Number 70: Michaelis in the 1970s had “a den of iniquity” reputation and the unofficial label of: “If l can’t dazzle you with my intellect, I’ll baffle you with my bullshit”. My friends were studying, inter alia: social work, law, psychology, medicine…. but nobody l knew had been or was currently at Michaelis. Studying at the University of Cape Town’s School of Fine Art, was not the ‘done thing’ for a “nice”, Jewish girl from Herzlia. My parents, to their credit, were fine with the idea. 

Did I enjoy it? At times! There was an element of  the Michaelis lecturers “copping out”. They didn’t teach techniques for photography, ceramics or printmaking for example. You decided what you wanted to do and learnt about that particular technique if interested in it! For my first sculpture project we were told to make  “infinity ” out of wood and to return two weeks later with the finished product.  Another project was to create a self-portrait and return in two weeks. Highest grades were awarded to those whose self-portrait, in some medium, was not obviously themselves: Their reflection in the water, or photographs of shadows of themselves, etc. Some graduates became full-time artists, but Michaelis’ also had huge value as a space for being creative. Finding the medium that  enabled expression of your creativity was encouraged, challenged and grappled with.

My final year project was to focus on one South African object for the whole year. Initially I thought: thorn trees. But they are not common to Cape Town. So I painted pumpkins!

Such intense focus on one subject forced moving from representational works of the subject towards abstractions on the same theme. I made my own canvases, assisted by my Mom, purchasing the wooded frames and using a staple gun to attach the stretched canvas to the frames. I made my own paints with acrylic base and also dyes mixed to make a variety of colours. Wonderfully effective! I later applied the same idea to make tablecloths  – including for Yair’s Barmitzvah.

On reflection Michaelis provided the foundation for my life as an artist.