Non-Place Final Hand In/ WEEK FROM HELL

This week has been the most stressful and horrific weeks for me personally. While dealing with the stress of a degree level hand in, I also failed a driving test. And while this felt like the end of my own world it turned out my family was having an even worse time.

So to start with I guess I should explain how my hand in went. I managed to begin the week feeling confident about my pieces, they were complete, most of the display was set up it was just final layout to consider and some sketch book decorating to finalise. After dealing with the book stand fiasco were first it seemed too straight then it was too wide and had to be melted back again but it ended up that the books sat fine, one on a stand as the middle piece and the others standing on their own. BUT! they wouldn't stay open and would billow in the slightest of breeze, flicking the pages... They needed to be kept down with something so I got some bull dog clips that works a treat.

After all that it still didn't look complete so I created a kind of table cloth/doily thing to make the lines less harsh and have some added colour to connect it to the splashy colourful pieces. I used paper doilies as stencils and then splashed and cut around them to create a frilly shape and also put the doilies onto the wall as placements for tea cups and to add to the dimensions.

Finally, I decided to frame my artists' statement to complete the "homely" look.

I liked it any way.... 

And all of this became so much less important after my family drama this week... With my parents stuck in Egypt after the Russian plane bombing and the fact my Auntie and her 3 wee sons were in a car accident leading to them being upside down in the car in the Clyde... yeah, you could say I stopped caring about non-places and just prayed for my families safe returns. 

But in the end everyone was fine, my auntie and the boys only really had bruises and little cuts, my mum and dad were the first scottish flight home meaning they were only a day delayed really thankfully.

It has been a horrific week but now it is time to move on, be thankful to have everyone alive and well and know that everything from now on can only go upwards from this week. 

My parents' interview (newspaper version) - <http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/scots-couple-tell-fears-flight-6791437>

Auntie's accident story - <http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/hero-ferry-worker-who-saved-6754933>