Study Task 6: Interdisciplinary

Playing the Violin

This year I made the decision to learn how to play the violin. It has been a life-long dream to be able to do so but, as I have very little sight, I was always worried about not being able to read sheet music. It was a silly hang-up to have as I create my drawings with only 8% vision in one eye and this year I realised I was just making excuses for fear of more trials and tribulations. However, living in a new city with only a few friends left from the Access course who moved onto LCA, I found that since the started of the degree course I have only been focusing on my Guide Dog and her personal care (grooming, playing, walking, free runs) and my module work. Not good! I needed something else in my life to ensure that I didn't burn out my visual creativity! With my grandad passing away in the summer, a good sum of money meant I was able to research properly into YouTube videos, website reviews and music shops to find a good model that works best for me - looking beyond a standard student grade model that would squeak, produce a flat sound with no personality or individuality and eventually need to be upgraded in the future.

Such exhaustive research links very much with the researching process I found I had enjoyed during the Visual Narratives module. I was able to go beyond just going to Amazon and searching for a violin (though that was a good starting point) just as I was able to go beyond visiting the library or websites for convenience sake when making my picture book. Visting music shops in Leeds and talking with professional musicians, playing on second-hand models, reaching out to a violin tutor on YouTube who posts regular reviews and demonstrations and contacting a manufacturer all meant I had a range of options to choose from and exemplified my problem solving skills quite nicely!
 Now that I have my violin, a beautiful Fiddlerman Artist Violin made from maple and spruce and fitted with ebony accents, mother of pearl inlays and a carbon fibre bow, and researched a local violin tutor in Leeds - I am truly well on my way to realising one of my life-long dreams. It was finding that confidence and (monetary) support that catapulted this, just as with the brave decision to go back into education and get my art degree.

In my illustrative outcomes it takes iteration and roughs for a foundation to be built on which to develop a deeper understanding of a motif to perfect an outcome... much like with the violin. Practice and experimentation allows for a 'motif' of notes to be understood enough so that it can be made individual and interesting. That process of repetition allows me to think things over in my mind, have some time to myself and make sense of things happening in my life at the moment allowing for personal development. Translating sheet music to sound interplays with the ability to translate a thought in the mind's eye as a physical interpretation on the page of a sketchbook and I play by ear by following what my tutor plays to make this work for me. It is difficult, as is creating illustrations, but it's a challenge I feel I get a lot of benefit from and something I hope continues to strengthen my personal life and my practice as an illustrator - reassuring me to not give up, keep trying and experimenting and finding new ways to approach a piece, or a brief, in my work.