Dreams Coming True

It's been a very testing time on the Maters since my last post. Staffing cuts and changes mean that I've ben left without a subject specific supervisor and access to the college dark room is now cut off as there's no one there to set it up. For a good fortnight I thought I'd reached as far as I was going to, however I've come this far so I refuse to give up now! There are a few of us left hanging and we're supporting each other, along with our new course leader (oh yeah, they cut the course leader too) so with any luck we'll get past this and manage to complete module 3 without too many more hiccups.

Looking at how things stand, I realised that the first thing I need to remedy is my lack of work space. Despite setting up a mini darkroom in my shed, I just didn't have the room needed to work. It was fine for printing a few 35mm snaps and the odd 8x10 but for an actual project as important as this, I had to look elsewhere. It was always something I intended to do - set up my own darkroom and studio - but the absolute shambles at the college (no staff, no access, no resources) forced my hand.

But like all good fairy tales, I think this one will have a happy ending too as my husband was able to source a unit for me.

It's been used for storing tractors and will need a lot of work but it would be mine, to access whenever I liked, no restrictions (okay except for family obligations and work and the usual). At the moment it stinks of diesel and when we first discovered it the floor at the far end has collapsed but the landlord has already started work and I'm hopeful I'll be in by September.

The plan is to split the unit in two, a darkroom with storage and a studio. Whilst I'm not planning on becoming a commercial photographer again, I do recognise that it would be a good source of income to support my fine art projects, plus I'm going to need to cover the rent somehow.

Wish me luck