Throughout this term the lectures have been so inspirational, I have found hearing first hand from artists has encouraged me to be more confident in my own artwork and to start appreciating and evaluating anything which presents itself. Many artists who came in to speak are  experimenting and expressing themselves in ways i had never considered. They break down this barrier against what is art and isn't art . They have demonstrated to me that art  isn't simply for beauty or as a message, the layers of what artwork can be are infinite and there are no rules. You cannot block any ideas, instead you must welcome anything and everything as a piece of art. My favourite experience has been at Liverpool’s Tate as throughout my life  i've always been in awe of artists such as Jim Dine, Kandinsky, Lowrey etc and every time i visit, there's is a piece there i've only expected to see through a screen. I also visited the st Ives tate and was hugely inspired by Anna Boughains exhibition exploring the human condition and the effect of factors; such as our past and present and future she also used  poetry and politics critique of the modern world. The multiple characters and figures featured in the display accelerated my focus on the many elements which make us who we are and made me debate whether nature or nurture is more significant to the creation of traits and characteristics of an individual. Up the road from St ives Tate is Barbara Hepworth's sculpture garden- she concentrates on shape and the use of stone to create fluent figurative stories, this is a great example that often less is more. Many of her sculptures were more prominent when they appeared almost empty or incomplete.

I love the idea of work appearing unfinished, as if the painting has consumed itself. This inspired me to leave areas of emptiness in my work where the audience can create their own meaning and fill the gap with their own thoughts. I normally struggle appreciating sculpture such as ‘Pratt’s’ as i find it constricted and hard to relate too, however learning about the intentions opened my mind to the possibility of paintings becoming three-dimensional, which later inspired my broken and boxed canvases  piece. My experimentation and composition techniques have also been revolutionised by Creed’s work, she fragments her work by cutting up photos and drawings which allows her to recreate a scene as she was experiencing it, this idea of dissecting my pictures allowed me to explore the use of line in a new way, as a tear, barrier or bridge between the norm and surreal. This concept of connecting two impossibilities and linking contrasting subjects in hope to find any answer is something i've learnt through artists such as ‘Brennan’. This fresh approach  has changed my way of seeing art for the better.

In conclusion despite style differences, each artist and exhibition has made itself apparent in my work and opened my mind to change and the contempt to any standing rules i had given myself.