Throughout my nearly three years of university well actually the majority of my art journey I have associated art to be 2D based: drawing and paintings. Looking back now really limited my ability to create the best work I could or be able to just push myself in my practice. I still believe my drawings and paintings are beneficial to me as an artist and are good pieces of work.
Throughout my first and second years of university, I was mainly focusing on 2D pieces such as paintings, drawings, and collages with the occasional printmaking here and there in the first year. I remember always pushing away ideas that would be putting my work in a 3D element as I associated 3D work being very similar to DT in school, such as wood and metal. This does not appeal to me as an artist, I would use those workshops to make structures and install my work but not for the work itself. Now that I have gone into my third year intrigued and interested in the acquisition of creating sculptures as I personally always associated sculptures in 3D work to be wood and metal whereas there are a lot of soft sculptures that you can make using fabric and clay. I always found sculptures to be thought of as a masculine thing because of the materials such as wood and metal but now that I have explored them a lot more, I realise that there are some good feminine styles of sculpture, it's just knowing about the processes and techniques needed for it. Other mediums that can be used for sculpture are plaster, wax, sewing textiles, etc. I have explored these types of materials as well throughout this year some not as much as I hoped but hopefully moving forward into my artistic journey I will be exploring more and testing out different techniques used for all.
However, a part of me resents my former self for not going further and for having such strong opinions about what I like and dislike in 2D and 3D work when it comes to my producing it. If I had forced myself to dabble in any exploration, I would have found an appreciation for it earlier and would not have spent my third year in such a state of learning and adaptation. By the third year, you should have figured out all the techniques you enjoy using, and the only thing left to do is practice using them to produce the greatest work possible. As learning sculpture was completely new, much like learning a new language, I'm still developing all my processes. Sometimes I thought it was a little challenging to play with all the many sculpture styles and techniques while also making sure that it was good for my practising to keep progressing and pushing myself further in terms of my concept. But I do think that, because I'm less rigid about different techniques and more playful with how things work, there is a certain power in being an amateur in sculpture. There are some advantages and disadvantages to this, but overall, I am happy that I have finally developed an interest in 3D sculpture as well as installation-based work. Because I don't necessarily understand how different mediums interact with one another when placed together, it almost feels like I have no rule book. Nothing is off the table when it comes to sculpture, which I think could have been good for me as an artist as well.
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