University? Leaving home? Moving on? Nope, not for me just yet however the Foundation Diploma is right up my street! I decided a few months before results day that uni life just wasn’t for me right now, I didn’t know where I wanted to go or what I wanted to study and my art teacher mentioned the foundation course which meant I could stay home for an extra year, learn and grow as an individual artist and continually develop and enlarge my portfolio all whilst still managing to be debt free for another year – I was set on interior design for so long, then one bad open day set me right back to square one. I learned about the Foundation Diploma course and knew instantly I had to be involved; at first glance it looked like it would be the perfect thing for me to participate in so that I could grow as an individual artist and continue to develop and increase my personal portfolio. I also wanted to complete this course because of the stigma around it – I didn’t get the best A-Level results due to two family deaths so I feel like by completing this, I will be redeeming myself and gaining back the grades I know I could’ve gotten if nothing happened – I also want to complete this course to show people that even with ‘bad grades’ you can still complete things of a higher level and be the best version you can be of yourself!
After the completion of this course, I want to progress onto University to continue my journey through the world of art- I want to be the best of the best and the only way I can see that becoming reality is to stick in, work hard and get the results myself. I want to progress onto bigger and better things, I personally want to be my own boss one day and for me to be able to realise my dream I need to qualifications and determination. I completed some research of Universities which run the course I want to be on, and the one which stands out for me the most is Leeds Arts University and with this in mind my aim is to progress onto there once this course is completed.
Before deciding upon Leeds, I googled Textiles courses and used the ‘what uni’ guide of university ranking to help me with my research – https://www.whatuni.com/degree-courses/search?subject=textile-design – this was the most helpful thing I looked at when researching apart from university websites and prospectuses.
I think for myself, personally that my only real progression options are to go to university and work the hardest ive ever worked or give up on my dream and that just aint happening- I WILL BE THE BEST! I looked at apprenticeships but they’re mainly for painting and decorating and that isn’t the skills I want – I want to be more specific in what and where I learn.
Currently, before any preparation into University and developing my skills, my personal portfolio needs to be finished off – now that I know I want to study and focus upon textiles I feel like it’s only right that I spend some extra time researching and growing within textiles in my own time as well as with college. There’s still some older pieces of work I want to finish and complete to the highest of my ability before even creating any extra and new additions.
Sophie Mutch NCL FAD 