February, 26th; Berlin Trip on the 2nd of March!

You won`t be hearing from me for another week or so!
Unfortunately, I`ll be going to Berlin for a week with University.

This is supposed to be a cultural, Museum and Gallery visit around Central Berlin. I`m a little bit scared about going considering all of the recent attacks over seas, and we do have to be careful whilst navigating our way through Berlin as a large group.
I`ve been worried about going for a while now, so that`s why I`ve avoided posting about it up until now.

I`ll be going away this Thursday, and I`ll be staying there for five nights and 6 days visiting galleries and Museums (also, a possible concentration camp). Then after that It`ll be preparing for a Presentation, I`ll be writing up an Essay and producing my practical studio work.

So this was just a short update, to tell everyone that I`m going away again for a while; but I shall be back! Hopefully with a hugeeeee update and plenty of photos to accompany that. You should also be able to find all of those photos on the facebook page once I`ve returned.

Until then, you can find all of my newest pieces of work on Deviantart and Instagram.
Keep updated!


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February, 19th; London Trip!

So then guys, I`ve been in the studios quite a bit lately; from now on we`re just in there all of the time without fail, 9-5pm. Then afterwards I have theory work to be doing, so really i just spend a lot of time researching... That`s whenever my laptop decides to start working. Andddd yes, my laptop has broken and freezes almost everytime i click on something so I`m really struggling with trying to do my research an my blogging and my deviantart and my redbubble.
As you can see, the list goes on.


So, There is a loooot of stuff that I need to catch up on once again!
There will be updates on Redbubble soon, I just need to load up my new images onto my boyfriends laptop to then work on Redbubble.

Gerhard Richter.

Last week, on Friday we took a quick trip to London.
When I say quick, I mean that we left at 6am, and then got back into derby at 00:30am. So it was a very long day for all of us.

We began by following and itinerary that our lecturer had made for us, the small little Irish guy that likes to drink quite a bit.
I basically spent the whole day with Mel and Rachel. We began at the Tate Modern, I haven`t been since they added the large 10 floor extension so I didn`t want to miss the artist exhibitions rooms in there. We spent about 3 hours in there in total, and I managed to get into the two paid exhibitions. The Robert rauschenberg exhibition and The Radical Eye exhibition.
Whilst walking around, I did see a lot of sculptures and paintings from the last time that I went to the Gallery which was about a year or two ago.

Walking around, I think i was more interested in the video/performance pieces of art work that I saw. Mainly because they seemed to of made more sense, a lot of the work there is just paint on a canvas, or a badly illustrated story that isn`t coming through as effectively as the video pieces of work.
I do wish we had a lot longer to walk around there, some of the work was really moving and powerful and the work displayed by Gerhard Richter did make me cry actually... Sado.

The Rauschenberg exhibition did make me cry, and so did the Gerhard Richter... Then later on, the Anselm Kiefer exhibition over at a different gallery site.
It`s just that when you study an artist, and you`ve looked at there work online and in books and you`ve studied some of their most famous pieces of work; seeming them in person is just amazing, and the best experience you could possibly have. I`ve never actually cried at a art exhibition aswell, so I did feel quite stupid walking around this gallery fanning my eyes so no one else could see me cry. Same with Gerhard Richter, that wasn`t even a paid exhibition; but still seeing the sheer scale of the work and the textures up close moves you.
Look, I basically liked their work.

After the Tate Modern, we had a 30 minute walk to the White Cube Gallery, and our lecturer almost got us lost twice whilst we where heading over there. That was another extremely moving exhibition to witness in person. He`s another artist who i`ve studied for a very long time, and my eyes where watering the whole time i was walking around there. He had the whole run of the gallery, which seems small on the outside but it`s huge when you get in there.
There was a mixture of side rooms that where darkly light up and eerie to walk around, then about three rooms that where full of bright natural light that really showed you the proper colors of the pieces of work that where in there.
It was all very dramatic and set up in a way that really showcased every detail of his work.

It was another very moving exhibition, it`s one of those ones where you cant really put into words the size and the effect it actually has on you. I would of preferred it if it was quieter whilst we where walking around but there was about 51 of us who went in total. If you can get there and it`s quite, you`ll feel the full effect of the art work, and hopefully you`ll get a much better viewing experience in total.

There really isn`t a way to explain the artwork in the very back room, That`s where the large scale wall pieces where kept, and you could see all of the amazing colors that the melted metals had created and the layering that had been taken off to reveal the base layers... just ugghhh, it was good.
I couldn`t shut up telling my mum about the exhibition when I got back home, I think that was the show that made the whole day amazing, I had no idea he was even exhibiting in London prior to applying and paying for the trip there.


After the Tate Modernand the Anselm Kiefer Mel, Rachel and I began to venture off around london.
Luckily we didn`t get lost.
Rachel knew what she was doing with the tubes and stuff, so she was basically our navigator for the day.

We managed to also got to the Whitechapel Gallery, The Tate Britain and the National Portrait Gallery.
According to what we hared from everyone else, they managed to go to three galleries in total since they followed the lecturer around for the day I`m serously happy that we did agree to go off for the day by ourselves, I feel like I spent a lot more time admiring the artwork rather than rushing around to find another gallery.

Whitechapel Galley was strange, and we only went to see one exhibition there; and that was the Guerrilla Girls.
An anomynous group of artists, who are all female and all where guerrilla masks to keep their identities a secret. The group of woman make controversial art based off of surveys and statistics that they collect from galleries and museums worldwide.
They even had a large piece on the floor which name and shamed about 200 galleries and museums that rejected their survey and never sent a response back to them, after that there was about 100-130 (i think) that actually responded and answered the surverys.
I`d never even heard of the group before, but after seeing their work it`s shed a whole new light on the artworld, they`re sexist and do not want women to exhibit alongside men. Which is scary, it`s scary to think that there are 33 people on my course, only 5 of those are men and the rest are women. So out of 33, at a typical gallery, only those 5 men would exhibit together.
That idea is just scary.

I didn`t get any pictures at the national portrait gallery, Since you`re not supposed to take pictures in there anyways.
Then in the Tate Britain gallery, I took hardly any images as a lot of the work in there was sculptural, there where two paid exhibitions and I couldn`t take pictures in there.

But yeah, the Whitecube and the Tate Modern where the most moving exhbitions to go to, and i would love to go again.

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February 4th; Return To University, Where Have I Been?

It`s been over a month now since I last updated, which I promised myself I wouldn`t do... AGAIN!

I`ve been back at University for 2 weeks now, tomorrow will start my third, but that`s two weeks out of a very short semester of 12 weeks. I haven`t updated at all for over a month as half way through my little Christmas break, My lecturer had e-mailed us with our module handbook with a large list of everything that we should have finished by the time we get back to University.

So in reality, I was picking up loads of shifts at work (and I got £10 each shift I covered)!! Which meant that I had quite a bit of money saved up for when I started University again late January. Then along with all of the shifts I was picking up, I was trying to write two essays, get my journal work completed, produce some photographic work as a source material to generate ideas for the project and then begin producing some kind of 3D work that would help me produce even MORE work back at University.
Eventually everything linked up together and I got all of my work done alongside my actual job at the care home.

Overall my lecture is pretty happy with the ideas that I`ve got, wasn`t too keen on some small sample pieces of work I did; he said they seemed a bit too accurate, like I had placed everything purposefully and he didn`t like that too much.
The journal he`s happy with, it`s slightly bulging however and he would rather it be as flat as possible; it`s because of all of the textured pieces of work I`ve been putting in there to show as to what I`m going to be working with and how I`ll be working with my materials that I collected.

Along with the studio project, that is basically like the main module which is called Primary Practice, we have another project that we have a four hour lecture for on a Wednesday morning called Concepts and something... I can`t believe I`ve already forgotten as to what it`s bloody called.
It`s honestly the worst module I`ve ever done, and I mean through school and sixth form too, cause I feel so stupid; For Wednesday we have to discuss a piece of text and I can`t make heads or tails of it and it`s super frustrating to try and read.

I`ll be trying to get everything back to normal, I`m not doing quite well with my time management outside of University and it`s been weeks since I`ve seen my own bloody dad!
I`ll get it together at some point, I hope!

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Decmber, 20th; Almost Christmas!

Well then, it`s the Christmas Holidays!

And luckily, I`ve got 5 weeks off from University right now so I`ve got some time to just sit and do absolutely nothing until I work. The only thing I`m not looking forward too, is working on Christmas day.

Unfortunately, that is the price that people who work in healthcare have to pay at this time of year; and yes, I`ll be working the early shift in the care home that I`ve been working at since back in March. People take it in turns every year to work shifts at Christmas, so this year I`ll be working the early shift on Christmas day, but next year I won`t have to work Christmas day.
So your one year on, one year off really. I don`t mind it seeing as I`ll be making the lives of those who are ill and lonely, much easier and a lot more cheerful than what would be if there was no one there.

This is going to be my first time working on Christmas day, I`m not particularly looking forward to it seeing as when I get back from work; I would of missed my nephew opening his presents, I would be ready for my Christmas dinner and I`ll most probably be quite tired and not want to play any Christmas party games or drinking games.
But then again, I`m improving the lives of others; if I wasn`t there then who would be?

I would also like to add, that for work I had to complete a unit of work on basic healthcare, safeguarding, health and safety, first aid and adult protection; I managed to complete all 15 modules and have now achieved my Care Certificate!

Besides working over the Christmas period, I have had another photography session where I managed to get 156 photos; pretty soon I`ll try and upload a few of them to my art blog and I`ll also attempt to try and go over the new project.
I`m still a bit confused about my next project as I`m not sure as to what I`m going to produce or how I`m going to produce it over the holidays... But I have a bit of an idea and I should hopefully cover that when it comes to uploading photography.

The next time I update on the Diary blog should be after Christmas day, so until then..
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
Have an amazing Holiday, break from work, break from all of that coursework and go get a little bit drunk!

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December, 8th; End of my first semester!

Well, the last week of University has gone extremely quickly; I`m not going to discuss my final piece on here though, I want to save that for my art blog since it`s been a while since I updated on there. Plus, I could do with putting some kind of updated work on there right now...

Tomorrow is my last day at University, before I break up from University for the next five weeks or so. In between that time, I will be given a new module to be working on and I`ll be picking up a few more shifts at my part time job in the care home.

This first semester has been seriously weird for me, University is just a completely different environment that you somehow have to adjust too at the click of a finger.
To begin with, I don`t even live in accommodation, so to get to University it takes me about an hour or so travel time; that`s to walk to the bus stop, get the bus, walk half way through Derby and getting into Uni. Just that in itself is rather tiring, and I have thought about moving out for my second year since I`m not too sure if travelling will be best for me when it comes to producing some more serious pieces of work.

Then the whole studio atmosphere is really strange and hard to get used too.
The 33 of us got split up into three different groups of 11, and my group was completely separated from the the other 2 groups; meaning that we didn`t get too see them that much too start off with. You get a small desk to begin with and the second and third years work busily around you... Just seeing them working gives you some sort of insight into what you`re going to be doing in the upcoming semesters.

Then the lectures, there`s three different lectures and they all come in on different days. Because they`re all in at different times, you have to begin planning out what you`re going to be doing and who`s help you`re going to need on different days. It can also be like that when it comes to the different Technicians, you practically have to hunt them down if you need help since they all get so busy during the day.

The whole University experience has been extremely strange for me, it`s nothing like they tell you it`s going to be... And I do mean that in a good way! It`s just that when the students come round and tell you everything you need to get ready for University, you don`t really need it. It`s like you actually panic for nothing.

You`ll make friends and you`ll lose them even quicker than making them! Fresher`s is bloody pointless, you miss all of the important stuff during your first few weeks and you don`t want to leave your flat at all because of your vomit covered floor and clothes. They big up all of the parties and nights out, but you miss out on vital information, you make drunken mistakes, drunken arguments and then get yelled at for not attending university for the past few days... Fresher`s is literally; get drunk, vomit, get yelled at, vomit some more.

The overall experience for me has been pretty great; I`ve only been out 4 times actually, and each time I`ve gone into university the next day and got on with my work... And each time I`ve swore that I`ll never drink again, that doesn`t work by the way.
The studio space I work in is huge and I love it! Mainly because we`re also based around the second and third years work spaces; so we get to be nosey and talk to them about the course and what we`re going to do over the next few semesters. Since Derby only accepts a small amount of people aswell, we all get our own workspace and a lot of one on one time with the tutors.

Next year, I genuinely don`t quite know what to expect.
I know that the tutors are defiantly taking a huge step back, and we become a lot more independent in the way that we work and what we start to produce. Over the next five weeks that I have off at Christmas, I also need to get quite a bit of journal work finished and I need to begin thinking about what I`m going to begin producing over the holidays.

We need to being working off of two words.
The first word has to like to the Form of what we`ll be producing, for example; 2D, 3D, photography, multi-media.
Then the second word has to be the content.
I`ve already got a few ideas, and I know for definite that I`ll be working with multi-media, but then I don`t know what the content of that work would be... Something like abandonment and then I begin working from photographs of abandoned buildings or abandoned objects that I`ve come across.
Multi-Media Abandonment... Not too sure yet.


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December, 3rd; Deadlines and Stress.

It has been a while since I updated, if you didn`t know I had to work on a week long project which was extremely stressful and time consuming; I did update about that on my art blog, here`s the link:
 http://melonheadamy-artblogging.blogspot.co.uk/

It`s been a very hectic couple of weeks, we`ve had three weeks in total to work on our final, "final" piece of work.
I`m currently on my last week, but as always, I`ve been rather busy with trying to get the majority of my work done. Over the past semester, we`ve done a number of workshops (all of which you can find on the art blog), and within the last 3 weeks of University, we have to combine some of the techniques we`ve been working with into one final piece. So far, all I`ve done is experiment with a lot of ideas and I`ve still not even thought about making a final/refined piece of work ready for hand in.

The worst thing is that my deadline is Friday the 9th, and I`m still thinking of ideas and ways to bring all of my work to a conclusion.
The worst thing is, the only technique I`ve enjoyed working with is the print making. When I was messing around with the prints I made before with the weird bright colours; I want to re-create that again with new prints.

My original objects where 3 different phones, all of different sizes and all have different buttons. After working with the objects and creating work form them, we then had to put the objects into context, so for mine that would be texting, calling or social media. Quite obvious things really.
Now, when everyone goes onto facebook, you immediately see selfies, group pictures, celebrities and pictures your friends and family have posted; the same with any other form of Social Media actually.

Instead of focusing on self image, which would be the first thing you think of when someone mentions social media, I want to focus on what you would get in response to putting a picture of yourself online.
Then, to put this into context; I`ve been gathering messages that have been sent to my personal facebook account, my facebook page, my Instagram and my MeetMe account. I`ve also asked people on my course if they could send me screenshots of messages they`ve been sent; all of the messages I`ve collected have been sent by random people who no one actually knows personally, just random people who`ve messaged us out of the blue.
What I`m working with is actually a topic that does need to be addressed in some way, all of the messages I`ve used are from people who are a lot older than us (some being around 40 years old), these are all harassing messages, messages asking for nudes, messages asking us to perform some kind of sexual task... IT`S SERIOUSLY WRONG! Even my lecturer Carl is slightly confused as to how people can happily send these messages out to just anybody.

What I`m doing is turning something that is instant and private, into a process that takes a lot of time and detail which can then be seen by everyone. Something very private, and very instant is becoming a lengthened process which is made public.
What I`m going to be producing is the exact opposite as to what I`m working with, it`s going to be really hard to finalize the work; plus I`m struggling to find a way to make this whole piece resolved.

A lot of people at the moment do seem quite shocked by what I`m getting through on my phone, and then using. I see this as normal, I get a lot of horrid messages on my phone every single day; so these kinds of words and phrases really aren`t new to me. But a lot of people are a bit shocked by them, and find them quite odd.Which I guess it`s the kind of reaction I want to get out of producing work like this. Another thing is, I still have to work within a framework.. Literally a frame at the moment, out two other lecturers, Dennis and Jeremy have gotten it into everyone`s head that we have to work within a box shape. So now I`m even more confused and lost as to how I should present or finalize my work.

I`ve been very, very lost these past 3-4 weeks or so.
Which is why there have been no blog updates lately aswell.
University does have me very stressed at the moment, and I`m there five days a week and then I have to work at the weekends. It is hard, and I am struggling; time is going by so fast that I haven`t really realized that I haven`t blogged, or reviewed, or uploaded recent photography.
Everything that I had going on before Univeristy does seem to have come to a stand still at the moment, and over Christmas when I`m giving my next module handbook I can imagine it`ll get harder for me to find things to update and write about.



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November 13; Oxford Trip (Rather Brief)

So then... I should of really updated about two weeks ago.

All of the images below are from the Pitt Rivers

Gallery and Museum.

Basically, in the middle of another three weeks of workshops and inductions, our lecturers decided that we should all go down to Oxford for the day and have a lovely walk around the Ashmolean Museum and the Pitt Rivers Gallery.
Unfortunately, because they decided that it`s be great to do this during more inductions; I never actually had any time to talk about it and share it with you guys. But, because it`s been about 2 weeks, I can`t bloody remember what I exactly saw when I was there and I`m annoyed at my camera at the moment because all of the images are still on my camera... But the wires for my camera at my boyfriends University flat.

This isn`t going to be very fun to do without any images, and my forgetfulness.

During the Ashmolean museum, our lecturers dragged us up to one of the top floors so we could have a look around the modern art exhibition which was apparently a "special" exhibition that they had on. All I`m going to say is that I wasn`t impressed at all, we couldn`t take any photos, the room was very small and cramped and the work that they had on display was just a random load of work all mish mashed together. None of it made any sense and it wasn`t impressive at all. That`s all for Modern Art at the Ashmolean.

The rest of the museum was absolutely brilliant; they`ve got giant collections of historical art from around the world with detailed explanations into their cultures and into some of the items that have on display there.
The only problem with the Ashmolean is because it was sooo big and we only had an hour or so to walk around the building; we couldn`t get around everything in time, so there was a lot of work on the upper floors that many of us didn`t get too see. I think most people stayed around the same kind of three floors sandwiched in the middle.
I ended up rushing one of my god friends Lucie around the building so we could go to the lower floors, look at the preserving history area, look at the Japanese and Chinese areas... It was a struggle to rush around that building.
I think that if you seriously want to have a good look around there then you need to spend a whole day in there just walking around and taking it all in. There`s too much to see in there in too little time, and it`s also very, very easy to get lost and confused as you walk around. The maps don`t help that much, they could really do with something a bit more detailed with a floor plan of every floor in the building, the amount of times I got lost was ridiculous.

The Modern art area, let me down; a lot. But the rest of the gallery is hard to explain, it`s extremely big and had a large range of historical art work and art work from around the globe. Just putting it into words is extremely hard, and it`s been two weeks sooo... Just look at some of the collections online, there`s some really good stuff on there.

The Pitt Rivers museum and Gallery was much better in my eyes.

It`s quite old and historical, the outside of the building seems quite dark and everything inside is original. At the front of the building is the more museum-y part of the building; it`s got large fossils and skeletons hanging from the ceiling and placed in cases. Along with the large range of fossils, skeletons, gems, crystals, insects and taxidermy... You can go to the very back of the building and they have one of the largest collections of found objects from around the world. It goes something like that anyways, they have a collection of over 20,000 objects that are all on display all of the time.

This area has three floors, the area itself is very darkly lit and is seriously just packed full of glass cases with these weird historical items in them. All of the pictures on this blog are from the museum, you can find a lot more of the pictures online and they`ll be a much better quality than the pictures I`d taken.