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Jereme Crow - The Open College of the Arts

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Jereme Crow

Following on from the questions that were raised about contextual study in my last blog, I’d like to take the opportunity to share the work of my new mixed media student, Jereme Crow, who is in the middle of his level 2 studies.
Jereme’s studentship is exemplary, in particular his attitude to contextual studies which he seems to positively revel in. The OCA courses ask for about 10 – 15 hours a week work. I know students work at different paces, so it can be hard to judge how much work students are actually doing and of course at this level it is up to the student themselves to manage their own workload. One look at Jereme’s blog for the first few weeks of this course and you cannot fail to see that Jereme has made a serious commitment to his studies and is working his socks off.
I also worked with Jereme for the last assignment of his previous course. In that, he explored abstract expressionism with the same exhaustive enthusiasm and rigour. He began the assignment submission with this drawing of a ball of elastic bands, thus proving that he had acquired the necessary core observational skills. He then went on to systematically explore and re-work an image of a seaside scene through the lens of abstract expressionism so thoroughly that I could clearly follow his development from wee sketch, to finished painting. On a kind of rollercoaster of the momentum of his own ideas he managed to pull in most of the major players of abstract expressionism with a few other odds and sods getting sucked into the vortex along the way, resulting in a very personal and creatively fertile process which you can see in his blog for that course.
One of the excellent things about working with adult learners is that they have all kinds of skills and experience which I can learn from as I am trying to help them learn. Students like Jereme, and Patricia Farrar and others have an effectiveness and level of self motivation I admire hugely, whilst my own working patterns are rather more haphazard. I consider myself a full time artist, which after two days teaching time deducted, leaves me three five hour days in the studio without childcare issues. That means that if I worked full time flat out from when my toe touched the studio floor I would be working at the same level expected of my students. This puts me in mind of something Cy Twombly once said: “When I work, I work very fast, but preparing to work can take any length of time.”   Last time I spoke about this, Patricia replied to say that ideas are what motivates her, and I certainly find that work brings its own momentum and energy grows with a project. This can be the opposite for students who for whatever reason are putting less time in, they don’t neccesarily get to feel that push from the work which makes it harder to continue.

I hope that seeing Jereme’s fun filled, exuberant submissions will encourage others to have the confidence and the self belief to jump in and have a go – you will learn much more that way and hopefully enjoy the process along the way.


Posted by author: Emma Drye

13 thoughts on “Jereme Crow

  • when originally published this blog had lost it’s hyperlinks, but (hopefully) I’ve put them in now so you can all see Jereme’s work – I encourage you to do so.

    • I like and can appreciate this example of work. However, as an OCA student I find :
      it is unhelpful to be encouraged to blog and embrace it and then be shown such examples, which are clearly not digital ones;
      as much as it is unhelpful to be told to ‘experiment’ more and to find out your tutor has no time for your work which is outside the exercices’ specifics because ‘it is not what you are required to do at this stage’.
      It is unhelpful too when I try my best to compromise, having compiled all learning log, research into the digital format, provided a print of it along with my original works, all clearly and meticulously labelled with an accompanying list of contents and yet my tutor managed to miss an whole A3 folder of original works in my parcel…
      I am willing to try really really hard. But I can only take so much non sense and frustration at a time. (nb. last point has been dealt with, thanks to my tutor and Lia)
      So, OCA, I wonder, what is it exactly that you are trying to say?? what is it exactly that you want??
      Comments welcome. Thanks. (please be kind, please let it be constructive.)

      • Dear student,
        With the original blog post dating to 2012 you might not get a lot of traffic from other students with your queries but I will do my best to address in part from a Learner Support standpoint.
        Logging, blogging and anything in between:-
        Students can choose between a handwritten log, an online blog, or a combination to suit. You may have seen from this particular student that we linked also to his online blog.
        In the Student Resources area, we have booklets for Learning Logs, or Blogs (links below) so students can find a system that works for them.
        http://www.oca-student.com/content/keeping-online-learning-log-1
        http://www.oca-student.com/content/introducing-learning-logs-1
        We try to feature a variety of student work on the WeAreOCA blog and over time students may find their preferences change. The key to learning logs is finding what works for you, whilst showing that you have covered critical ground in terms of research, exploring alternative solutions and developing and expanding your ideas.
        Tutor feedback:-
        Due to data protection I will not discuss specifics of this query within the public domain but would encourage you to contact me if you wish to discuss this.
        While any work that you do outside of your studies may ultimately benefit your development, tutor feedback relates to the learning outcomes of the course and relevant work that may be submitted for formal assessment.
        Missing feedback:-
        Again, due to data protection I will not address specifics of this query within the public domain but should you feel that this has not been resolved to your satisfaction I will be happy to discuss with you directly.
        I hope that if you still have any queries or concerns you will direct them to us (learnersupport@oca-uk.com) so that we can hopefully support you with anything you are unsure of.

  • Good to see such a thorough learning log.
    I certainly agree that work brings its own momentum and energy grows with a project. Keeping the momentum going, no matter how much time you have can be very hard. Keeping a learning log can really help. As a practising artist I have always kept a note book and write in it regularly. I also keep dozens of sketchbooks. I don’t stick pictures of other artists in mine, but file any things of interest away separately and that works for me. I find reading over old musings can be motivating and, at times, surprising. Sometimes I come across things I wrote twenty years ago that are still pertinent and can even help give me a good prod. My notebooks are like a constant good friend.

    • I agree Olivia – isn’t it interesting when you look back and find the same ideas and motivations repeating themselves? My friend has a system of ring binders but I have adopted chaos theory unfortunately and so can never find anything, or happily stumble across something whilst looking for something else. My sketcbooks are all identical and are in a row in chronological order, but my notes are scribbled on the backs of delivery notes in pink felt pen and the like and are hopeless. I wish I had developed a logbook methodology early on.

      • Your notes can become a logbook if you date them and paste them into a notebook or file. If you find it difficult to do that as you go along, just drop them into an envelope and catch up with them later. What works for you works for you. You don’t need to change to a different method to make the best use of your ideas and reflections.

  • Emma, so good to read your comments here about work and the development of ideas.
    In the Painting 1 course, I am finding the need to keep the learning blog going on the web but alongside this, I am keeping a journal (as well as the sketchbooks of course). I don’t know if others find this but the handwritten journal is vital for me to keep so many private thoughts and responses which I am not comfortable sharing on the Blog. I am working at trying to understand what this word ‘response’ means in terms applied to images and I find that early morning writing in my journal about sounds, colours, shapes and feelings is really helping me to express a response in my painting rather than just a representational image. I discovered a yellow I had never seen before in the early morning light and it was ‘magic’ – these are the personal thoughts which are kept in the journal.
    Others may be more comfortable sharing private thoughts through a blog – not there yet!!!

    • Hi Patricia – I do think it is important that first and foremost whatever we do has to work the student. It would be good to see your online log – I’d like to catch up with what you are up to.

      • Hi Emma, just loving the painting course now after the first huge sense of gulp, gulp, gulp…where is my pencil!!!!! Have become obsessed with colour and the feel of the paint but there are still more questions than answers.
        My learning blog is http://patriciafarrar.wordpress.com – lots of experimental work!
        Good to talk to you.
        P

  • I’m struggling at the moment to show my thought processes clearly and effectively leading towards my assignment pieces. This is a big help so thanks for the vid and thanks especially to Jereme. Nice work.

  • I thoroughly enjoyed going through Jereme’s blog. I am hoping to go on to this course in the near future and am inspired by his work. Thanks Jereme.

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