MSK

I like that I suddenly live close to museums.

Some of my last snapshots capturing my life in England.

An empty room, on our last day.

A tube station in London, my refuge all year long.

And the fridge in our dorm kitchen.

I close this chapter now.

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end of year show

Yesterday I went to the opening of our end-of-year show where my short film is part of. My year as a pre-degree student in England is over now, but I am more than ready to move on. I got accepted at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent where I will be studying film next year. But first of all, it's time to make summer plans!

all film shots are part of my short film /

the work in the middle is by my friend sara,

who is also in an art competition right now.

'like' her work here on facebook and help her win!

`

transcendental times

On Sunday I woke up in a completely snow-covered, magical England. When I opened my curtains I was amazed by the thick layer of snow, the first time this (school) year.

At dusk we decided to go to the old church and cemetery in town.









The growing darkness and snowy scene intensified the ghostly and mysterious atmosphere of the place. So beautiful.

 

Afterwards we went to a coffee bar in town.
We had time, since we already knew school was cancelled the next day.

  

Christmas in London

new life: part one

I got several questions from people asking me what I am exactly doing/studying here in the UK, so in this post I am going to clear this up. Furthermore I want to write about the beginning of my experience of living alone in a new country.

I am currently sitting on a chair at my desk in my room in my flat in block two. My room is the middle one of the top floor with the best view on the clouds. I like having my own space. Living with flatmates is something completely new and it has been a great experience so far. I thought I would miss the cosiness of family dinner in particularly, but luckily we all cook and eat on the same time, so we are never alone. And the cooking part! It's going well! The only things I cooked for myself in Belgium were... eggs and pancakes. Luckily it got much more variated now.

I thought the transition from 'never having lived/cooked/washed alone' to 'hello I have to do everything myself now' would be a complete adaptation, but it wasn't that much of a big deal, as I was settled in my new life very quickly. I am not really homesick and I definitely don't miss my old life... I do get strange feelings when friends or family come and visit me during the weekends and then suddenly when they leave I am left alone again.

Back to my first writing intention: explaining you what I am studying here! So, I am doing a foundation diploma in art and design. It is pre-degree university and a one-year course. The course has three stages. Right now I am in stage one, which is "rotating" through different art areas. Every week I am sitting in another studio, learning and experiencing a different art and design discipline. I already did fashion and textiles, visual communication and fine art. Right now I am in the middle of photo media and afterwards there is only one more left, 3D. The main focus in all these rotations is "experiment!". The tutors want you to look outside the box. And as I am in art school, everything is more focused on the art aspect of the medium. In fashion and textiles we did not literally sew, but we manipulated fabric and experimented with it while working on the mannequin, in photomedia we don't take photographs but we make "photograms" (cameraless photography!) in the darkroom.

After these rotation weeks I will have to choose one of the art areas to specialize in for the rest of the year. Then we will sew or take photographs and get to know all the technical details. It's called stage two. The last months of the year we have to develop and realise a personal major project, which is stage three. This last stage looks the most exciting thing of the year. Having the time to do something you completely choose yourself and in the art medium you love most.

This year should help me making up my mind. Do I want to study something creative? If so, what specific art medium? Or am I going to do something completely different?

And as my tutor told us the other day: "every single human being should do a foundation course in their life!", I completely agree. It makes you much more open minded. It gives you the chance to try out new stuff. I usually stick to photography and film, but now I have to try out new art mediums and I am pretty sure these will help me expand my vision on photography as well.

If you have any more questions, you can always leave a comment or e-mail me.

music

music

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disposable summer

Yesterday I carried summer in my pocket. In the morning it was my disposable camera full of festival pictures, in the afternoon it were the developed images. And now summer is hanging on my wall in my room. It's a lovely way to keep summer memories alive, and to start daydreaming about the summer of next year. Are you already making plans?

`

music

UPDATE

Art exhibition Manifesta in Genk (the European biennial of contemporary art). I didn't really like the exhibition, but the location was impressive and absolutely stunning, mom making juice, enjoying the sun in a park, my first football game, Gabrielle once more,...

open eyes

a day at the belgian coast, my brother & sister's birthday, wonderful clouds and delicious food