art networking circles.
I have developed an ability to respond to an art brief in a self directed manner and carry out the relevant steps to create my vision onto a 2 dimensional surface. There is a high level of skill in my work for representational drawing and this has only gotten stronger as the terms have progressed. The oil painting interest has come about recently but it is transferring my already honed figurative drawing ability into a new medium for portraying my fantasies within landscape art. The drawing always underpins my initial ideas and represents the real. The studio has been immensely useful for generating and thinking up ideas for final outcomes be it at home or in the Arnolfini. The ability to think big is something that can really influence and inspire me. I have used a theme of exploring both underground and overground environments in my last and final project. I wanted to bring together the life I have had at home in the Forest of Dean to the new future that the city life holds before me. By exploring cave systems and forest landscapes, I feel that the underground experience of being in a cave is interesting by the fact you are limiting your sensorial experience in that environment. For example drawing inside the cave I feel few have tried before and provides original source material. There are on the flip side similar experiences to be had overground in Lambs quay woodland; a site that has industrial mine entrances scattered around. The mines are identifiable by the steel gates that are locked by the cave holes. I believe that one of my fascinations that has drawn me to these subjects is the fact that we are quite desensitised by our own experiences of what is happening around us a lot of the time in the present moment. Imposter syndrome is something that I am keen to address directly around my work. This is because it has connections with flow and work productivity. Learning to understand my own feelings, so I can start to act on them. I think that this is something that can be explored through my drawing. Particularly within the specific values that colour brings out in one’s own virtues in art. I have been able to use colour languages in my work to create a new understanding for myself about art. Particular phrases like muting colour and saturation.
I have used the fabrication department to develop new skills in my practice of creating art. Particularly in welding and resin casting. This I think has broadened my thinking for possibilities in making. For example pulling to pieces a copper lampshade. And then printing it. My enthusiasm and curiosity for printmaking will go further in the future by the purchase of my printing press that I have not long owned. I think that this will offer more exciting opportunities to continue my fascination and exploration into possibilities within the creative discourse of printmaking. And allow me to reevaluate and adjust my creative tact for reapplying to postgraduate courses in the future. It will also allow me to build up a collection of work to sell through my website. To enhance my appeal as a professional artist. In the future I would like to collaborate with other artists and find more challenges to build up my cv list of work exhibiting. For example I am planning to create a large mural using spray paint as part of a collaborative project at a carpentry workshop.
I can see myself in the future transferring my skills into teaching small workshops for either young people or adults. Particularly within the field of printing making and life drawing. I’d like to be able to run classes to help people understand their own creative energies and pathways.
In Conclusion I think that the course has been really beneficial to me and my creative practice. I have discovered new artists and new skills I had not known before. There has been a huge amount of knowledge gained from attending workshops and seminars no matter how big or small they have been. I have met new creative practitioners and found it really useful to speak to others i.e. course mates. To gain more confidence in my work. This I feel will continue long after university life.
Sam Evans 