DOWSWELL ON DOWSWELL PART 2 OF 6

THE START OF WHAT WAS TO BE SIX YEARS AT ART COLLEGE

So there I was at the beginning of my art college era. I ended up doing three qualifications in a row!...I drew, painted, calligraphied, typographied, technical drew, miniature model made and many other things...and that was all in year one...the qualification was called National Certificate in Art and Design...there was also a photography section...which I liked a lot...it flew past and I was at the end of it. So it was goodbye to all the people I knew and then a decision.

WHAT NEXT?

It’s strange but your always coming to a crossroads when your very young (or for that matter through your entire life really)...you have to decide (or at least well, I was extremely lucky to be in this situation of having a CHOICE where It was POSSIBLE to do this) what to DO next. Deciding what to DO next sometimes is never very easy... (or when you’re a young me it wasn’t...when you’re a present day me it isn’t iether)...but, when your very young, your inexperienced...there’s no combined knowledge that has built up over the years.

For me, I liked the look of the HND in photography (this was going to last two years)...and I was going to come out of it knowing about lenses...(which looking at things now was really vital for things to come)

There was two little sections on this HND of video production, where I did a sort of a car advert and a video about a small zoo. There was a pig there called Basil that we video-ed...that was pretty funny (or him making the noise he made was!)...These projects went down very well with the lecturer in charge of it and I got awarded one merit for each project...he liked my editing ability a lot.

A CHANGE OF COLLEGE

So again it was the question...what do I DO now?...at this stage I was looking at the option of - do you become a wedding photographer?...how do you MAKE MONEY out of being a photographer...I had NO CLUE at all...and I did NOT like the idea of becoming a wedding photographer. I didn’t even know that you could get a job as a stills photographer on short films and feature films...I didn’t KNOW that that even existed until much, much later.

So I ended up at this much bigger art college doing this bizarre degree (that actually got terminated two or three years after I left which I find odd)