Soon the Moon - Jury Report

A few days ago, I presented the LUCA teachers and external jury members with my master project, Soon the Moon (Part 1), the first segment of a graphic novel I’ve been researching (off and on) for over a decade already. It follows two artists in Apartheid-era South Africa - Thami Mnyele, a young Black artist whose work became central to the struggle against oppression, and Bill Hart, a White South African sculptor/painter, who happens to have been my grandfather.

During the jury session, a female spoken word artist (and the only Black woman on the panel) said she felt discomfort reading my work, describing it as feeling “colonial.” The story is colonial in that it takes place during Apartheid. But I think she meant that it was colonial for me, a White woman, to be telling a Black man’s story. She admitted to not knowing I was a White woman while reading the story, and was led to believe I was a native of South Africa.

She asked: was I trying to stay invisible as the author?

That certainly wasn't my intention. Unfortunately she hadn't read the seperate document, which included a synopsis of the story and a photo of myself.  But OK, it seems that I should've introduced myself within the comic, explaining to the reader my position as a White European woman looking in from the outside. The irony is: I did try. In an earlier draft I had placed myself in the narrative, but it proved difficult to anchor in the timeline, and without input from my teachers, I cut it out of the story.

There were other criticisms too - that the narrative felt overloaded, that it wasn’t clear who the main character was, that it read more like a “teaching” comic than an emotional one. Some of this may be true. But it’s also true that many of these issues could have been addressed earlier, if I’d received more meaningful support along the way. 

The jury lasted only 30 minutes. There wasn’t enough time to respond, to reflect, or to clarify. I wanted to tell the jury that I had applied to the school’s study abroad programme (a process that started in Oct 2023), hoping to spend a semester at Stellenbosch University in South Africa to deepen the work by means of collaboration with South African comic artists. My application was rejected 6-months later due to a minor technicality in my motivational letter. The school gave me no opportunity to revise and resubmit. 

Towards the start of the second semester in my first year at LUCA, I was diagnosed with DVT (deep vein thrombosis), a serious and ongoing medical issue. Trying to navigate the Belgian healthcare system as a foreigner was incredibly stressful, expensive, and alienating. LUCA offered limited access to a psychologist. I saw him every three weeks. It was good to have someone to talk to. But now that I’ve reached the limit, that support is gone too. 

I’m heartbroken and feel somewhat misunderstood with what I have produced over the past two years, but ultimately, I'm also proud of what I've made. I know this story matters to me, to South African history, and to the bigger questions about who gets to tell whose story.  I have received a failing grade from LUCA but I expect I can still graduate with my class in October 2025 by way of a resit. This summer I will to continue to work on improving the story with renewed clarity and care.

Feel free to reach out if you would like to know more specifics about the project and my process.

A synopsis + selection of drawings can be found here!

presenting my research to the jury @LUCA: