Anni Onsanger

Graduate Diploma, Sculpture 2010 – 2011

I am from Oslo, Norway, and as a young woman the dream was to become an artist, but life took another route. I had a long career as a business leader with a strong focus on change, creativity and innovation. However, in recent years I concentrated on mosaics and sculpture. I like to use metaphors that are linked to old tales and traditions and I use mixed media experimenting with new materials. I studied mosaics with Martin Cheek in Tuscany, at Marie Mortensen’s Mosaic Studio as well as the People’s University, Oslo and I also attended a short course at West Dean in the summer of 2010. When I became 50 in 2010, I decided to change my career from business to art and applied to study to West Dean. This has been a wonderful experience. I have tried out many different materials and art forms and the learning curve has been very steep. All students and staff at West Dean make everything totally remarkable.After returning next year and studying on the Postgraduate/ MA I hope to work as a professional artist, building on my exhibition profile in Oslo, possibly in combination with consultation work.

Kristina Furniss

Postgraduate Diploma in Sculpture 2010 – 2011,
MA in Visual Arts

The very first time I came to West Dean College to take part in a short course in stone carving, I fell in love, West Dean is so much more than a college. It’s a place where art is taken seriously, the focus and the skill amongst tutors fantastic. When I decided to take an MA in Visual Arts, specialising in sculpture after 15 intense years in the corporate world in Sweden, it was an obvious choice to do it at West Dean. The postgraduate diploma programme at West Dean pushes me to explore and has changed the way I look at my work. The desire for honesty and directness inspires me to explore how sculpture can engage all our senses. My aim is for the viewer to be touched and to experience my work directly. Truth is very important to me and to identify “what’s behind the mask” in the subject I am sculpting. I am constantly extending ways to express myself. My ambitions after I graduate are to find a sincere way of establish myself as an artist and to continue pushing my work to a new level. You have to learn to take risks to be creative.