OU graduate Dave Webster completed his BA (honours) in Humanities with Art History in 2006. Since then he has been working hard on various projects including his recent 6 week touring exhibition of his artwork called ‘The Real Meaning of Life, A Question of Evolution’.
Platform caught up with him to find out more about his OU experience, his inspirations and further details about his fascinating artwork. Read his story below.
My idea had always been to create art that could be understood by all. But first I felt I had to fully understand art myself, at a much deeper level than I had previously accepted. Working as a sculptor made full time education impossible. The OU provided the answer. The method of helping me to gain confidence as I progressed through the various levels of study fired me with enthusiasm to learn more.
The courses starting with A103 were a challenge to my preconceived ideas. The work was structured and understandable to a student who had left school at fifteen years of age and not formally studied at all in the intervening thirty five years. I had decided to work my way through various courses starting with the Renaissance to Modernism and Conceptual art. During the years previous to this I had read as much as I could on the first known forms of art such as the sculptures of the Venus figures found all over Europe. This first awareness into the workings of the human mind combined with the open shelter and cave paintings in Africa, France and Spain all helped to create a hunger for knowledge of these past cultures. I went on to read about the art of Egyptian, West Asia and Crete followed by Greek, Roman and the art of the Dark ages. These studies in tandem with reading about Palaeo-anthropology and the Fossil record have been instrumental in my art works in which I try to show how we evolved and how art and religion have played such a major part in forming our societies and cultures and the present human condition.
The experience of working towards a degree was both rewarding and frustrating as time was in short supply to complete the study and TMAs. The summer schools were both hard work and fun. Meeting fellow students with the same problems was rewarding and the philosophical debates and the ensuing arguments with various tutors were a challenge yet stimulating. All these experiences added to visits to galleries ensured a most memorable time. The OU experience is one of the best achievements of my life. It helped form the ideas to create my recent exhibition ‘The Real Meaning of Life’ The object of creating the exhibition was to provide an experience of art which provokes questions regarding our past and present civilizations, cultures and societies, and most of all our future.”
Visit ‘The Real Meaning of Life, A Question of Evolution’ virtual exhibition for the result of Dave’s OU journey. He welcomes questions and comments below.
If you want to share your story, please add this in the comments box below (please note that you'll need to be logged in to Platform with your OU username and password or guest account in order to post comments) or email: platformeditor@open.ac.uk
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