I decided to enrol with TLC after my sister-in-law talked me into it. I had been a professional artist for nearly twelve years and earned a good reputation winning a couple of prestigious art awards in consecutive years. Galleries and clients phoned and asked for, ‘a painting like another one they had seen’, or one with a certain subject in it. I suppose this should have been a good thing but in fact, it made me feel pressured, constrained and even less creative. Also, I was having a really difficult time with my personal life as my Dad was becoming more and more of a stranger due to his Alzheimer’s and I was really worried about how my Mum was coping. I spent a lot of time trying to help them which was really stressful and my creativity dried up completely. I was in a big black hole.
Looking back, at the time it was a scary decision to enrol with TLC, but I will never regret it. I started at Advanced Diploma Level due to the recognition of my prior learning… and it was the best thing I ever did. I truly think that this decision actually saved me!
I undertook distance delivery part-time and in the last quarter of the course I started to think about which of my works I was going to bring down for the graduating exhibition. It’s an interesting process where you look back on the work and get a sense of it all. I was quite amazed at the number of different disciplines I had worked in and the range of different materials, noticing a common thread that held it all together that reassured me that I was on the right track. I exhibited photographs, different animal skulls covered in strange materials, a painted work and some seemingly random objects which included a series made from cicada cases. Because of my previous science background and interest in Natural History Collections, I presented everything within those conventions so the body of work displayed as a cohesive collection with common themes.
