Conversation about Practice

In order to apply to university, a personal statement has to be written, and it has to be interesting. On monday we were set a conversational task to gain ideas and inspiration for our first draft, the task involved working in pairs asking and answering a series of questions, these were as follows:

Qa) Give a basic introduction about your area of interest demonstrating how this was sparked, suggest things you have done that demonstrate this eg attending conferences/exhibitions/workshops etc etc

• A) design, fashion and textiles, printwork, graphics, music album covers
• Album covers sparked interest in designing 
• Exhibitions - visited The Tate Modern, The V&A, New Designers, The Knit and Stitch Show
• University and college exhibitions

b) Talk about your current interests and the methods and materials you are playing with and planning to work with.

• Dance and performances - interest in costume/set design
• Print
• Photography as a hobbie and to use in work
• Fabric
• Printing materials
• Experiment with digital print e.g repeat patterns, screen printing
• Fashion magazines

c) Talk a little about the ideas that are affecting you and how your practice (thinking and the stuff you make/do) has progressed since being on the Foundation 

• Go with the flow without an outcome in mind
• Accept failures and learn from mistakes
• Things don't need to be perfect
• Enjoyed darkroom work
• Trying new things
• Enjoyed experimenting

d) What key influences have affected your practice either because you are excited, intrigued, enthralled by them, because they inspire you technically, because they repulse you (often inspiration comes from what you do not want to do).

• The exploratory project
• Enjoyed the deep thinking about artwork or ideas tasks less than other more hands on tasks, however the discussion and ideas that were developed as a result were very eye opening
• Set making was inspiring technically with relevance to the story and links

e) talk about your ambition and why you would enjoy a BA course (peers, discussions, inspirational tutors etc etc)

• Work in design - big company or small 
• Make things Ive designed
• Album covers
• Clothes
• Possible work experience with Marks and Spencer promotion team
• Gain more inspiration
• Learn more about possible career ideas
• To expand on what I already know
• Get more experience
• Gain independence

Go on to develop these notes into a draft personal statement. Be very careful to read out loud your draft to make sure it sounds like your 'voice' and not 'essay speak'.