Carol Smith

6 thoughts on “Carol Smith”

• Fabulous work Carol, congratulations. I was, as Doug was, especially taken with the self portrait and was convinced there was a bead in the eye, and had to look closely to see it was coloured and embossed.

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• Fabulous work Carol, well done!

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• Great work Carol, well done. Diana

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• Doug, and everyone, thank you for the kind words.
  I have to say that this course was quite a challenge for me and I really had to push myself to get to the bottom of what was required at level 2.
  It took me till about 3/4 of the way through to get a sense of what I wanted to say through my work – which was driven by the critical review that I did on Käthe Kollowitz. Once I had a theme (absence, loss and death) I was able to go back to earlier assignments and re-do some of them with that theme in mind.
  I think that’s one of the great things about studying with OCA – the flexible time frame allows us to develop our ideas and skills in the order that feels personally right. I spent the first part of the course trying out different processes and improving my technical skill, then I went back and applied that learning to my theme to create a cohesive body of work.
  I think you’re right that this has set me up well for level 3 (I just started Painting 3 Advanced). I was quickly able to be really clear about my goals and set up a series of projects that allow me to explore a theme through different formal elements. Developing my portfolio on a theme at level 2 really clarified how to approach level 3.
  If I was going to go back and do level 2 again, I would have (i) focused earlier on the critical review – this was what helped me create a powerful sense of what my work was about, and I would have (ii) looked at every project as an opportunity to say something new about that self-defined theme. I would also have (iii) spent more time early-on really understanding the assessment criteria – and appreciating how much rides on the clear development of ideas and invention.
  What I wouldn’t change is the effort I put into learning new techniques and developing my practical skills. I lived in 3 countries while I did this course, and I took every opportunity to seek out print making studios and develop new skills wherever I happened to be. Huge fun and very inspirational.
  I’ve come out of this course with a real love of printmaking and a desire to make it central to my practice.

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• I quite enjoyed printmaking 2 aswell at the time, when I looked back though I didn’t feel so positive as I realised I hadn’t had the opportunity to develop my own ideas very far, mine tended to be more contemporary than I was able to fit into the course, ideas about representation for instance, using photographic imagery in my prints, questioning reality, etc. My impression was that the course seemed to skip from traditional genre to genre and was very prescriptive in some of the assignments. I found this very frustrating as I did have my own ideas that I would have liked to develop much more freely from an early stage.
  I still managed to get a good mark though, but I can see how the skills based/genre based approach so influences the type of work you are led to make, I would have been happier to be more challenged conceptually.
  This is just me obviously and maybe things have changed.

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• Superb work, Carol… intriguing images, beautifully executed.

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