Cap & Gown – At Last

I bypassed Uni at 18.  A little too afraid to leave home at the time.  If I had I’d probably have studied business.  I think it would have kicked started a career for me but I don’t know if I would have got any further than I did in financial services.  But 3 years ago I embarked on a degree in art. 

Creative Art & Design Practice to be precise.  Its been an amazing journey and changed me as a person.  I’m more relaxed, more in touch with who I am and I know my own identity.   If it hadn’t been for training as a coach/mentor I don’t think I’d have had the confidence to do it.

So on Saturday 9th November I donned my cap & gown and collected my certificate along with a couple of hundred other students.  I’ve got used to the fact I’d earned a distinction but was surprised to be told I’d been awarded an excellence award by the college.  Thrilled, not least because it came with book tokens.

I now need to try and find a couple of beautiful art books. I’d like them to be special books, a pleasure to pick up and a feast for the eyes with their roots in art.  I’m going to take my time and a great deal of pleasure in making the right choices.

The three years have flown and I’d been hoping to complete the honors year – sadly, this year with just 3 graduating art students, it’s not running at Leek.  Its such a shame as I’m too late to consider Stoke or Burton colleges this year.  So I’m having an enforced ‘gap’ year.  Work, a mortgage and two much loved Border Collies deter me from travelling as I might have done in my twenties, instead I look forward to a year of experimentation, possibly exploring bookbinding, printing and batik – so who knows what my artistic future holds.

What I do know is I feel a sense of pride in my achievements – it was bloody hard work achieving a distinction, an accomplishment that places me in a position to take my art in a direction of my choosing – experimentation is going to be so much fun.

copyright Carolyn Trafford (2019)

Carolyn Trafford, FdA