Assessment DE4403

I was pleased with the overall look of the body of work I had submitted for this assessment, it was the first time that I felt that I had made a group of pieces that sat together really well and looked cohesive. I was encouraged by the marks I received and the overall feedback and initially felt spurred on to continue to explore textured pieces and see where that would take me. However, about a week later I began to have a lot of doubts about this course of action and felt that it was going against the things I was interested in expressing and that I would end up continuing along a vein of exploration that I wasn't invested in enough to sustain me. A lot of the work I had made was textured and my motivation for making this work had primarily been to fulfil the requirements of an exhibition theme, as such I had not approached it in an exploratory, investigative way but rather in an outcome driven, make a completed piece way. I recognised that I had fallen back into old patterns of behaviour, reactive making rather than intuitive, the work she have begun from the point of exploration, borne out of my own personal curiosity and interests. Don't get me wrong I loved doing it, texture is great, clay is a perfect medium to express a multitude of different styles and types of texture, the possibilities are endless but I realised I needed to let it go for now.

Above is an image of my work displayed ready for assessment.

Below is the very first attempt at making curved stacked forms, the response at assessment to this piece wasn't particularly positive. The feedback was fair in as much as they lacked the quality and presence that I was aiming for (in the way I had achieved in my plaster pieces), but this was my first attempt and perhaps I should have left it out as it was such a stark contrast to the rest of the work submitted, it didn't work in the way I wanted it to, it was only the first attempt and I hadn't got near to resolving the construction process. I was disappointed with it but also that it felt like the beginning of something new. Unfortunately my lack of confidence and persistent feelings of not being good enough as a maker sidetracked me into a corner where I got really stuck and didn't know what to do next so I ended up not doing anything for a few weeks.

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