Filling the Well | Writing My First MFA Chapter │ Exhibitions, Making & Keeping Sane
Come along with me as I navigate one of the more demanding stretches of my Masters of Visual Art — writing the first chapter of my exegesis. Chapter 4, which centres on trees and their relationship to my practice, felt like the most natural place to begin, and what started as a 3.5–4k word target quickly became an 8,000-word first draft that then had to be carefully edited down. Writing up creative research is its own beast, and in this video I take you through that process honestly.
Keeping sane through this kind of deep synthesis work meant getting out and filling the creative well. I visited two exhibitions: ‘A velvet flower, ant and a bird’ Melbourne University’s IPotter Museum of Art, and ‘Bound’, a design week exhibition here in Ballarat. Returning to Melbourne Uni was unexpectedly meaningful — I studied there, received a scholarship to do my Masters in art history, guest lectured and tutored there before leaving to start my clothing label. Walking those halls again was a quiet reminder that I’ve done this kind of serious academic work before. I also did a beautiful workshop on making Solander boxes at the Centre for Rare Arts and Forgotten Trades here in Ballarat — these handmade archive boxes will house my sketchbooks and works on paper for my graduating exhibition.
I finish the video back in the studio with a painting session — which felt especially sweet after receiving some really encouraging feedback from my supervisors on the chapter work. I’m working with my drawing oils and have pulled out my oil sticks too, painting on canvases I’ve prepared with coloured gesso.
You can follow the full Masters of Visual Art journey here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9EzOmZxbcM&list=PLwyl1qSeWSqfkhg1j1cNq3-hCnHP_sz2c
Thanks so much to everyone who supports me and these videos by buying art, a print, or an e-course her on my website. This is how I make my living and it genuinely means the world. 🙏
📚 Check out my ‘à la carte’ art skills classes online classes where I teach bite-sized classes on how to do the things you see in my vlogs https://www.susannethercote.com/a-la-carte-art-classes
✉️ Join my newsletter for fortnightly round-ups of studio news:
https://catchy-frost-81401.myflodesk.com/xyajqpbipy
📷 Instagram: