天麟教育

I am Natalie Chu and I am doing the foundation course in Chamberlain Institute (West Kowloon). I have received the BA Fine Art offer from Chelsea College of Art and BA Interaction Design Arts offer from London College of Communication. It is a once in a lifetime opportunity to be able to study in UAL as it is one of the top art universities in the UK and It has always been my dream to study in UAL.

I knew about Chamberlain from my parents. As I came back from the UK after finishing my A-levels and chose to continue my study in Hong Kong. I think the teachers in Hong Kong are more passionate and they offer a lot of help compared to the teachers in the UK. It is a very good environment to pursue your studying for art and design.

The foundation course helped me a lot in preparing a portfolio as I didn’t do any subject related to Art in my A-levels. The tutors told me what should be required in my portfolio and gave me direction and technical help while preparing a portfolio. They inspired me a lot from the direction of my projects. They really gave me new ideas that I would never thought about, and they have shared their experience to me which was really inspiring. For example, when there was a lot to extend from one topic, they helped us to narrow down, and allow me to choose one or two subtopic that I am interested and to develop my project.

The one-on-one tutorial really help evaluating what I have done and gave me ideas what I can do further. They gave both technical and conceptional advice. When I am lacking context in my projects, they would give me what direction I could have done. For instance, while I was doing something about broken mirrors, it is very much a symbol of borderline personality disorder so that I got research on that. I am very much interested in that and proceed in my project.

I got lost very often. Sometimes I will be very confused of what I was doing. I asked my classmates and teachers, and they give me directions and they convince me what I am doing, and they gave me the confidence to continue. In the course, there are more practical work than normal sketching that you would think about art. They are more open-minded for the pathway. There are different pathways we can explore, even the materials are not only limited to the normal one that you would have used. If I didn’t join the course, there will be a big difference. I will be doing accounting, which is boring and not creating, I wouldn’t have a path to UAL.

For my future job, I am considering about art therapy as it could help a lot of people. I will have to proceed to my MA but I think my degree will be very much related to how to express myself and influence people in my work. Art therapy allows me teach people how to recognize, acknowledge and express themselves. I think art is very inspiring. The process of creating is very fascinating, exciting, and interesting. I never know what I would do next and how I am going to proceed my project.