As with many passionate artists, Blake sees the world through his creative vision…
“Whenever I’m not at work, I’m still pursuing art making in a number of different forms. - I’ve continued with drawing, photography and sculpture as in my high school years, but have branched out into fashion and graphic design.”
Included here are some of Blake’s photographs taken on a recent trip to Hobart. “I've still been experimenting with some film (photographs) as I found that shooting digital, I was taking less care with each shot as I knew I could just delete the imperfect shots and choose the one I liked. It's pushed me to be more particular with each shot and to focus on the composition as I am taking it.”
Among the images included here are of Blake on his departure for a five month sojourn in Berlin in 2017, looking much like the young man I remember from my senior class of 2012- 2013. I can see echoes of his HSC Body of Work in his design work shown here too – the precise clean architectural drawing and model making in his designs for a speculative structure inspired by the Hyde Park Barracks in Sydney. The designs for a hypothetical embassy building show his talent for imaginative spatial schemes, and the film photographs of Hobart environs show, as Blake described, his desire to select compositionally sophisticated imagery at the time of capture rather than relying on the flexibility of the editable digital image. The sampling a graphics come from a response to a site in Honk Kong and demonstrate Blake’s intelligent research into design for specific purposes. To see more of Blake’s recent design work, check out his Instagram page in the name of blakewjurmann.
As with many of our wonderful alumni, Blake exhibits that thirst for learning and a curiosity about his world, including the art world, both here and abroad.
When asked…What is inspiring your career or art making practice right now? He replied…
“My main focus is on expanding my skill set for as long as I am working for my current studio; this includes learning new programs for documentation and visualisation methods for the projects I’ve been working on, as well as project management and the execution of designs. In the future, I’m planning to begin the intermediate years of my career in either Hong Kong or Paris, following on with connections I’ve made through my current position.”
Blake readily acknowledges that Smith’s Hill High School prepared him for his future studies…
“Smiths Hill taught us to further ourselves in every way. We weren’t only taught to simply answer questions in exams, get them right, and tick all the boxes, but we were taught to re-asses the question, find the best way of answering it, consider the context of the question, and form the most experienced and insightful responses. These are skills that I, and other alumni, have taken with us after we have graduated and applied to every aspect of our lives.”
Do you think electing Visual Arts in high school helped you in any way towards your current situation?
“100%. Studying Visual Arts for my HSC, as well as all of my junior years at high school, significantly honed my creative skills and thinking, as well as teaching me to be analytical and critical in of aesthetics and composition, all of which I use on a daily basis in my work and other pursuits. “
The subject of Visual Arts certainly is a worthwhile addition to the curriculum of any student seeking to extend their academic studies, not just those who have the goal to work within the arts.
Blake is yet another terrific example of a student who has benefitted from high school Visual Arts. As the syllabus states… [paraphrased extract] ’students develop key competencies and it enables them to gain increasing intellectual autonomy. The subject rewards individual thinking in the representations of students’ ideas both aesthetically and persuasively. It offers students opportunities to engage in creative and inductive forms of inquiry and to be assessed on their production – through the making of artworks – as well as on their critical and historical understanding of art, demonstrated in their writing and talking about art.’
“For my HSC, I studied English (Advanced), Mathematics, Chemistry, Drama, Visual Arts, and Ancient History. Visual Arts was absolutely my favourite. My thoughts about what to study at university, and to ultimately pursue as a career, changed quite often throughout my time at school, so studying a range of subjects gave me the opportunity to apply for a number of different courses.”
Blake stood out as a hard working student at SHHS but a young man with an insightful attitude towards goals for the future.
“I’ve always applied an immense amount of pressure on myself to work hard and push my abilities as far as possible. At times, this has been to my detriment and has caused me a lot more stress than is healthy. However, it has got me to the where I am now and I have a lot more responsibility and experience in my position for someone my age. “
“Smith’s Hill taught us to further ourselves in every way. We weren’t only taught to simply answer questions in exams, get them right, and tick all the boxes. But we were taught to re-asses the question, find the best way of answering it, consider the context of the question, and form the most experienced and insightful responses. These are skills that I, and other alumni, have taken with us after we have graduated and applied to every aspect of our lives.”
What advice would you have for your 17/18 year old self?
“Chill out! Everything will fall into place whether you work yourself into a panic about it or not.”
Is there anything else or some advice you would like to share with the current high school generation?
“Also, chill out! Every teacher or parent or tutor you speak to when you’re feeling overwhelmed with study and exams and planning for the future will tell you that an ATAR is just a number, and that university is just another path you could take once you’ve graduated. This is absolutely true. We’re all on very individual paths, and while we’re often told that Uni always follows high school, there are so many variations that you could take, and if these don’t work out, there are always ways to make it work.”
Sharon Mearing – Visual Arts Teacher - retired
