Dissapointment island

No doubt 2020 is an extraordinary year which changed lifes of each and every. Remembering my self in the very beginning of 2020, I had so many plans, ambitions and expectations. By then I finally reached long craved level in my career which opened the doors for work with celebrities at film premieres, at exhibitions, fashion shows etc. I had booked business trip to U.S in April which was meant to lift my business activity to the new level and expand the network as well as opening my eyes on immigration opportunities. Summer was promising a lot of money due to festivals and concerts where contract was already signed and I could imagine these numbers on my bank account, but even that did not satisfy that wish to grow, learn and develop.  Opportunity to undertake professional practice and put some well recognized company on my CV sounded more than exiting and I was looking forward to start working in the industry as well as gathering material for my project. That excitement to meet new people, show myself, gain a knowledge was boiling in veins but suddenly...
There is an island in Tasman sea, not big not small, uninhabited and the lack of resources become a reason for it to be named a Disappointment island. Exactly so I would name 2020 when all opportunities, plans and expectations went down the hill ,the only thing which is left is a hope and a DPS year proposal. So I started looking at placement opportunities. I would like to mention that before all the madness called pandemic was announced there were much many internship offers and placement opportunities available online. Not giving up I looked at offers from DPS which hit me on face with reality, because of most required skills such as animation and graphic design which I have nothing common with. That to be honest disappointed me a lot and put to the point of wishing to cancel the DPS course at some point and carry on with main studies. Realizing the issue in the beginning of Illustration and Visual media course year 2 (which was the first year at UAL for me) I started looking for the opportunities to fix this problem and learn to animate or get familiar with graphic design. Not that I did not try but that there were no lessons, workshops or anything like that before the lockdown offered, that disappointed even more and made me realize the main difference between illustration and so much adored by me fine art. Another issue was found - no suitable digital drawing device. During many projects I noticed that I 'am one in a thousand who still draws using old-school pencil method which takes long time and lots of power, to solve it this October I purchased (finally) a drawing tablet and started testing different software, styles, watching some recognized artists drawing so I could learn. Another problem is an absolute absence of portfolio related to my designing skills which luckily will be solved during this and next term of DPS year. 
Reflecting on the first session -  we/students we were asked how are we doing I had nothing to say, I wish I could tell that everything is ok and I can devote most of the time to sitting at home and working on solving these mentioned above issues but nothing came better to my mind that this drawing (below) which is also a first complete digital drawing of mine using a tablet.
The bright side of this story for sure is a HOPE. Hope which motivates to develop digital drawing skills, gathering design solutions in to portfolio with help of life briefs and some basic inspiration, but mostly focused is the final project which I aim to develop through the DPS year. First step of "Home" photo reportage project  is financial investment in to promotion on social media to attract the attention of wider audience and investment of time of course to interview people, photograph and post onto social media project account. Photo journalism was my passion for long years, at UAL last year I attended the open day for the masters in photo journalism course which opened my eyes and motivated to simply do, make and create.  Before I managed to get the camera, walking around the area, going to work and from work I was paying attention to people  around me making a list of personalities, backgrounds, social layers to interview and a places where potentially these people can be met. Made a list of questions to ask and decided that recording the conversation would be much easier that putting notes. Also asked a friend and collogues to help me with a search for people with interesting life stories related to immigration and searching for home, also found many groups uniting photographers and models on Facebook so posted a request. Researching photo book making I highlighted some good companies which will potentially use later when enough of stories are gathered and page design made. About the design, I need to find book making application or software to design each page of the book. Honestly saying I feel anxious about interviewing strangers, what if they wont even to listen, what if wont take me seriously? There is a Russian saying - eyes are scared but hands are doing, which means - you might be afraid of the work/task you see but making/doing it will be much easier that it looks and hopefully it applies on my situation so its time to catch a good weather and go for the story hunt. 
The very last part of todays progress in learning is research in MBA courses available in London. I decided to turn onto business road which seem to be an exiting and full of opportunities, bearing in mind that MBA is one of worlds mostly craved degrees I started looking closer and highlighted a couple of recognized institutions providing this course, surprise was that for some institutions no any additional exams need to be passed and having a design bachelors degree there are chances to go straight in to business school what is more than amazing in my perception. Only one condition which sounds like a challenge is to achieve 2.1 on the degree and hopefully with help of Dissertation surgery provided by Academic support and the time of DPS year even this height can be conquered. 

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