Well all change or rather back to where I was already…..after a 10 year pause.
When I first moved to Nottingham in 2002 I came from a relationship and career (one Spanish the other Oxford University Boldeian Library) that had both broken….and after a disastrous sojourn in London I asked my best friend from school days to come and pick me up lock stock and pc from my dingy one bed (literally a room 8′ by 10′) in Willesden North London and rescue me from the insanity going on around me….. a short story in itself.
So I ended up renting a one bed flat in Lady bay opposite my friend and began temping….and going slowly broke after a year my savings that I intended to spend on a Creative Writing M.A. at NTU were depleted and I had to go for Teacher Training at Nottingham University instead..as it was funded then.The rest is history….a succession of weird and wonderful teaching appointments in everything from basic skills to drawing and finally a permanent post in 2007 (after a brief and not very successful web design freelance period) at NTU School of Art and Design.I have been there ever since…and technically I am still there this as is a ‘career break’ of nine months and I am due to return in July 2015.
Clearing my hard drives the other day I found the original M.A. application form from 2002. The one I never sent 🙂 So this is a kind of return to basics and a chance to reinvigorate a writing career that been stalled for 7 years as I had to focus on my job in hand and the accompanying development of a ‘art research’profile as part of that job. I also completed a professional development M.A. in Fine Art which whilst it started out as job related twisted onto a weird and wonderful new illustration path….kind of a trojan horse (or dog to be exact) really.
So the door is open..the books (far too many) are stacked up in the studio (writing room now 🙂 and here we go…..two three four….