Through a Glass, Darkly

I've been reflecting a lot on what it is I do, how to describe myself as an artist, my work. It's been nearly six years since my graduate exhibition and as I found myself somewhat squashed into having a proper job, it is only now that I've been able to go back to the ideas that were, let's face it, only starting at the School of Art.

In the time since graduating I've completed an MA, worked for a high street photographic retailer, a logistics company, trained to be an English, Drama and Media Studies teacher, been (and still am) an English, Drama and Media Studies teacher, embarked upon the wonderful world of digital photography, learned a variety of jewellery making techniques and here I am still seeing the world through blurry frames. This isn't because I've had to get glasses in the last few years but I'm still struck by the idea of glimpses, what we see and experience are but glimpses. My final project at Aberystwyth was very much focused on this idea, the glimpses of an outsider visiting Taiwan for the first time and below is a very badly scanned collage of some of my original prints from the exhibition.


I'll have to try and find the catalogue and scan my page for here. I was thinking about these images the other day and was struck by the comparison with my current interest in ttv and how even the paintings I'm working on are bordered and blurred at the edges in an attempt to emphasise the sense of the image being a part, yet again the idea of the glimpse. I like the idea of every sight being new, an exploration, however slight, and these images remind me of seeing "through a glass, darkly" (1 Cor 13) developing new insights and understanding with every sight and experience. Anyone else read and Jostein Gaarder? Time for another read I think.