Finally I have done my transfer and passed! It has taken so long to get to this stage, and despite my first supervisor saying that I could start on the next stage before my transfer, I was so distracted by the whole process and getting through my transfer I haven’t started making artworks yet. One has to be in the right frame of mind for that type of thing and having a stressful thing like a transfer hanging over one like the sword of Damocles is hardly condusive to making works of art.

The feedback I had was very helpful and is good for making me refine my methodologies more, though I do know that I have been far more rigorous on methodology that other art phd’s who have not been questioned at all on their unclear methodologies – * sigh * c’est la vie - at least it will prepare me well for my final viva in a couple of years time.

In terms of my supervision, it was decided that since my phd is going down a rather fine art route, my first supervisor was probably not as appropriate as other staff may be. She has been good in terms of her experience in supervising phd’s and for making sure that I am properly backing myself up with evidence, but I agree that her subject area has less cross over with my research than it did at the beginning of my phd. One of the examiners on the transfer panel offered to take her place as he is very interested in my work, and so I happy for that to happen, though I did say that I would still like to be able to tap into my now ex-first supervisor as an advisor and she was happy with this.

The positive feedback I got was that my transfer document was well written and interesting (yay! – I have read so many boring ones!). The head of postgraduate studies even asked if she could use it as an exemplar for other students. I told her yes as long as it wasn’t going to be a bad example given that it is 3 times the length it is supposed to be! Oh the irony… it is going to be used as a good example despite its horror length!

It feels good to get it out of the way, and all I want to do now is start of making works, but I can’t… I have family obligations in Mexico and Australia which means I have taken 5 weeks leave to attend to those, and will be back on the 25th of April when hopefully I shall have a good chunk of uninterrupted time to clear my head and start developing my artworks properly. I am hoping that I can still do some work on my phd whilst I am travelling, but past experience has shown this can be hard, especially when I have been away from my close family now for 18 months this stint, (9 years in total) so there is a fair bit to catch up on.