It's been a while....

and a lot has happened... including the fact that I am currently enroled at the University of the West of England to do the 3rd year of my degree in Drawing and Applied Art. It was now or never, before the fees got too ridiculous. As it is I am doing it part-time over 2 years.

The first semester was taken up largely with the dissertation - mine was entitled Fairytales, Fine Art and Feminism, and that's broadly the area of  my artistic pracice at the moment as well.
When I first enrolled I imagined I'd be concentating on printmaking - and I did work on my ideas for alternative endings for fairytales, for a bit - but then I got side tracked by all the interesting stuff I was looking at for my dissertation. The great thing about being part-time is that I have time to play and experiment with mediums that are unfamilir to me, like ceramics. I've just had an assessment and, so far, my tutors are OK with me exploring a range of ideas and I'm really enjoying it. My fellow students are very supportive and I'm learning a lot from them. I rather think they regard me as 'the eccentic old woman who makes weird dolls', but that's OK, they're a nice bunch (and I'm not the only oldie).

Below are a few of my sketches and ideas for prints for the as yet unfinshed Alternative Endings series. I got the original idea from some cards I bought of a woman dancing with crocodiles.

 

In the next few posts I'll get you up to date on what I've been making, drawing, painting, printing...