Sophie Ashdown

I’ve made a commitment to myself for this term (and possibly ongoing) that I will go into the CSM campus every Friday.  So as last week was the first week of term, off I trotted to Kings Cross.  I live on the other side of London, but thankfully the journey is fairly simple and took about 50 minutes.  For London, that is very reasonable.

The building is huge and somewhat imposing.  There are three water fountain features that come out of the ground at the front. There is also a large colourful sculpture akin to a windsail.  I believe that this sculpture space must change regularly as I don’t remember it from last time I was at Coal Drops Yard (but didn’t go into CSM.)

Initially I felt a bit intimidated upon entering the main doors, as I wasn’t sure where to go.  Reception is to the right so I went in there to ask.  They were so friendly and helped me plan where I could go and what I could do/see.

Initially I just decided to have a wander around.  The building is WAY bigger inside than I realised.  I walked around every floor that I could get access to, and therefore walked through active studios of creativity. 

Everywhere I looked there was art of some form happening.  Dancing, fashion, woodworking, 3D modelling, printmaking, model making, etc.

I felt inspired by somewhat intimidated because I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, except that I wanted to do everything!  But for today I was happy to observe, absorb, and be creative in my own way.

I went into the library and did some research on some resources for my Study Statement based on Constructivism. This was useful for building my bibliography but I didn’t delve into each resource in depth. I had thought that I would stay in the library for a long while, but I felt like the central atrium was calling my name.  There are workspaces on each of the bridges so I decided to find a good spot and work from there.

The middle bridge on the second floor seemed ideal but there wasn’t any available space so I went to the bridge at the far end instead.  There was an empty table so I got to work. 

I’ve been continuing to make some black and white pattern pieces which I’m really enjoying, so I just started creating.  There were various students who came and went, sitting around or with me.  Before I knew it, three hours had passed by and I had created a new piece that I like and started on a second one.

There is a kind of zone I can get into sometimes when creating.  I believe that most artists understand this kind of zone.  It’s like the holy grail of creativity for me, when I get so absorbed in the work that I don’t notice much of what is going on around me, and I lose track of time.  There is something wonderful about that feeling of being so interconnected with the work that nothing else matters.  It is a blissful state that I plan to lost myself in more and more over the rest of this course.

Currently I’m still working on a Constructivist theme, as this will form part of my Study Statement, so I tried a couple of different things.  I will write more separately about the pieces I’m creating but here is one that I did that day:

As with a lot of my work, there is a central nucleus from which the pattern extends.  The lines and circles appear random but the placement has method to it.  Each line has the same set of circles that increase in size, but some of the longer lines have larger circles where there is space.  I like the feeling of movement and being drawn from the centre outwards.

Next time I plan to just create again, but soon I will try doing a workshop to try new methods.  I want to make the most of my student experience!