my other home....

...is a studio space at Swindon College. 

I had an assignment deadline today.  Studio Practice 3.  This counts.  For those of you who don't know I dropped out of college the first time around for reasons I don't want to revisit.  I was a fairly useless young adult.  I started off OK and then when it came to A levels and leaving home I really didn't make very good decisions.

I've written here before about my recurring college nightmare of going back and failing / leaving again.  I've stopped having those dreams thank goodness.  My final year is proving to be a challenge.  I'm working part-time, family life seems to be getting busier, the Worker seems to be having to work ever harder.  It's not an easy run.  Sometimes I wish I'd just stuck at my course the first time around but then I wouldn't be having this opportunity now.  How many other ladies of a fortyish age get to spend at least part of their week contemplating their artistic practice? 

I do feel lucky to be able to do this and I hope my Dad would have been impressed that I finally got to go back and (with the wind behind me) get a degree. 

Already people are asking what I'm going to do with it?  One of our modules at college is 'professional practice'.  The answer is, I don't know.  I think if I were younger without a family, I'd be heading off like every other aspiring artist to London or Paris or New York.  I'm not.  In fact, I almost don't want to know what I'm going to do.  What I think I will have gained from these three years is the confidence to do things I would never have done before.  So far I've completed a residency and exhibited in brand new venue.  I know that if I want to pursue a career as a practising artist, it's really up to me.

I think it will be interesting as an older artist, and one based outside London.  I do feel that I can do anything.  I don't feel constrained by trends or the 'nowness' of things as much as if I would, perhaps, if I was younger. 

So, today I finished the first of the assignments of my final year.

Tonight - the annual Zumba Christmas party...a little different but just as enjoyable!