On my course, it is not compulsory to write a Dissertation. We are asked to choose between four module practices; Site Specific (Similar to sculpture/3D with an Architecture element), Print Module (Screen Printing etc), Drawing Module (Displaying your skills through different methods of drawing) and Dissertation Module (an 8000) word essay.
I chose Dissertation for two reasons;
1) Because I’m Crazy.
2) So that I have as much experience as any other graduates looking for the same career as me.
I have chosen to write about a subject that some of you might not have expected. I am writing about the Pre – Raphaelite Artists, primarily writing about the works of Ford Maddox Brown. After seeing the exhibition “Ford Maddox Brown – Pre Raphaelite Pioneer” at the Manchester Art Gallery a couple of months ago, I thought that it would be a good idea to be referencing to this exhibition, and even use in as the focus of my research. I’m really quite excited to get started on the essay and I (nervously) handed in my Chapter Summary the other day.
I am starting to wonder whether I have chosen the right subject though, really because I am totally out of my comfort zone. I do love Pre Raphaelite artwork, I have great memories of visiting Art Galleries such as the Lady Lever Art Gallery and the Walker when I was a child, with my parents, peering up at the wonderful worlds portrayed in a Rossetti painting, or a Burne- Jones (especially the tree of forgiveness)
WOW....
I’m really just worried because, I don’t paint in that way, and I never use the Pre – Raphaelites as a focus for my own artwork, so feel a little anxious about my lack of knowledge.
I am persevering though, the 24 books I have taken out of the library and started to read, I think proves this.
I want to write it.
I have to just get on with it.
I’ll leave you with a Painting by Ford Maddox Brown, named “Work”. Some of you might think the painting is rather boring. But you have to realise how revolutionary this painting was for the Victorian times; it was extremely rare that artists were commissioned to paint ‘real life’ in their Art. Also, think of the extreme detailing in the painting, and how hard it would be to capture the essence of every single personality in the painting. I was captivated by the peice when it was surrounding me in the Manchester Art Gallery.