Student Stories: Anthony Carey

(Rachel Smith) Tell us a bit about your current creative practice as you approach the end of the BA Creative Arts degree. 

(Anthony Carey) My painting practice begins with memory, grief, belonging, and the emotional weight that certain places or images seem to hold. Stage 3 has helped me understand that the work extends beyond the paintings alone.

For my final unit Major Project, At the Edge of Place, I developed a body of work from time spent in Canada, especially Alberta and the Rockies. They are not really travel paintings. They are memory-led responses to scale, weather, stillness, and the feeling of being in those landscapes.

In what ways have you developed interdisciplinary methods as part of the Creative Arts degree and your creative practice?

In the Major Project, I used writing, spoken presentation, digital exhibition design, accessibility, audience testing, and print production to extend the paintings into a public-facing project. This changed how I worked, making me think about sequence, pace, text, sound, scale, navigation, and how different viewers might encounter the work online.

What have been the highlights or key moments of studying for your degree with OCA? 

A major highlight has been learning that I could shape the course around my own concerns rather than simply completing exercises. Stage 3 was especially important because the work reached audiences beyond OCA. Exhibitions such as Belonging, Between the Shores, and later At the Edge of Place helped me see the work as something that could exist publicly.

What have you gained from the tutor-student interactions through Stage 3? 

Tutor feedback has been central. Diana Ali, Rachel Smith, and Katrina Whitehead helped me see possibilities in the work that I might not have recognised on my own. They also challenged me to question decisions more carefully and to understand why particular choices mattered. At Stage 3, you are no longer just responding to tasks; you are trying to understand what your practice is becoming

What are the most important things you have learned along the way?

I have learned to trust my instincts, but also to test them. I work intuitively, but the degree has taught me to ask whether a decision is serving the work or just trying to resolve anxiety. I have also learned that failure is part of the evidence; the wrong turns often teach me the most.

What advice would you give to current and new students?
Document everything, especially the failures. The doubts and wrong turns often show the clearest learning. Make the work matter to your own practice. The course gives you structure, but the strongest work comes when you use it for something genuinely important to you.

Build a peer network where you can, and reach out if you feel overwhelmed. I found support through artist friends, and the OCA staff have been incredibly supportive.

What are your hopes and aspirations beyond the degree? 

I want to keep painting, applying for open calls, developing online exhibitions, and building ways for the work to reach people outside traditional gallery spaces. I am not completely sure whether the next stage will stay with landscape, return to the figure, or bring the two together, but that uncertainty feels useful. I want to keep testing the work and allowing the practice to adapt without losing the concerns that brought me to it in the first place.

LINKS

https://www.anthonycareyart.com

https://www.instagram.com/anthonycareyart/