I was just reading some notes I made at that time, it was either to do with that games project or some form of research I was doing, and I was reading. I was thinking I can't make head nor tail of this. I think sometimes we were being encouraged to be over analytical-  whether this was coming from the conceptual group you know. I was just looking at some of the quotes in my notes, and there were quotes from Ayer the philosopher you know. Was I reading him? I think we were encouraged to. We were encouraged to read quite a lot of different people's work, not just  artists, so that in some way it was a good thing; it encourages you to explore new territory.

 

I would say yes I had a good time, you know, really. because I suppose it was for me a balance between in meeting a lot of new people in in the students in my year, socialising with them, and also exploring sort of different art forms. Which was very different to when I was at Loughborough. So yes there were a lot of positive things. I know for some, I think Rose found it a more difficult experience, but maybe she reflects on that differently now. I was thinking again from that first letter I wrote when I arrived; I think it was 1st of October in the halls of residence, I was obviously quite unsettled to begin with. but then I made a comment about the way that tutors interact with us or don't interact with us is encouraging an independence and I suppose that independence and way of working, being in the studio on my own and doing research, you know I still do that. so I suppose that sort of strengthened that way of working, being there. 

 

The interview was not following like a formal route because basically from Loughborough I applied, I had three choices I can't remember the 3rd; the first one was Maidstone and I didn't get in there, and remember not being particularly enamoured with the way the interview went. There were more comments about one's appearance than one’s work. Then I went to Falmouth and I didn't get in. so the next stage would have been the pool. And I thought I didn't want to do that I just wanted to get a place; so basically I looked at where the nearest fine art courses were to Loughborough, and I remember going on a bus from Loughborough to Midville with my portfolio. And arriving at Midville; it must have been after lunch, or early afternoon, I'm going into Stone’s office with other members of staff there. I think they'd all just come back from the pub so it was quite jolly you know, and it was not at all formal. and I got in because of that.  

 

I can remember sitting in my parent’s greenhouse doing the work for the holiday project. we were asked to pin it up, I think we were all asked to pin up the work. And then we were given individual critiques. But I remember yes, I was very upset about it. Maybe at that time I was easily thrown into a wobble, I don't know. it was just quite harsh, and it was not how I had experienced critiques at Loughborough, where you were given a slightly….it did feel that they were going in all guns on some of us. I don't remember it as a good experience.

 

I just remember Arthur came out quite well from that but I could be remembering. I think he got quite complimented on his approach. As I remember it was slightly more academic. He had more of an academic analytical approach, whereas I suppose somebody like my work was still following a fairly traditional literal interpretation of the project brief; maybe they were just trying to knock us about a bit you know. to make us question what we done and why we’d done it.  have a memory of the room it took place in and the boards we put up the work on. it was not really what I would call a welcome to your first year as a fine artist. it was hard. 

 

Insert quote from letter October 1st  1967, I quote an extract: 

…………finding college not as bad as when I first arrived…………….*.

………………………we do not have to keep to such a strict timetable as at Loughborough (my Pre-Dip college) and one is expected to work on one’s own. The tutors occasionally talk to us when they feel like it!                      …..although their attitude takes some getting used to, I think it is a good thing really as it makes one more independent…………………………..

​

The Tutors occasionally talked to us when they felt like it. We were suddenly on our own and maybe they were trying to encourage us to be calmer; to pursue research on our own. I think there's a lot in that really in the way I work now although I work in a completely different way; being in a solitary studio doesn't bother me. They were probably trying to harden us up a bit really.

 

My first encounter with Coutts was at the Arts Ball. Having dances with him, but that's a social thing; he was always quite pleasant to me, but I didn't really go for the way in which he was teaching. He was fairly positive I found, I haven't really got any unpleasant experiences of him; he could be, in critiques quite brutal. Stone I always thought was a bit of a joke; I don't remember him doing much studio tuition. I found some of the visiting tutors quite helpful. It was a tutor, he was interested in my work, and when he was visiting maybe it was once a week, he would always speak to me. Fawley, who was the only female member of staff. was an easy person to have a dialogue with; because it was rare then, there weren't many female members of staff, well there was only her. On the fine art staff, the rest were all male tutors. As a tutor I think she was open to having a dialogue with someone else working on a different theme. although her own particular field of work was quite different, she could still engage with one.

 

I do remember people like Chris, who was very friendly with Bert, they seemed to team up. Arthur because he had done the same foundation course as Chris, he was in the same little circle as well. I suppose the girls, we were in the Hall of Residence together and we tended to socialise together. Some could be quite aloof I think Bert, he was quite aloof. Others like Arthur were very friendly. Giles actually lived in the house that I shared with the other girls. when we moved out in the second year. I used to see Chris because the boyfriend I was going out with was a friend of Chris's after we left College. I do remember going to his very chic flat in Kensington. He was a colourful character I was surprised he wasn't in the book. he didn't ever seem to do any work, he was certainly colourful and charismatic. Jackie went on to do an MA in painting at Birmingham afterwards and I've got quite a lot of correspondence with her During the holidays when we were at college. Jackie was very much a painter. she got on very well with Kerr, and I think that Liz did as well because Liz was a painter. I know that Jackie liked Kerr a lot. it was painting, it was very tough if you wanted to be a painter. In that first year. I think it was the conceptual group who were encouraging people to approach work in a different way. The conceptual way. 

 

There was a definite division, and I know that friends like Jackie would talk about that. I tend to think that tutors like Coutts didn't engage with the painters. Tutors like Kerr would have been encouraging to them and also Watson. He was a painter as well. I suppose the way in which I worked, which was now when I look at it I think, oh my goodness that was so contrived what I was doing, but it was interesting, I went down a particular path and I've got all the books that I bought at that time. I think the conceptual people were encouraging us to read, I think Marshall Mcluhan was very much the name that everyone was hurling around in that time. I think I was interested in exploring these other areas, particularly in the last two years when I was seeing someone called Al, who did possibly exhibit in that second year show although he was studying graphics.

 

Quote from the diaries. 'We’re having an exhibition of our work in  College and various other people (of importance !) to come and see it. Madly trying to get some  printing done'. I can remember the game that I actually did, which was a 3D sort of game. and I think there was a book that went with it. It seemed like they were putting a lot of importance on it, I'm not sure if that was the time when there was a staff exhibition at the Midville Art Gallery, but that took priority I don't know. oh no that was in the June. 

 

Extract from the diaries 3rd of November 1968. College is very busy; a lot of work to get finished by the end of November. Time is short; panic stations. We're having an exhibition of our work in in college and various other people of importance could come and see it. Madly trying to get some printing done. It was a busy time because they were giving lots of talks in art history, lots of research, art history exams. So I will have to sacrifice going to dances, so it will give me more time and money. Dances occur quite a lot in my letters. And in my diaries.

 

 I loved researching art history projects, and I think that those tutors who taught like Abbott who taught there, I think they did encourage quite a lot of research. And really nurtured in me a lifelong passion for art history and visiting galleries. At the time my diaries and letters are dotted with lots of references to going to exhibitions frequently; I used to hitch to London to see exhibitions and we were encouraged to visit places and see things so we weren't just being in Midville all the time. 

 

The visitors-  that was Abbott I think because I have got a reading list that she must have given us . She had quite a lively approach she really taught art history and she brought Carl Andre and Don Judd to Coventry which was quite a coup really.at that time. I think she had a major in influence; she was a breath of fresh air. She had obviously got a lot of personal contacts with a lot of the American artists. 

 

I made a note in a letter June the 20th 1968, about the staff exhibition, I think the staff exhibition at the Midville Art Gallery might have been linked to the visit from the Duke. Would that have been the Duke of Edinburgh? I'm not sure. we were moved out of our Studios after putting up our own exhibition, Rose and I moved into the staff room to work. And then I quote 'Also last week there was an official opening of a staff exhibition. at the Midville Art Gallery. and Stone had just about every student he could lay his hands on to do various polishing jobs on his work. I was grabbed to do all the cataloguing for the exhibition; and I was offered a drink for that task'. When I'm reading through my letters, there were lots of times when things seemed a bit chaotic you know. I've also put in the same letter things have been very disorganised and it's been impossible to get any work done, and work assessments in a fortnight;  everyone in fine art is panicking. they have put on an exhibition of work. So that anyway did take on quite a priority. 

 

There was a note in a diary about a fracas in a staff meeting. and there  were times you know when there were arguments between Kerr and the conceptual people; people like Coutts. Dyer. I'm sure it was various upsets. I think Kerr was given quite a hard time sometimes I think. Sometimes to me he seemed like he was very much on his own. 

 

I can remember Stone quite inebriated at my interview. and when we were putting up the exhibition, helping them with that exhibition at the Midville Art Gallery, he was a bit all over the place yeah. and I don't think he was a strong head of department at all. 

 

Frances I remember she didn't seem to socialise, she was a lovely person, but she didn't seem to; I think she may be had a life outside college so I was never very friendly with her. Pam I knew reasonably well but I just don't know what happened to Pam at all. I think she came from Manchester or one of the northern towns. I remember Diana because I think she did some puppet things, she was very much more of a loner, character I would say. 

 

I can remember students like Arthur doing a lot of written work, I don't think there was anything very visual. I loved doing research even then and I suppose maybe some of the avenues of research I was pursuing struck a chord or, you know I was encouraged. I can remember another tutor actually giving me a book; he introduced me to the work of Gertrude Stein. Really quite an obscure and complex writer. He actually gave me this book I still got it. I've got notes in my diary where I was always going into Blackwell's bookshop in Oxford to buy different books which I used for my research. I was doing a lot of research on the Chinese pictograms, so maybe that interested them. 

 

I think I was someone who wasn't always super confident about things, so I think that lack of confidence and uncertainty would have come across in the book. I found a reference in my notes to giving a talk in art history about Lichtenstein, and I mean at that time; now I'm used to giving talks and lectures, but at that time I just hated speaking in front of the group you know. I have I suppose a shyness and it was not an experience I particularly enjoyed. 

 

In my last year at Midville I remember going to the Bath Festival where they had all sorts of people like Jefferson Aeroplane playing; that was in 1970. We used to go to lots of events at Midtown University and they had a lot of good groups there too. it was a very exciting time. We used to give lots of parties at the house in Midville. We were fortunate in seeing a lot of really important bands. I can also remember Cream coming to  play  at Midville. That concert at the Roundhouse which was the year after I just left Midville that was the first time I actually wore the embroidered jacket. I remember wearing it to that concert by The Who. 

 

Dyer he used to teach us but I didn't particularly warm to him. Ashley he was a close friend of Coutts, he could be quite challenging.

 

 I liked Joe, I think I saw him socially a few times as well. Didn't he go out with Rose? He went on to work with Gibson didn't he? Dave went out with a friend of mine Helen from the house and I think they had a flat together in Midtown. He also went on to the Royal College didn't he ? I've got fond memories of Dave you know, he was quirky but very nice. He was quite independent; he was a little bit older than us. He was amusing. I was very amused when I read his write up in the book with the chickens, because I can remember when they arrived. we thought of him as being quite eccentric I suppose well ; someone who brings a whole load of chickens into the studio. He was quite a quiet person as well, he certainly wasn't loud like somebody like Chris. 

 

My work now is very different, at college I was working in; it was all very minimal, and you know working in black and white, the only colour I brought in was when I was doing doodles. Someone said to me you were always doing these doodles, playful doodles in colour, or putting them on to bits of embroidery and I suppose that's probably what I really wanted to do. My work now I definitely couldn't have done at Midville, I think I would have been crucified for doing that. The experience of doing research, the books I read I think that nurtured the way in which I do research now. even though the outcome is totally different. Maybe I was also playing the game I don't know? To fit in who knows? When I was reading my notes I thought I can't make head or tail of this you  know. No wonder I was so confused.

​

November 12th 1967 the girl I was sharing a room with downstairs has been suspended from the college for the rest of the term as she brought a man into her bedroom in the Hostel. You can imagine what the warden's  reaction was, so naturally the Principal took action. it does seem strangely quiet without her. she was always keeping the place alive. She was a very alive Geordie girl. I think she probably just left after that.