MA - Fine Art

• Why did you choose postgraduate study at University of Chester?
I was looking around a lot of unis but wanted a place that allowed me to develop free off constraints to the direction that my work might take. It was important to me that I felt assured that I my own drive and interests could drive my studies. I needed that feeling that some potential in my work could come out and that myself as a person could connect to the place and its people too. The feeling for the people, the building and the location played a role. I had the feeling that there was a lot of space and time offered to me and a welcoming openness and friendliness by the people.

• Why did you choose your course?
As a mature student and a practitioner in Art and Design form many years, I had come to the conclusion that I needed to take a step further in my professional approach as a visual artist. I had become unclear about what my work was about and why I was doing it. I wanted do develop a focus that allowed me to do away with irrelevant parts of my practice and find out what really mattered to me. And the course programme allowed me to develop my focus and interest in the relationship between moving outdoors, drawing and the experience of the embodied self in the environment. I could fill the course programme structure with this interest and content. That was very important to me.

• What are you enjoying about postgraduate study within your Department/Faculty?
I mostly value the atmosphere of critical questioning and creative curiosity that is part of studying here. I would have never dared to do the work that I am doing now, if it would not have been for the permanent encouragement from staff and other students. It is exciting to discuss and share new concepts and ideas and witness how this process happens with others. You learn from their development too! We learn to accept that sometimes it can feel awkward or strange to develop new work and step out of comfort zones; that is what it can be like to do something new! It matters so much that our course leader is an immensely supportive person who understands exactly what I find so fascinating about the kind of work I try to develop.