#7 On Trams and Turning Points: My Path to theVCA

Welcome back to The Incidental Artist! This blog is a chronicle of my art journey: the missteps, the breakthroughs, the moments that made me feel alive. If you’ve ever felt like you didn’t belong in the world you were handed, you’re in good company.

Grab a cuppa, scroll slowly, and stay awhile.

The end of my time at TAFE didn’t feel like a conclusion, it felt like a spark.

As the course wrapped up, my lecturers encouraged me to apply for university. I lacked confidence, so I applied widely. Deakin, RMIT, Monash, Bendigo, Charles Sturt. Then, one day in drawing class, my tutor asked, “What about the VCA?”

“The ballet school?” I replied, picturing the graceful students I’d seen on trams: sleek buns, toes in first position, swaying with the carriage towards the Victorian College of the Arts.  

She looked horrified. “No! They have an incredible art department. Go down there right now and apply!”

I didn’t even unclip my drawings from the easel. I got in my car and drove directly to VCA, heart palpitating. The VCA receptionist told me Round 1 applications had closed. My heart sank. But then she informed me that Round 2 was still open. It felt like a longshot, but I submitted my application, hedging my bets across drawing, printmaking, and photography.

Interview season came fast. I crisscrossed the state, from Geelong to Bendigo, up to the New South Wales border. Nearly 1600 kilometers of hope and anxiety. I didn’t expect to get a VCA interview, let alone three. And I never imagined being accepted into all three departments.

Choosing one felt like betrayal. Photography won. It promised experimentation and a chance to push boundaries. But drawing? Drawing had been a silent companion since the beginning. Sometimes I feel I turned my back on it. And yet, it never left me. I still carry drawing into my art practice and is a thread I weave into every image, even photography.

On the first day of university, leaving the tram stop and walking into the VCA, I didn’t know I was stepping into a new life. But I was. And it all started with a simple suggestion: “What about the VCA?’

Have you ever followed a spontaneous suggestion that changed your life? What happened?

Here are some more images of work that I made in my final year of TAFE, where I experimented with different cameras, cameraless photography and etching in printmaking.