I am in the first year of an art and design degree and my first semester was pretty intense for me, because I was comparing myself to the other people on the course, most of whom had done artbefore this (I am a 35-year-old mature student who stopped taking art classes in high school) and feeling quite out of my depth and disheartended. My marks for my first semester were not great because I was putting to much pressure on myself to fit in with the brief - I saw fulfilling the brief literally as ’success’ and in the process I lost my spontaneity because I was so focused on getting it ‘right’.

This semester I decided that I would let myself off the hook and just enjoy what I was doing and create something within the brief that was meaningful to *me* and not be afraid to throw ideas out and change direction completely if that’s what I was ‘feeling’.

So far I am really enjoying the process and I am far more satisfied with the art I am producing, so I totally agree with what you’re saying here.

Good to hear this posting made sense for you. Sounds like you got there before me though, in working out your own version of ’success’. More power to you on your degree and with every kind of success you choose to go for.

Andrew