We had a brilliant session this week where we were put in groups of three and given 6 minutes to think of a problem or question related to our work which the other members of the group then had 20 minutes to help us figure out by asking open questions. I really enjoyed it. It was really tricky to asks the open questions but really made me think. It also felt really nice to be asking the questions for the other persons benefit as well and just letting them meander around in their thoughts and then being allowed to do the same. It was really rather intimate in a really professional and lovely way.
The timing being just after everyone had handed in their study statement first draft meant I'd perused other peoples blogs recently so had a vague idea about what they were doing. It always feels very intimate to read the blogs and this seemed like an extension of that somehow. There's one blog that's private now and I'm gutted as I was really intrigued by it and was looking forward to learning more about how that person creates their pieces and the hints of insight into other worlds that it gives. The blogs are opening up so many other points of view and ways of looking at the world. I don't read them all that often but when I do I always feel very inspired and awed by the other people on the course. There are a couple in particular that I really enjoy reading because the writing is so good and they give a very open and honest picture of the writer and their approach; it makes me feel like I have company, like we're all plugging away at our creative lives together somehow.
I've found it really opens up my world view and changed my perspective on a lot of everyday things - I appreciate really random things a little more now. For instance we've been watching the new series of Silent Witness and there's a storyline about an orthodox jew who has left his community and so is an outcast. My husband said he thought it was a strange storyline but I thought that it was a brilliant way of looking at a totally different lived experience. I pointed out that there are all these very private and hidden (from us) communities that we know nothing about, and this is a way of shedding some light and learning about how other people live, often in a geographically close location to us, but in a way that we know nothing about.
This is such a fascinating group of people and we communicate mainly in writing a lot of the time via our WhatsApp group but we all recently said we'd like more face to face (screen) time. The conversations I had in my group have led to more direct conversations with both of the people I was talking to - sharing inspiration, work and progress which is really lovely. I feel like I've made new friends, and one of them is almost on the other side of the world!
A small number of us fed back to Jonathan what we'd thought of the session and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. A lot of what I was thinking was echoed, feelings of shared vulnerability, but that it was comfortable because it was reciprocal, and just how lovely it is to chat in a really constructive way to other students. We all agreed that 3 is a perfect number.
Course mates feel like a safe space, I guess the only feelings I worry about amongst them are feelings of inadequacy. Some of them have a lifetime of artistic experience and/or previous artistic studies or are producing incredible work (or all three!) and I do feel like I'm playing catch up, still fumbling about trying to figure out exactly what I want to say with my work... the more I learn about the others, the more I feel a little reassured that I'm not the only one who experiences a lot of self-doubt. I know I'm very good at portraying an overly confident exterior, that doesn't always reflect what I really feel so it's nice to be able to be honest and be a bit 'fumbly' with the other students!