So, I haven’t posted in here for a while for various reasons. Well… I have posted… but nothing that took longer than copying and pasting a link to something I liked on the internet. Apologies for the neglect (assuming anyone reads this rubbish anyway…. to be honest, it’s more for me, so I don’t really mind).
Anyway, here’s a nice long rambly update on what has been going on in my world.
My course is going pretty well. I’m a little behind at the moment due to a combination of illness (again. Le sigh.) and working at a new job (more on that later). I’m currently in the middle of a nine week “Final Major Project” which will, when marked, determine whether I fail, pass, pass with merit or pass with distinction. Obviously, fail is bad. Fail would mean no Fine Art degree for me (I have been accepted on the condition I pass my Foundation Diploma). Pass means I get in, but neither me or anyone else is overly impressed. I don’t think I’ll quite manage a distinction unfortunately. I haven’t put enough work in for that. I’m just too tired.
Anyway, we were pretty much given free rein for this. At first I chose “Mythology” as a subject. I quickly got bored of this and moved on to the slightly more specific subject of “Fear”. This links with the original mythology idea because fear is often created from stories and imagination. From this I got the idea of death and bodies. I took pictures of myself and my housemates as corpses, created with talcum powder (for pale, blotchy skin), black eye make-up (for sunken eyes and bruising) and dark red lipstick (for blood). These photos can be found here. I will be creating some paintings from these. After that, I’m not really sure where I’ll go with this. I’m sort of making it up as I go along. I prefer it this way =].
This is the one painting I have done from these photos so far (sorry for the bad photo quality):
It’s just a quick painting (about half an hour), but I’m pretty pleased with it. It’s just a study.
My dear Granny finally passed away a few months ago, after a long and horrible battle with Alzheimer’s. She had slowly lost herself, forgetting all that she was and all that she knew. She didn’t recognise us.
Fortunately, she had the best ending we could have asked for after all this. We all got the call early enough to let us know it was time. My parents, my auntie and my granddad all got to her in time. I didn’t go because I though that too many people would make it more stressful for my granddad, especially if he was worrying about how I would react (I’m pretty much still a child in his eyes). She passed away in her sleep, with my granddad and my mum holding one hand, and my auntie and my dad holding the other. She stopped breathing so slowly and peacefully that it took a few minutes for them to work out whether or not she was really gone.
Obviously the whole situation is very sad and upsetting for my family and myself, but I am truly happy that she is at peace. It comforts me to know that she isn’t suffering any more.
She left me, my brother and my cousins £500 each. I bought a locket and put in a picture if my granny and I when I was a baby, and a picture of my grandparents. It’s something I will always keep, and I like having it to remember her by.
As mentioned earlier, I finally found a job. This is damn lucky, considering I need to find £700 for my deposit by June. I work at a hotel on the cliff top in Bournemouth town centre. My job title is “Housekeeping”, which basically means I clean the rooms, make the beds etc. It’s a good job…. I get a decent wage and I have a good time doing it, mostly because the people I work with are fun to be around. I also get a tonne of exercise, walking up and down stairs constantly and doing plenty of physical work. This is great for me, because I really need to build my strength up, and what better way to do it than while earning money?
I have now made peace with all the people I feel out with when I got really ill. It’s a great feeling, not being in any long term arguments or falling outs.
I have my old best friend back in my life, which makes me really happy. I missed him loads and I’m so glad that we’re on track to making things how they were. It’s good to be talking with him again =].
That’ll do for now. There is almost definitely more, but it’s late and I’m tired.
Oh, I made a photo blog. Go check it out: Photoblog
The old one was signed up to an old e-mail address, and it kept crashing when I tried to organise it in any way, so I made a nice shiny new one =].
I drew this as a present for Johnny’s birthday. I’m not sure whether I like it or not. It will probably grow on me when I haven’t just spent time drawing it. The photos are awful quality, courtesy of camera phone.