Although outlined in my Personal Reflection Blog Post, making note of ones personal skills is important to the overall development of my creative practice. Highlighting my skills is important for both myself and this current body of work because I need to be honest in terms of where I feel I need to improve to produce the best project possible. In this blog post, I will highlight three areas that I feel, although are positive, are aspects of my skillset that I need to continuously improve upon throughout this project.
Organisational Skills
Being organise is a skill that I consider to be one of my positives. In previous projects, such as 'The Memories from the Shed' body of work, I was able to plan and deliver a project that was methodical, succinct and thorough. I think I was able to do this well because I was passionate about the project and genuinely interested in the wider research I was conducting. Although the premise of the project was about my memories of being on the allotment with my Grandad, the work took on a whole new meaning with the exploration into the benefits of gardening on older people, combatting mental health issues and loneliness. The concept that an outside activity, such as gardening can benefit your mental well-being was a very eye-opening finding for my project as a whole. Being organised allowed me to investigate the subject matter thoroughly while keeping my physical work in a methodical order that made sense. However, I feel my organisational skills will always need improvement because as my projects get more and more detailed the task of keeping the work methodical becomes vital.
Being Adaptable
Being adaptable is also a very important skills. This allows you to problem solve and find new ways of taking a project in terms of its direction. Having the room to adjust a project as you go along helps with the body of work's progression and also keeps your creative interests flowing. Like with my previous project, I was able to keep it interesting the research I was conducting. Having the wider themes of mental health, gardening methods of combatting loneliness, the importance of green spaces in the community and the effect it has on the older generation made my project based on memories adapt and change into many lines of investigation. This resulted in a wide ranging project that challeneged me both critically and creatively. However, this is a skill I believe needs to working upon within my skillset because my upcoming project requires me working in a way that I am not usually accustomed, all online. Having an online platform that requires constant new content will force me to adapt to any situation, whether it be the need for more workshop tasks, wider research on the technicalities of websites or finding new ways to produce workshop content that is easy for the user. All of these areas of my current project will require that I have the room to adapt and problem solve easily.
Practical Skillset
My practical skillset is always in a state of change. I like to experiment with new media and find ways to incorporate what I have learnt into my specialism of painting and drawing. I don't believe that I am ever satisfied with the work I produce, which in it self can be a negative, but I believe that constant progression in my technique as a painter and drawer is vital to my practice as an artist. Having my current drawings influencing my workshops will be very important to my project as a whole because it will make me consider how I am developing as an artist as well as the fundamentals I want to teach. Having a system of one influencing the other will keep a focus on my workshops, while I can explore other creative avenues within my personal practice. However, it is important to acknowledge that this is in a constant state of development and that progression in this area will be long term.
Overall, acknowledging my areas of improvement, as well as the positives, has given me clarity in how I want to approach my upcoming project. I feel that if I work on these three areas consistently my project will be successful and I will personally benefit from it in other areas of my practice. All in all I feel it has been a positive to my personal development.
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