Are we there yet?

I think I might have finished.
I didn't want to trumpet that piece of information, as invariably it might be that at 3a.m. tomorrow morning I wake up in a cold sweat, remembering a small snippet of information I have forgotten to include. But I really think I am done.
Tomorrow between 12.30 and 13.30, all the BA (Hons) Fine Art Class of 2013 will be handing in their supporting work that (hopefully) backs up their Final Major Project. As my tutor succinctly put it: 'Pencils down, your time is up'. Of course there is still our degree show to tweak ready for the opening at the end of June, there is still a graduation to attend (even more hopefully) after results day, but these are things to enjoy and revel in and believe me, we will revel, but there can be no more work. It all comes down to handing over a box that at the moment contains a variety of folders, portfolios and every conceivable piece of documentary evidence.

I have spent the last year ricocheting between loving my work, hating my work and wanting it just to all be over but now, it seems a little sad and the end of a chapter. And of course it is, I have spent the last four years building up to this point and the new injection to my career starts here, but I will strangely miss it. I will especially miss all my class-mates who are the most eclectic, talented, funny bunch of lunatics I have ever met in my whole life and it will leave a huge hole not seeing them as often as I have, but I'm sure we will all bump into each other often and I wish them every luck both for tomorrow and our results day on June 21st.

A long but productive week

This week has been tough. Our degree show has started to be installed and in order to install it, our year group is required to be in the studios every day for as long as we possibly can. The technicians on our course encourage us to make it fun but by the end of a week that has seen people getting soaked in a skip, scraping year old paint from a vinyl floor and working in very close proximity to each other, I would challenge the most ebullient of individuals to retain their cheery disposition. Group show installation is always a challenge, it is just not possible to work with 54 other people (and creative types at that!) and all get on like a house on fire. However, I am very lucky that I have been able to work with some amazing people so I feel like I have managed to dodge most of the personality clashes and apart from us all being exhausted, we have been a fairly cheerful bunch.

 

 Although not very clear, here are my classmates Amy (Queen of Skips) and Katy, slashing a hole in one of her own canvases...

Apart from the technicians, tutors and my peers, my family and work colleagues have also been incredibly supportive this week. I haven't been able to be at my desk at Walford Mill much this week and have returned home exhausted every day so when I hear derogatory remarks about students and art students in particular, I make sure that I put people right about how hard they have to work but also what a strain a degree can put on their nearest and dearest.

Next week is our hand-in. The date which it all comes down to. So I will try and blog again before then and let you in on the last minute research I have been doing.

The day before the week before..

Hand in tomorrow! There is no other way to put it. You can't be subtle in these matters and after spending all week feeling like I am top of things, I suddenly find that an email from my tutor stating a fact that I knew anyway, has sent my head into a flat spin.
If you have a work ethic like mine, you will understand that there is always more to do and you always feel like you haven't done enough. Should I have stayed up an extra hour to work on that film edit? Should I have written another evaluative paragraph? Should I? Should I?
Sadly the answer is probably, but you have to draw the line somewhere. The email from my very supportive tutor only outlines when and where we are supposed to hand in our work but you start to doubt that you have done everything and it is all ready to go.
In actual fact, tomorrow is the hand in for our degree show piece, and as mine is to be The Archive, it was complete a while ago. We still have two weeks of being able to edit our supporting work and I have plenty to do as far as that is concerned as I keep thinking of elements I could add to the information which backs up the last 6 months' work.
I think it is simply because I have spent the last four years of my life, devoted to studying. This degree was such a dream of mine and I have the finishing post in sight, which you might assume would be an enormous relief but contrary to what I expected, it is now very daunting. The end of a very big chapter and I want to give it my all, right to the conclusion.
I will keep you posted on the setting up of the degree show and obviously right up to the end, but keep your fingers crossed folks and stick with me...