Last week at college

Last week of the autumn term, that is ... first week of December. On the Wednesday morning Karen and I met in the studio and did some "making" -

I had a yen to make a folder, rather like this one -

For the final "lecture" session in the hall at the Wilsons Road site, people from all the MA pathways mixed and mingled in groups that set out to define and report back on a task.

With groups in each corner of the gloomy hall, it was a bit of a madhouse. The group I was in moved to a table in the hallway and collaborated on a story/picture, representing ... what, exactly? Some people were uncomfortable with the "we don't really know what we're doing, but let's make something happen" idea of it, but others were more than happy to plunge right in -

In the short time available, it was starting to come together - and Lynn's presentation really brought the story together - even though we had made it without knowing what it was. The other groups had interesting outcomes too.

Afterwards, the graphic design group's term's work was displayed in the hall, and they had baked goods for sale towards the cost of their show catalogue -

Plus a chance to chat to the people we'd just met, over a glass of wine. Then it was out into the winter sunset  -

However - even though the next week was "officially" Reading Week - taken at the end of term, before the holidays, rather than sometime in November in mid-term - we had a special lecture from Audrey Niffenegger, who showed and talked about her graphic work, and its relation to her writing. I took no photos, but did make a few notes in the darkness of the hall: how she was influenced by Aubrey Beardsley's work, and her admiration of German printmaker Horst Janssen; her appreciation for the high-school art teacher who gave her extra help to learn printmaking; the advantages of teaching printmaking ("you get to work on this huge range of problems"); Henry Darger and his "Vivian girls";  crows painted onto gold leaf background ("Elysian Fields"); how comforting it is to have a huge body of work; and, if I read my writing right, this quote: "it's always fuzzy at the beginning". Do check out her website; the FAQs are enlightening!