I’m doing 2 subjects this term in my bachelor of visual arts, one is Sculpture, the other is Concept Development. C-D seems to be an extended journal making process, which I thought I’d enjoy as I like to journal and keep track of my concept development work in my own arts practice… We were told our journals need to be uniquely our own, to reflect our interests and passions rather than our ideas about what the tutor might like, which is great. Then we were given quite an extensive list of things not to include in the journals as the tutor doesn’t like them. Our topic is food, but we’ve been told not to do anything about starvation or eating disorders, only the lighthearted side of things. And not cut outs from Women’s Weekly magazines. Or recipes. Or food art (art make out of food). And so on. Awesome. Considering the rates of eating disorders in our culture at the moment, I’m kind of blown away by the insensitivity of the choice of topic. At least two or three of us in every class will be struggling with our relationship with food, or very close to someone who is. Fortunately for me I’m a mad foodie so I’m not expecting to have a lot of trouble with it.

Sculpture this time is about making and using moulds, so for the first time I am actually slightly ahead of the class. I used to work in a statue factory, painting the concrete statues. I didn’t make the moulds but I’ve seen it done and have made plaster casts and wax moulds myself before. We’re learning a process using silicon which is really exciting, once you can replicate a sculpture the possibilities are pretty unlimited. I’m looking forward to sinking my teeth into the project. I’ve borrowed some books from the arts library and read a couple already, it’s going to be a good term.