Award title rational

BA Professional Practice Fine Arts

I am aware that an award title like BAPP Art Education might seam like a more appropriate title in light of the topic I have proposed for my inquiry and the career path that I want to follow but I have only recently chosen to follow this path. Up until this point I have been and still am a practicing artist. I have spent over a decade refining my style and improving my skills and techniques. My choice to peruse a career in art education is just another page in my artistic story. The main reasons why I have chosen to focus more on the educational side art on this course is because I because this is an area where I have a lot to learn before I go on to do my teacher training and as the only fine artist on the course discussing teaching gives me a way to relate to the other students on the course.

                After leaving school where art was one of my A-levels I moved on to do my Foundation year in Fine Art at Leeds College of Art and Design. Two days into the course I was asked by Central St Martins (CSM) to interview for a place on a BA course (Art, Design and Environment) I was awarded the place but decided to defer it for a year as I had already started and paid for the Foundation course. I spent this year experimenting a lot with new techniques and processes and improving my core drawing and painting skills as I felt that this was the area I need the most improvement. I continued this exploration well into my time at CSM in the first year in particular I experimented with photography a lot, working with a process called liquid light. The second year I focused more on sculpture and looking at the relationship between materials and materiality.  During this period I was working a lot with metal. Unfortunately towards the end of my second year my financial situation changed and it became abundantly clear that I would be unable to complete my proposed projects for the third year. At this point I transferred to London College of Fashion (LCF) to study the first year of a BA costume design because an element of fashion had often been present in my work thus wanted to learn pattern cutting and manipulation and improve my seamstress skills while I had the chance (I was able to afford to do a first year on another course and not the third year on my existing course because the first year allows you a lot more free time to work).  Upon leaving LCF I did a lot of freelance and commissioned work including working as part of the creative team in an advertising agency.  In 2009 I set up my own business ‘Not Quite Lauren’. Initially it was intended to focus mainly on my fashion designs, in particular the design of formal and bridal wear but since the launch there have been as many orders for painting and sculptures as designs.

I am constantly creating new pieces not necessarily to sell but because art is my passion and will always continue to be.  For this reason and the fact that I have studied and explored the process of making art for much longer then I have studied the teaching of the subject rationalises my claim for my award title: BA Professional Practice, Fine Art.