[LAUIL602] Study Task 1: Rationale

My aims for this module:

• To better understand where I am uniquely placed in the creative sphere as an emerging practitioner

• To develop my visual identity through a range of appropriate resources including an online presence

• To create an authentic and professional portfolio of work

• To contact and network with businesses and people I would like to work with

• To apply to opportunities that would benefit my emerging professional career

• To explore the next steps after graduation: further education and business building

• Network with existing professionals in the industry to gain insight and wisdom for the future

I have other transferable skills outside of illustration and painting that include:

• Creative writing through poetry

• The ability to collaborate

• Design

• Publication

• Motivational speaking, lived experience with disability and trauma

This module will help me to better understand painting as a practice, the opportunities it houses, the contacts and the wider industry, and research into art therapy or further education as the potential next steps to take.

Reflection: This past year has been a pivotal turning point in my emerging practice. After double retinal detachment and losing all of my useful vision, I coasted by in my second year and really struggled to create anything of value. I could no longer use a Wacom tablet and my systems of illustrating had gone. In August 2020, just before my final year, found that through abstract expressionist painting I was able to let go of the perfectionism I used to seek when I had some useful sight. It was also incredibly therapeutic to let go of all expectations and just create, to let the unconscious become conscious on the blank page or canvas. I now employ my vulnerability and my lived trauma as authenticity. Illustration is about 'ways of looking' and, through my paintings, I try to explicitly share how I look through my own blinded lens.