Okay, so there I was back in Melbourne after living in glorious Spain for the last 8 years. Culture shock? You bet! I especially remember going from feeling "special" - the blue-eyed blond foreigner always standing out in a crowd - to being a complete "nothing" back in Melbourne, suddenly and completely invisible, with hardly anyone giving me a second glance. Quite a shock to my ego!
The other big thing was my career change. I had just left my highly paid, prestigious job as an advertising executive with Saatchi & Saatchi Compton in Madrid to study art in my homeland Australia. In particular, I wanted to be a jewellery designer - and a damned good one! I had devoured jewellery design books and visited designer jewellery studios for years.
My advertising job had been fabulous, yes, but with the downside of enormous stress. One day, while agonizing over a TV commercial for a new Reach toothbrush, I figured that if I was going to be stressed, I may as well be stressed over something that really MEANT something to me. That was the day I decided to return to Australia to study art.
The best Gold and Silversmithing course available in Melbourne at the time was at RMIT - the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, as it was called at the time.
I gathered together the odd little smattering of drawings I had made over the years and made an appointment to see the Head of Department. Ray Stebbins looked with a faint expression of horror at my drawings (I shudder now to think how REALLY, REALLY BAD they were; one even had rose petals stuck onto a page to look like a butterfly!). Then he turned to me, cleared his throat, and kindly suggested I do a year's art foundation study before attempting to enter university.
I admit I felt a little discouraged but, absolutely determined to succeed, I followed his advice. I was going to do whatever it took; I hadn't thrown away a first class job for nothing! So I did my research and discovered that one of the best foundation courses available was the "Tertiary Orientation Program - Art and Design" course in a lovely Melbourne suburb called Brighton.
To gain entry into this course, I was asked to go home and draw a teddy bear and a transistor radio. The drawings I did were certainly nothing special, and I believe it was my total and unbridled enthusiasm about jewellery design that actually got me through the door.
To cut a long story short, this full-time year studying all the mainstream aspects of fine art was the beginning of a HUGE change in my life. As a mature age student who really WANTED to be there, I did not waste a minute of my time, unlike some of the younger, talented students. I learned a little about many things: ceramics (which I sucked at!), graphic design, printing, drawing, art history (opening up a magnificent world to me), sculpture and finally, painting. I pushed and pushed and pushed myself.
Painting proved to be a surprise. I had not considered this as a career, but the work I did in that subject took on a life of its own and I knew my teacher was surprised and happy for me. I was beginning to be quietly hooked on painting, but still dreamed of becoming a jewellery designer.
By the end of the year, with the guidance of my tough but fabulous course leader, I had crafted together a first class art folio ready to take to interviews at the tertiary institutions. Not only that, but I was awarded DUX of Brighton Technical School for my efforts.
In that one year I had gone from being a complete newbie (as green as they come) with no art folio, to having a great art folio and a really good overview of the options available to study.
I applied for not only the RMIT jewellery design course, but for several painting courses at the various art colleges.
One of the four college interviews was a nightmare! From the moment I set foot in the door, I felt acutely uncomfortable, made worse when I was confronted by a strangely aggressive interviewer (a well known artist of the day). This man barely glanced at my portfolio, preferring instead to make pointed comments about my mature age. Had I not been accepted by three terrific art schools, I would have been crushed by the experience and might easily have fallen to pieces. Instead, I walked out of there with my head held high. I'm so glad I did!
Three out of the four college interviews had gone brilliantly, and I had emerged confident and with the promise of a place should I choose any one of those particular institutions. Ray Stebbins of RMIT actually tried to talk me into joining his course - which accepted just 12 people - a tremendous change from our interview of a year ago! A lot had changed in that one art foundation year.
I opted to study at RMIT and will talk about those amazing three years in my next blog post...
Meanwhile, create like the wind!
Margot Wiburd
p.s. Another great quote from JEANETTE WINTERSON:
“When you take time to read a book or listen to music or look at a picture, the first thing you are doing is turning your attention inwards. As you withdraw your energy from the world, the work of art begins to reach you with energies of its own.”
Mmmmm.
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