Author: Roisin Astell

Done and dusted

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This up-coming Monday is week 9. Week 9. I cannot believe that my last year at University is coming to an end. The last few weeks of this term has been stressful, I’m not gonna lie. Having handed in my dissertation and completed my 48 hour exam, I have now finished! My summer term has come and gone with a blink of an eye, and completing my work was quite anti-climatic, but exciting at the same time. Next week is the Graduation Ball which should be a lovely night – getting to see everyone dolled up and relaxing. The day after I leave to begin working at Wimbledon for two weeks, so I am leaving York in what feels like quite a rush. There are a few things that I now know having finished this year, and this is how much I have fallen in love with my course and the areas that I have studied. I cannot recommend York enough for History of Art. The tutors are amazing. I have been through a few rough patches this year and everyone …

Social Media Art

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  Firstly I would like to apologize for the lack of blog posts so far this Easter! I’ve been pretty busy, so unfortunately have no found the time to write as much as I would have liked. I am, however, slogging away attempting to write my dissertation. It’s taking a while, and I am finding it hard (I have so much I want to say, but have no idea how to articulate it), but the show must go on! Anyway, this is a bit of a random post. I was looking on BuzzFeed the other day (my guilty pleasure), and I saw this awesome article about paintings throughout art history which have been ‘updated’ by a Ukrainian artist called Nastya Ptichek. I thought it was pretty entertaining, so have uploaded a few of her images to this post! They’re petty cool, and I think they will speak out to a lot of us who use social media. It’s very clear. So even though I am procrastinating, I have still managed to find a way of …

Last ‘official’ teaching week

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Wow. I cannot believe that I am sitting here writing a post about the last ‘official’ teaching week of my undergraduate degree. How time flies. This week has been pretty hectic, but our final seminar on Monday for ‘The Virgin’s Places’ was awesome. Our tutor Michele brought in food and drinks (including some amazing home-made focaccia), and others in the seminar group brought various treats. I made some raspberry and orange cupcakes to bring in, and sadly I wasn’t able to eat all of the delicious treats that others brought in as I have given up chocolate for Lent 😦 I’m not going to lie, it was pretty hard to turn down some mouth-watering chocolate brownies. So Easter is upon us, and for many that means a time of relaxation, catching up with family and friends and hopefully doing the odd bit of work! For us third years, this easter break will pretty much be full of writing and researching for our Dissertations. Therefore, my home for the next few weeks before I go back …

MET: ‘Radiant Light Stained Glass from Canterbury Cathedral’

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Between February 25th and May 18th the Cloisters Museum at the MET in New York is hosting an exhibition presenting stained glass from England’s historic Canterbury Cathedral, dating from 1178-80. I find this concept quite unusual I’m not going to lie, as the exhibitions features six Romanesque-period windows that have never left the cathedral since their creation. Bringing stained-glass from the Cathedral to the MET – why when you can just go to Canterbury itself? I guess through bringing the glass over the pond, so to speak, allows more people to see the beauty of Canterbury’s windows. However, I feel that taking such works out of their religious context renders them almost ‘dumb’ in the sense that they’re not functioning in the religious manner that they should be. I guess times have changed so much anyway, that perhaps the religious function of the stained glass windows are becoming more over-looked and less part of their identity. Having studied Canterbury Cathedral last term, I fell in love with it. I have never been there myself, but having seen …

Surviving 48 hour open book exams

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48 hour open exams sound tough, and I’m not going to lie, they are incredibly daunting as there is so much time pressure on you to attempt to write two well written essays. However, I think that there are many different things that you can before and during to help ease the pressure and anxiety of the exam process. The following blog post presents many different tips and advice that I have learnt throughout my own experience of completing a 48 hour open exam. If you can think of anything that I have missed, or if you have any tips that you believe should be on here comment below! During term: Note-taking: Try and take the best notes that you can during your seminars/lectures and meetings with your tutors- with history of art, tutors don’t give us the seminar notes like other subjects do, so it’s your responsibility to write everything down – even if you don’t think it’s relevant at the time, it might just be in the future. Try also to make notes …

New Flickr account

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I have finally entered into the 21st century, and have created a Flickr account! On it you can view all the various photos that I have taken on my trips with the History of Art department to Paris, and some other own personal snaps that I have taken when I have been out and about around the world! Click on this link to view my photographs: http://www.flickr.com/photos/118377543@N07/