THAT first presentation…

In perfect Sara style, I prepared my reference images on Miro, along with a few question prompts, and felt ready to share my journey with the world.

For some strange reason, I messed the order of everything I had planned, missed the main points AND totally ran out of time. Huge fail on my part, and quite out of character for me. I mean, granted, I have a tendency to talk round the houses - it’s a typical ADHD trait, but I’m normally pretty clued up on my presentations. Anyway, I still took a HUGE amount from this session, not only lessons that can be learnt on my part, to prevent that happening again, but also from the wide range of artists on this course.

I was sure to scribble notes for each and every person who presented, with ooooh’s and aaaah’s at moments of inspiration. I particularly liked the way my peers had used film in their work, as I find that fascinating. As a keen photographer myself, it also reignited my passion for analogue photography. I’m hoping to pick up an old, but glorious Olympus OM-1 and fire it up.

Making notes on each presentation really helps me to process and retain what the artist is saying, rather than just feel I’m being ‘talked at’. It’s also like keeping a record of contacts - if I ever need a sculpter or film marketing guru, or indeed a contact from Al Jazeera, I know who to turn to.

I feel, overall, the main thing I would have liked to include in my introductory presentation, was the reference to Alan [Watts], and his inspirational philosophy. Maybe next time…but, for now, I have plenty of research to be doing into all these wonderful artists and their work.