Category: Art

Nineteen Eighty Four

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I’ve realised it’s now forty years since my art college graduation. There’s a certificate somewhere on the bookshelf that says I have a degree in Fine Art. The certificate doesn’t look like a genuine document so it fits well with my dissertation about art forgery.

“But what is Fine Art?” people ask. No idea, but it’s a term used in frilly lettering outside galleries showing the kind of art that would have been sneered at by any of our tutors. In 1984, anything looking like a craft was discouraged. Printmaking was a grey area, but it was tolerated.

Fine Art printed with linseed ink on paper

For the first few years after graduation I was a member of some printmaking studios. There were group exhibitions and teaching sessions. Then there were the ‘back to work’ schemes. These assumed that all work took place in an office, so there were basic maths and literacy classes. Meanwhile, I missed deadlines for creative opportunities which required proof of concept and skills. Helpful jobcentre ladies would ring prospective employers, saying “She’s got a degree in graphic design!”. When I pointed at my CV (again), they’d say “isn’t that the same thing?”.

During the last four decades I’ve collected a lot of rejection letters. Some of them were quite expensive.

A level exam piece

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Two lino prints, each has three layers of pinks or greens. The image has a pierrot on stage with a dining table, framed by a grape vine and some honesty next to a wine glass.

I found this exam piece from 1980. Was there a specific theme on the exam paper? There were discussions with art teachers about what ‘advanced’ level really meant. One art teacher assumed I was being critical of his teaching style, or another person’s work. I wanted to know the difference between ‘ordinary’ and ‘advanced’ level printmaking. One of the art teachers was keen on outlines, which is why the wine glass has a dark line around it rather than having a darker table (or floor?) next to its lighter side.

There’s too much cutting here to have fitted into the 15 hours allowed for the exam, so it deserved the D grade. “It’s the time factor, y’see?” was often said to us in passing. It would have taken less time without all the cross hatching. I wasn’t pleased with the composition but felt too overwhelmed by the whole process to think about using a better sketch at the time.

A few years later the art college principal’s secretary queried my Art & Craft A level. It was allegedly unsuitable for a Fine Art establishment, but hadn’t been mentioned until I had been studying there for a year. That sent me back to the midst of this linocut, feeling inadequate and unable to speak clearly about my creative abilities.

Multitasking

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Knitting on five needles lying on a watercolour cloud

There are many tasks to do today but I knitted instead. The project will become too big for three needles so I’ve added more. They’re slightly bent from being stuck under a heavy item for too long. They still function well.

Climate

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Exhibition poster with sun and fog among the words

Art & Poetry won’t change anything. There again, the opportunity to look at everything from a different perspective might affect future behaviour.

Pembrokeshire Green Party is reviving slowly. West Wales has many people who are doing their best to not cause harm to their surroundings. Joining a political movement doesn’t appeal to most of us. It’s good to know there are others who would never support right wing policies. Hopefully this short exhibition will inspire someone to clean a river, stop building houses with leaky roofs, maybe remove all the obstacles to living well.

Pembrokeshire is also home to some narrow minded bigots. They will say climate change isn’t real. There can’t be any pollution here and the sun shines constantly. It does, it’s shining right now, behind some clouds. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but they are also entitled to look outside occasionally and observe the world. The planet evolves, the temperature changes. Arguing about whether humans have damaged the environment is less important than thinking about how to live without making everything worse.