At A Crossroads...

500-759 word thing

     I never thought it would be easy to decide which pathway I would be best suited to. But I never thought it would be this problematic. The trouble is I found each pathway as attractive/unattractive as the others, with none coming out the clear winner over all. I had initially thought I might go into Fashion/Textiles, but I found that I didn’t enjoy the pathway as much as I thought I would. I didn’t feel like I could make an overall assessment based on my experiences within the two weeks. Then I thought I would enjoy Fine Art, because I enjoy the skills of painting and drawing, but then I didn’t because the emphasis was not at all on skill. In Visual Communication, I learned that perhaps my discomfort with Fine Art was that there was no brief. I enjoyed working with a brief, and I found that in Vis-Com my creative juices began to flow, and I enjoyed the pathway despite not thinking anything of it in the beginning. As regards 3D Spatial, I expected to like it a lot more than I did; I found it very time-consuming and frustrating. That being said, I found the most inspiration for doing my work in the 3D Spatial area, and I really liked the results, no matter how often I found myself internally kicking and screaming at the process.

      Approaching the end of the rotations, my mind was between Vis-Com and Fashion Textiles, although I had thought I may have been interested in a more 3D Spatial career, such as theatre design. I expected the area talks to clarify that; I wanted to leave on Wednesday knowing more or less exactly what I wanted to do. Instead my indecision got worse, as I was attracted greatly by fashion/textiles and the overall inspiring area was Media, which I have never even thought about, much less attempted to do. This left me very confused, and that is the state I now find myself in. When I was younger, I always dreamed of being a writer, which is something I still want to do most, maybe even more now. I had thought that Vis-Com fitted in with this plan of mine because it stimulated my imagination, covers illustration AND media, and offers more chance for creative narrative and skill-based drawing, all things which I enjoy. But, being a person who cares about fashion, I was very attracted to the work within the Fashion/Textiles area, which would have more job opportunities as well. And I did also want to make hats/clothes for women and children. I do have dressmaking experience, with normal dresses and costume design. Then again, I also wanted to be a portrait artist, probably working from commission. One exhibition that has fostered this desire recently was the Miniatures at the Mall Galleries.

      In short, my decision is nonexistent. I don’t think I’ll be doing Fine Art, although I really did admire the media work produced by Fine Art students. Vis Com offers more, I think, plus it has the added benefit of being next to the Fashion/Textiles studio so I can see and hear whether I want to change my mind in that crucial first two weeks. I find it very hard to decide because I don’t feel like I’ve experienced at all what most pathways have to offer. I do not know if I would like certain things because I have not tried them, such as media, for example. Do I choose Vis-Com/Fine Art because I liked the media work, without ever having tried to do it? What if I hated it? I could not know, without trying. The same thing applies to things like jewellery/theatre/automobile design in 3D Spatial. I dreamed of being a toymaker. Would I realistically enjoy that? How could I know? Maybe I’ve been over- thinking, but I have always had a tendency to do that.

    In conclusion, whilst I have found the Foundation process very enjoyable so far, I have been well and truly confused by it. I face the decision of whether to do the thing I enjoyed or the thing I could enjoy maybe. I hope the assessment will assist me further.