Overview

As my time as a student in Aberystwyth School of Art draws to an end I have spent some time reflecting on my experiences here. I am hesitant to write an emotional outpouring about all my trials and tribulations. University has been tough, but not in the ways I thought it might. My main fears were being able to keep myself watered, fed, and washed. Those things in the end became the least of my worries.

I was disappointed by the small workload prescribed to us in first year and spent many more hours working on my own endeavours. I had worked incredibly hard in the lead up to university trying to bring myself up to speed with observational drawing and felt that my degree was actually rather slow burning. By the time the first assessment came I realised that I had in fact produced a huge amount of work. However, not much of it seemed like it was actually mine because most of it was prescribed. Second year was a slightly different in that we were prescribed less work but had to take up our self-directed practice more seriously. At this point I was more satisfied with my work, although one-to-one tutorials were tough things to get used to. The use of a studio space was completely foreign to me and a welcome addition to my working methods. Early in my second year one of my friends who was studying an MA in the department, deferred her degree and so her studio space became vacant. I gladly started using her space as per her suggestion. I wouldn’t say I am ungrateful of my original box studio but being offered a space ten times bigger was a no brainer. I was incredibly fortunate to have that opportunity and kept that spot through my third year as well.

I remember some third year students telling me shortly after I arrived at Aber that first year was easy and third year was ridiculously difficult. I thought a lot about what they meant by that. I knew that the marking criteria gets tougher but I was also aware that my work would naturally improve to match that criteria. On reflection I think that, in terms of work load, first year was the most difficult. For someone who reads slowly and has in the past struggled to write academically, I found those Art History modules in first year to be more of a burden than in the latter years. Because the first year doesn’t count towards your final degrees classification, I feel the tutors really push the students hard. As I am very self-motivated, work wise, I found my third year to be the most enjoyable. The contact hours for this last term have been about 30 minutes to an hour a week which seems incredibly low for a degree but at this point there is a lot of value in having so much time to work.

My reasons for coming here were quite simple. I was aware of the offer of a studio space which excited me a lot. To have the opportunity to keep focussing on my art without the pressure of having to support myself financially in an area of natural beauty… I couldn’t say no. I remember John Harvey saying, in relation to my decision to apply to Aberystwyth, ‘it’s not about the place, it’s about you.’ Just one phrase from his arsenal that he likes to tease people with. What does it really mean? I suppose I will be forever left guessing. My answer to him was simple, ‘well I like the place, and that’s good enough for me.’ Overall, despite some devastating events, I have thoroughly enjoyed university life in Aber and I can’t actually believe it is nearly over. I am very much looking forward to the next chapter of my story although Coronavirus has made nothing certain.