My creative journey part 1

My creative journey has meandered into varying paths along the way and I started out loving art, always drawing when I was young. My art teacher wanted me to be an art teacher.... I would have loved that, but Mum said NO. At the time there were a lot of teacher strikes and she did not think that it was a worthwhile job. Although my Mum has now found her own creative path in sewing and creating beautiful cushions, bunting, handmade bags etc., she did not understand my creativity when I was younger. I wanted to do an Arts degree, but the answer again was no, simply because she never saw any credibility in extra education and did not see any future in anything creative. I did find a job doing 'window dressing' which apparently is now called 'visual merchandising', which was quite creative, but then was persuaded to work in an admin role (where Mum worked), when I wanted to get a mortgage - becuase this was the more stable environment. I lasted 4 years working my way up within an office environment to be an administrative assistant and met some great people, but it wasn't really for me.

When my son was young, I took the opportunity to go back to College and did a Foundation course and I loved it! When he was not at School, I was able to take him along with me, which was great. I did ceramics, photography, graphic design, life drawing, still life - a whole range of creative topics and I enjoyed everyone of them - it was a perfect course and it made me feel so vibrant and happy and was one of the best things I ever did. From there I did an A Level art course, but could not finish it due to complications at home. I went through a tough break up, which was pretty tumultuous, but through thick and thin, I was determined to stay on the creative path (it really was my saviour). I then took a graphics course and I loved typography and motion graphics and fell in love with a programme called Director, where I could create art with  motion. I then found another course doing Multimedia and I found myself helping a lot of the students with the software and when I completed the course I was asked by the tutor if I would come in and help out with classes. I then went part time and then gradually full time - it worked out very well with my sons education as I was there for him by working part time and by the time he was older, I started working full time. The mystery to me is how I went from art to digital - when I started the graphics course I did not know my way around a computer and here I was teaching web design, motion graphics and animation! I had evolved into a digital creative.