Well it’s been about 5 months since I last updated this thing. Does anyone other than my mom and a handful of family and friends care? Probably not. But I’m going to update whomever explaining why I have been so terrible and vow, yet again, to be better at keeping this thing up.
This past summer I’ve been traveling, researching and writing my dissertation and working part-time as a waitress in an attempt to save money and move to London. Which is where I am now; unemployed and technically homeless with nothing but dreams (slightly delusional) of working in the art world, or fashion, or media, or anywhere that wants to pay me decently and sponsor my visa.
Am I asking too much? It’s possible. But I’m aiming high until deportation, which potentially takes place at the end of March. So until then I will try to update ‘you’ on my follies and foibles while I attempt to ‘make it’ in London.
On a positive note, I handed in my dissertation. Which, for anyone who has known me since high school, is quite a feat. It was, quite possibly, one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done. I quite enjoyed the research part, but writing 15,000 words, equating to nearly 50 pages, felt like a death march at times (slight exaggeration, slight). I wrote on a little known English illustrator and designer named Edward Bawden (click on his name to see his images). I think he’s wonderful. I discussed his work in relation to issues of English national identity and the projection of that identity through Bawden’s advertisements in the interwar years. The saddest thing is, I actually found all that fascinating! But I suppose that is why I was writing on it in the first place.
Now it’s on to the next chapter and what that is, I have no idea. I am excited and frightened; full of optimism one moment and bewilderment the next. So, I’m trying to go with the flow, stay positive, but realistic. I rarely seem to choose a path that is easy so I’m anticipating the roller coaster for the months to come. I suppose that is the price we pay when we want things that are outside our comfort zone. Despite all the current uncertainty, I always land on my feet, I just don’t know what ground will be beneath me.

Edward Bawden The Stage of London Life, 1925