Stephanie van der Jagt
Critical Studies
BA Interior Design
Born to a medical couple in Johannesburg in 1984, the only thing that ever seemed to keep me busy was a piece of paper and something to draw, scribble or mess with. Rushing through school, in a whirlwind of organized chaos, I completed that terrifying episode of high school in 2001. After a slight mis-step in a bachelor of science, I found my footing at the Wits School of Arts. I succeeded academically by being invited to join the Golden Key International Honors Society in 2004. After completing my Honors degree in Fine Arts in December of 2006, with a major in Photography and taking the additional major of English literature, I began to look at the various avenues that lay ahead of a just graduated art student.
The unsurpassed high point during my studies was my trip with my dad to New York City in February of 2005 to view Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s The Gates, Project for Central Park, as they weaved through pedestrian pathways. As much as it felt as though the trip was scheduled and organized around my desire to interact with such an exciting expression of art first hand, rather than piggy backing on my good ol’ dad’s business trip, when I was standing underneath that golden fabric, ripping in and out of the icy wind of a snow littered Central Park, it felt as if this was a culmination, a pinnacle cross-road where I could chose to stumble down a road of art, or choose another path. I am excited that I chose to stumble along. I followed my study in fine art with a Bachelors degree in Interior Design at the Greenside Design Center College of Design. On completion of this degree in December 2008, I worked for a year in the interior design business. I was nervous when I was offered a position to lecture students in first year critical studies at Greenside Design Center this year. Nervous not because I was worried about standing up in front of a room full of eager, sometimes blank faces, every week, but because the day I was offered the position I got fitted with the all to trendy, original ‘grill’ of braces (they would turn out to be my good luck charm).
Two of my most exciting passions have come not only to fruition currently, but have seemed to amalgamate in my commencement of my Masters study at the University of the Witwatersrand, in History of Art, where I am focusing on the critical analysis of photographic representations of various South African episodes. I am just now setting out my ideas for my proposal of my thesis, so lets hold fingers thumbs and toes that that all goes to plan. But other than all of that I feel so blessed and lucky, I feel I am living not the dream, but my dream!
The unsurpassed high point during my studies was my trip with my dad to New York City in February of 2005 to view Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s The Gates, Project for Central Park, as they weaved through pedestrian pathways. As much as it felt as though the trip was scheduled and organized around my desire to interact with such an exciting expression of art first hand, rather than piggy backing on my good ol’ dad’s business trip, when I was standing underneath that golden fabric, ripping in and out of the icy wind of a snow littered Central Park, it felt as if this was a culmination, a pinnacle cross-road where I could chose to stumble down a road of art, or choose another path. I am excited that I chose to stumble along. I followed my study in fine art with a Bachelors degree in Interior Design at the Greenside Design Center College of Design. On completion of this degree in December 2008, I worked for a year in the interior design business. I was nervous when I was offered a position to lecture students in first year critical studies at Greenside Design Center this year. Nervous not because I was worried about standing up in front of a room full of eager, sometimes blank faces, every week, but because the day I was offered the position I got fitted with the all to trendy, original ‘grill’ of braces (they would turn out to be my good luck charm).
Two of my most exciting passions have come not only to fruition currently, but have seemed to amalgamate in my commencement of my Masters study at the University of the Witwatersrand, in History of Art, where I am focusing on the critical analysis of photographic representations of various South African episodes. I am just now setting out my ideas for my proposal of my thesis, so lets hold fingers thumbs and toes that that all goes to plan. But other than all of that I feel so blessed and lucky, I feel I am living not the dream, but my dream!