A Reflection on my Study Abroad Experience

Now that I am back in the UK and adjusting to my English life again, I thought I would write a conclusion to my study abroad experience. It was an incredible experience, both studying at a new university and living abroad in a new country I had never been to before. A risk for sure, but one that 100% paid off! I learnt so much, met loads of amazing people whom I will definitely keep in contact with and I grew as a person. Becoming more independent and more confident, I feel even more able to follow my creative aspirations and have dreams of living abroad in the future which I know I could make a reality. I would recommend studying abroad to any students that are interested, you will gain so much from it and it is something you will never ever forget.

Next for me is an enjoyable summer (including a holiday to Kos) and preparing for my final year at uni! I look forward to developing the skills I learnt whilst studying art in Poland in my future work, both university and personal artwork.

Last photo I took in Poland, just before boarding the plane

Travels around Poland and Europe

One of the many advantages of being based in the city of Katowice in South Poland was easy access to other cities in Poland as well as the surrounding European countries. During my 4 month study placement, I visited 5 other cities in Poland. These were Krakow, Bytom, Wroclaw, Tychy and the Capital, Warsaw. Each place had so much to see and explore, naturally I took my camera and a whole album of photos were created for each city visit. Some of my favourite photographs follow...

Krakow

Bytom

Wroclaw

Tychy

Warsaw

Myself and Christina also took the opportunity to travel to 3 cities in 3 different European countries during our 6 day Easter break. We travelled by bus to Prague, Vienna and Budapest. It was an amazing trip, not as long as we would have liked but this meant we made the most of the time we had and tried to see and do as much as we could in each city. This included tasting the cuisine, going to art galleries, a little shopping for postcards, a tremendous amount of walking and sightseeing, taking lots of photos...

Prague

Vienna

Budapest

"One's destination is never a place, but always a new way of seeing things" - Henry Miller

Finishing Projects and Classes

The term has ended and all my projects have been completed. To summarise, here are the final pieces I created for each of the units.

Work I created for the Interpretation of Literature, Serigraphy, Classical Drawing Workshop and Interdisciplinary Actions units were featured in the End of Year Show at ASP Katowice, Re: wind.

Digital Graphic Basics

Interpretation of Literature 

Serigraphy

Intaglio

Interdisciplinary Actions

Classical Drawing Workshop

Poster Design

Serigraphy Classes

Both myself and Christina decided to choose serigraphy as one of our units because we both enjoyed the workshops provided at UCA and wanted to continue to improve the printmaking technique.

They call the process 'serigraphy' here rather than 'screen-printing'. It is just another name for the process, a method where a mesh screen in used to transfer ink onto the paper or flat surface underneath. One colour is printed at a time and several colour layers can be used to create the final print. To prepare designs for printing, I created drawings on tracing paper. I made pen drawings of a pocket-watch (to fit in with my Interdisciplinary unit theme) and a floral circular pattern to use as a background for the pocket-watch design. I was told to bring these in along with my own paper and acrylic paint.

They use acrylic paint here rather than printing ink because it is fast-drying, they only have one printing screen in operation at a time. I did find this quite frustrating as I felt I was wasting time, when I could have been doing other work, waiting for the screen to become available. I think it would be better if they had a rota or gave students a rough time as to when they can come in and print so the wait time is less.

Photographic emulsion was used to transfer my drawings onto the screen. In contrast to UCA workshops, this was done by the tutors and students weren't even required to clean the screens after printing either. It felt a lot more tutor led with less independence for students which I think impacts negatively because students wouldn't be able to do the whole process alone in the future outside of the university studio if they haven't been taught it.

The printing process was also not independent, the tutors wanted to begin printing and then allow us to have a go. We noticed they also did this with the Polish students so it must just be how the studio is run. I decided to create 2 colour layer serigraphy prints for my pocket-watch floral design. I started with a bright blue for the floral circular pattern and then chose gold for the pocket-watch. The choice of gold paint wasn't ideal for printing, it dried very quickly and I had to add some yellow paint to it but thankfully it did print well even if I had to print at a faster pace than I would usually. I also did a couple of prints with the floral pattern first layer as blue and second layer as gold. This created an interesting textured print and made my design appear more abstract which I quite like.

I went on the following week, to print some more of my floral pattern design on coloured paper as well as two other designs - a circular bridge in a park design and a Polish design to celebrate my time studying abroad in Katowice. I even printed my Polish design onto a t-shirt as a souvenir. I am very pleased with how it turned out and I definitely want to do more screen-printing in my third year of study at UCA.

Przygoda means Adventure. The design features the Katowice heart logo, Spodek arena and part of  Muzeum Slaskie structure

The 'exam' process here involves laying out work for the Professor to examine and assess and then we were given a Polish grade and signed off the unit for the semester. 

They chose a couple of my prints to put into the end of year exhibition at ASP Katowice. Here is one of my pocket-watch floral pattern serigraphy prints that had been framed and exhibited in the corridor outside the serigraphy studio. I am really pleased with this print and I am glad that the tutors like it.