IWAN LEWIS – This Welsh artist gave a talk on himself as a creator and how his career unfolded. These presentations are useful in showing us artist’s techniques as well as how they ephemerally develop their skills and strengthen their connections in the art community.
Intriguingly, Lewis often made philosophical references during his presentation as well as having a comedic essence, which helped create a sense of relatability. For example, he told the story of Sisiphus, endlessly trying to push the rock up the hill, only for it to roll back down on him each time. It is a helpless situation, in which we can only realise the absurdity of it, and laugh. He applied this analogy to the artistic process of anxiety and the notion of trying really hard at something which keeps going wrong. He also highlighted this awareness he had of the class divide, and the “dualistic polarity” between the two which is ever increasingly pushing the two poles of society apart. I found these to be incredibly valuable points worth further reflection, particularly in developing my own understanding of the context of the individual, as someone’s artistic process may be affected by contextual issues such as class, as we consider financial circumstances, studio space for creating, and access to supplies.
This discussion opened up a lot of thought for me in regard to how we interpret a work of art while considering the context of the artist, what they may be going through, in what conditions they live, even their psychological condition.
ALAN WHITFIELD – This artist was a vibrant, energetic man with thick glasses and fantastic sideburns. He was proper (!) northern, proper enthusiastic, and spoke to us all about his life and how he ended up doing what he loves. Discussing his struggle with academics and school when he was younger, he told us how initially he was working in factories and warehouses, but his life had been shaped to end up having a successful career in art and photography, after years of rigorous pushing and jamming his feet in the door to get his work seen, so he really evoked a sense of “go for it, shove your work in peoples faces and make it known!” which I found very motivating.
Rhiannon Fogarty-Wilkinson // BA Fine Art 2019/20 