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1474683809-blog · 5 years

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A keen 👁 for Art and Design

I believe that to be asked at the age of 16 what direction in life you want to take is an impossible decision to make. For the past five years since me leaving high school, I have been indecisive on what route I would like to take. From attempting A levels, to Sport and Exercise science, to Hairdressing, I have never quite found a career course I find more to be a hobby than a ‘job’ when qualified. I have dabbled in Personal Training, Hairdressing, bar work, Working within a swimming pool, Administration… you name it I have tried it. After endless, sleepless nights of questioning what to do with my life, feeling disillusioned, I came to the realization that to thoroughly enjoy a career for the rest of my long life, it must be something I am truly in love with. Something I am passionate about, something that inspires me to get out of bed every morning. I believe that if you’re going to be within a job for many of years, you are to enjoy it, want to get up and go there. Get that morning coffee on your way to work. Enjoy what you do and who you do it with, as your job takes up a big percentage of your life, so why just coast along and ‘settle’. Life is so much more than that. Life is precious and for many, close-mindedness is a weakness. A few years ago I felt I had hit a brick wall. I felt empty, useless and felt I had no meaning. I woke up every day to go to a college course I threw myself into because I didn’t know what else to do. Taking myself to college day in day out with lack of ambition, to then go to a part time job I despised being at to help provide for myself. I continuously felt drained and tired, getting myself into bed as soon as I got home ready to wake up for the same old boring routine the next day. I felt empty. It was time for a change.

I started to recollect all of my joyous memories as far as I could remember, and that’s when it clicked. I have always been driven with art and design. From the age of 8, I remember my mother having the painters round; I rudely interrupted and gave my opinion, ‘PINK’. I fascinated over the painters splodging blick barbie pink on my walls. I then went over this paint with nail varnish and had a go myself, mesmerised by such vibrant colours. Although this got me in trouble... I did not feel one bit guilty, I remember the pleasure I got front explosively slashing colours onto my walls.

Throughout the years, without any acknowledgement, I have always enjoyed painting, designing, sculpting, creating collages of art work, creating mood boards, experimenting with colours and textures, using hairdryers, tea bags, mud and sand to create different creations and many other categories that fall under art and design.

My expression for design became clear to me when I started to design my mother’s home. Unfortunately my mother suffers with muscular dystrophy, a progressive weakening of the muscles, which leaves me as the handy man. When I was 14, I took it upon myself to rip my bedroom carpet up with a kitchen knife, (messy business) stripped the walls from paper and painted everything white, giving myself a blank canvas. Letting my imagination run wild and getting creative with colour schemes, furnishings and painting, I can easily say as a 14 year old, this was the best day ever. For my mother on the other hand, when she received a text saying ‘where’s the drill’ that’s when she realised I was getting far too confident so she called it a day at work and came home before I turned the house into a pile of bricks. I managed to turn my dull, outdated room into a room I was proud of. I used to walk out of my room, close the door behind and walk right back in to look at the work I had create for the first time, again and again and again.

As the years past, without realizing my passion for design, I transformed the entire house, from wall to wall, floor to floor, all to my mother’s and my taste. It started off as one room… one day my mother mentioned she wanted tartan carpeted stairs. (Our house was very out dated, basic and to my preference… boring!) And that was it, I was off! Visiting local show rooms, B&Q, IKEA, local furnishing stores (I spent hours getting lost in these stores, and often go to these stores to ‘browse’… they’re my guilty pleasure), all to find inspiration on how I would like to of designed a hall way with a tartan carpet. With a great sense of self achievement, I completed this, and a greater satisfaction seeing my Cheshire cat of a mother’s reaction. I had to take into consideration my mother’s needs within the living spaces of the house, as she can not get around the house easily, therefore I could not be buying ornaments that could become obstacles or pick out wall features such as low shelves that could become hazardous. With deep thought and careful planning, I created a black and white themed hall way. A black silk banister, crystal white walls, black and grey tartan carpet (I won’t take credit for carpet laying as I did not, however I did rip up the previous carpet with a stanly knife again..), and the finishing touches that I knew would be catered to my mother’s fancy. Such as thimble cases... every country/town/state we travel to, we colllect a thimble, so I bought some old vintage thimble cases and sprayed them gloss black to put up on the wall. To me, it’s the thought process towards each design that is key.

After completing my GCSE’s, I went on to do A levels. I chose Art, Photography, Geography and English Literature. During my studying at Baines College, I found myself drawn to the Art department permanently. Whenever I had a free period to study, I would choose to spend this time within the art building, experimenting new drawings, paintings and designs. Exploring new materials, textures and ways of creating art in my own unique practice. From using mesh to print Hydrangeas with melted crayon, to using fine coloured pens to draw on laminated clear sheets, to using different types of papers, fabrics, wax and many other materials to create and craft art. I felt comfort and contentment when I based myself in the art building. I felt lost within my own world and loathed leaving to attend another subject. Unfortunately, due to ill-health (repetitive Tonsillitis), I was unable to completed AS level. Luckily the year after, I finally got them taken out!

Even though I did not finish the qualifications, I believe Art gave me a lot of in-depth knowledge and experience about how to channel my inner-creativity and adapt to new and unique artistic potentials. From life-drawing, to capturing pictures of scenery, buildings, nature and up-close in-depth pictures from different lightings and angles, and transforming these into my own inventions/creations. Using these pictures to let my imagination expand and create work that I was proud of. I cherished every opportunity I had getting my hands soiled in art and design. My interest grew and grew, to the point I would stay at college after hours (until they kicked me out) to draw and paint. I would then take my art book home and continue to discover artists of all different backgrounds and abilities, such as contemporary artists like Wolf Kahn, who I took inspiration from to create my own work. A visual artist named Gerhard Richter who created uplifting abstract art that assisted with me visualizing how to construct my own. One particular artist of the name Robert Rauschenberg (pop artist) caught my eye. He created several individual pieces and intertwined them onto one piece, creating a mood board of creations. I took a liking to his work, as it interested me how he took buildings, instruments and objects, and meshed them as one, making the viewer question in a greater depth as to what the message/meaning is behind the art. This artist gave me the incentive to create art in a more experimental approach, using different sceneries and designs, and creating one collage from them all. From all of the artists I researched, my all-time favourite was Georgia O’Keefe and Anita Nowinska, two artists inspired by nature. I adored their work, and even better so creating this type of work myself. Using water colours, pastels, acrylic etc and getting neck deep in imaginative art drove such a passion in my heart I just can’t ignore it! I created multiple types of art inspired by Georgia and Anita and have a sense of self-love when looking back at my art work.

Throughout my college course, myself and my peers would always help each other with ideas and how to get going. More often than not, we would be given group projects, such as ‘The Grand Theatre’ located in Blackpool. This project required myself and five other peers to collectively group pictures, designs and detail of the building, and take that back to the drawing room. We then as a whole came up with the idea to split the Theatre into five sections. Each peer had one section and it was then decided each section would be recreated differently. I created my fifth as a ‘pop out’ look using papier mache, with bright oil pastels. Another peer used water colour, and another used materials to create their fifth of the building. Once completed, we collated all five pieces of work together to create a whole, which was then exhibited in the main hall of the school.

Following on from my uncompleted art course, I went on to complete sport and exercise science, which half way through the course, I concluded that there was something missing….art! Throughout this course, I would often go home and draw, and get a feel-good feeling that I felt I had been lacking since leaving my previous college due to ill-health. I decided I had to finish this course as I did not want to waste my time and I did not want to fail nor did I have an excuse to, I had my tonsils removed. During my second year of attendance to this course, I decided this was not enough for me. So I explored my options and decided to do a part-time level 2 course in hairdressing based in Lancaster alongside. This course was two week nights each week. I thoroughly enjoyed this course and recently I had realized the reasoning behind this was due to it being creative. Colouring, cutting, shaping, texturizing and styling all different hair types, came with such satisfaction when the client showed appreciation for my unique styling that I catered and adapted to each individual. I believe that when I was hairdressing, my imagination and creativeness was set free again. I also believe this helped me realise that I had a such a highly-driven character for art and design, as I completed these two courses within the same year, alongside two other part time jobs to fund myself, and I did not feel this was too heavy upon myself, as I found enjoyment out of being busy and always having my hands full. I never found myself at a lost cause when being so busy, it allowed my mind to run wild with imagination.

Once I completed my level 2 hairdressing with flying colours, I decided to convert the spare room in our home into a salon. From the several skills I obtained in my previous experiences of designing and my art course, I transferred these to me designing another room. The walls were bright blue, with an orange carpet and oak coloured woodwork. There was also a sofa that had been left in the room, that I could not remove as a whole as it was FAR too big to get out of the door way... so I spent over 2 hours manually sawing the sofa in half... crazy I know, but it was great fun and my mother found it entertaining. I had to overcome obstacles regarding the logistics of hairdressing, such as the washing of hair and styling tools/colouring station. I took all of this into account and researched equipment, for example, a portable sink with drainage adaptations. I had to think carefully about my needs as a hairdresser, and used my intuition to create a fully functional home-based hair salon. I decided to paint the walls and oak woodwork white, to give a clinical feel, but then add a feature wall to give the salon a stylish, modernized look. Using furnishing of a matching style, to create an overall professional salon. To me, it’s the little details that matter, it’s the little things that add just that little bit of jazz. For example, I decided to buy two plain storage boxes, one small one large. The small one was to hold my business cards, the large to hold my client record cards. But of course I couldn’t have plain boxes… I went to hobby craft and bought different items to personalize and decorate these boxes to my acquired taste. This taught me that I can look into occupation within a space, and adapt my design to the need of the occupation and individual. It is all down to the very finest of detail for me, I even designed my own business cards! - I felt a pleasure like no other before when creating and designing this room, the transformation in my opinion was outstanding and my satisfactory rate was through the roof!

Throughout the years, I had never noticed my keen eye for art and design, until I started fixing the jig saw together. Once I fit all the pieces together, the picture was crystal clear, I want to become a designer. I have always had great interest for art and design without even realising, and to me, that is what everyone should take on board, reflecting on life itself and identifying passions carried through the years. My ambition in life is to become a designer of all interiors. I follow many design pages on instagram, from ‘love to be home interiors’ who design homes, to ‘Van life explores’ who design the interior and exterior of camper vans for travelers. This particular page stuck out to me... I have a goal in mind that I want to one day achieve, and that is setting up my own business, buying old unwanted camper vans and creating them into a gorgeous living space for people to rent all across the globe. I have always loved to travel and am always for up new explorations around the world, there’s so much to offer out there, so many different cultures and backgrounds, why stay in one place? What better way to explore the world than to do it in an extravagant camper van? That is my goal!

My ambition is to turn my passion into a career and become a designer of interiors of camper vans, which to me sounds more like a paid hobby. I feel that I now know I am aware of exactly what career path I want to take and the direction I know I need to head in. I will be sure to share this passion and creative imagination throughout this blog, as I believe one person’s passion can be another’s inspiration, and I believe I have yet, a lot to learn from many other like-minded explorers.

Dream big am I right?

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