circa 1995-2000

I found a certain comfort coming full circle, a sense of being "home"...

snuggled into darkened cocoons with arty subtitled films, inspired by unknown sounds(in this case swedish jazz and jazz compositions made entirely of human voices)...

It's been a very, very long time since I've had the luxury to indulge this long lost me. It was good to come "home".

Que Sera, Sera....Escapism Love it! :D

Tomorrow will be back to another normal grind of a day, refreshed. Sometimes you just need a day off with no agenda...and entirely to yourself! Not to mention there are different SEASONS in life...a new revelation to me...is the one of stillness and silence where you conserve all your "essence" and concentrate all your energy and effort for yourself internally in prepation for external manifestation and frenzied paces at a later date??...so let's just say I'm the butterfly larvae in the cocoon growing nice and fat at the moment ;)

p.s I indulge words aka verbal diarrhoea too much hence gng to start engaging my right brain more with a picture each post(not necessarily related to the post, lol)...see how long I can last- before I get too lazy!!!

My friend Robe

This is a self portrait he did of himself some years ago which I was lucky enough to receive in the mail today :D

I also really like his parents bedroom in BLUE...People who do Art...sighhhh! Thanks Mate :D

The Re-Formation of "Art"

When does art become "Art"?

So, what happens when you take an untalented punk that can't draw anything for sh*t and give her two different sized brushes (so cheap the hairs come off and stick to the canvas),a few tubes of paint and mini sheets of canvas?

...Exploration of Line, Texture and Colour!

Which is what I did.

Nothing Spectacular.

HOWEVER. This morning I cut the six dried panels to size, arranged them onto some white paper and housed the lot into a black frame....wow, although it was only meant to be a "prototype" and very amateur, Reformatted and presented it looks pretty darn *spiffy*...I like how on a wide angle view it enlivens a white wall and on the eye level there is enough interest in the textures, lines etc enough to warrant a closer look.

Whatever the case, I reckon it makes good living room/office wall decoration and people might actually buy it for $150(but I'd only sell it for $250...maybe).

ANYHOW, for 2.5 hours of labour, not a whole lot of skill and minimally expensive resources...that makes me One Happy Camper! :) Now my very sad Living room looks slightly more funky, and it's so easy to do! I can make another one later for my office/treatment space - yay! :)

I have a good feeling this is the year my creativity comes back. Hopefully, this was just the humble prologue to much bigger and more impressive and beautiful things...

There is Creativity In Angst

Wow. I am (unusually) quite impressed by myself. I haven't tried to graphically design in a veeeery loooong time...except that now it's...needed. I had a great super talented friend working on designs for me however she wasn't able to manifest my creative vision, so Miss Lazy Ass had no choice but to try and do it herself with very limited technical ability. It is just amazing how user unfriendly programs like Photoshop really are...how the hell do I even draw a shape outline?!! SHEESH.

In any case with some little tricks I was able to fudge "the look" for mockups and hopefully my techny friend can help me convert this into something professionally printer friendly.

In any case I just have one last design w/ variations to knock out...and I am very very pleased aesthetically with what I've managed to produce in a couple hours considering my significant designer deficiencies and limitations right now.

Which leads me to conclude, there is great creativity that can be harnessed out of Angst. Since it seems like I will be this way for AWHILE, I am contemplating picking up a canvas and paintbrush...hell, maybe even charcoals and pastels! LOL, it would be VERY VERY COOL if I somehow managed to un-excavate the long lost "artist" in me. The drought needs to be broken damn it-

Come Glorious Wellspring, Arise from this Barren Earth!

Z.

edit: so I have a couple of designs...in fact they're actually pretty nifty! only trouble is my indecision...I tried surveying others but nobody can agree! I guess it all comes down to personal preference...anyway going to visit the print place tomorrow...maybe they can look through my designs- sheesh, at this rate maybe I should start a portfolio!

Inspired Vision...

I love how the internet connects me with inspired souls all over the globe.

= )

One pleasant surprise that made my day today so far was seeing this Real Artist's work which very much resonates...I love it!

Soo Jung's style is so colourful, inspiring and whimsical- completely appeals to my dreamy nature and love of entertaining fantasy... LOL

Please have a look - you won't regret it!

This is Art: What are your thoughts?

So...I saw this image in the paper and it just instantly drew me in...I loved it!

What was your first reaction? What do you feel when you see this image?

I can see why some people might find it disturbing though. I found it strangely comforting, and it was so intriguing to me that I've already decided I need to see the real thing.

MAN it's so fun being able to have a life and being able to indulge all the things you love! For what remains of this week besides attend that exhibition, I've decided to attend an independent film screening, catch an arthouse movie, dinner(s) with friends, hang in a book store, hang in a music store and take Horace out for a spin...oh and squeeze in the beach and a dip on Sunday if I get the chance....

I LOVE LIFE!!!

Convoluted Paths, Film and Music...

I learnt in my notetaking class about the curious art form of Path Tracing. It's pretty cool really: to gauge human interaction with a public space, people's movements in that space are documented and recorded visually- this has become some kind of ubercool underground art form...

Since I had a luxurious day off yesterday today brought scope for "playtime"- and it was only the second time I've found myself having to come back reasonably late night unescorted in the city and we all know what happened the first time :P

So anyway I deliberately went back the long-winded way to avoid the beer goggled and dangerous yobbo stretch...no such luck :P just 200 m shy of home there was some crazy blocking the bridge who was curled up screaming violent nonsense like he required an exorcism...so I had to turn back to where I came and walk yet another convoluted path home...

I was half thinking- "wow what pretty arty squiggles my path home would have made"LOL. Of course my rational practical side was thinking "sheesh, SO INEFFICIENT- this convoluted path walking is really starting to get on my nerves!"

So anyway, I caught a film The Visitor - I have to admit I didn't read the entire blurb when choosing - I got suckered in by the headline "in a world of 6 billion people it only takes one to change your life" as well as the fact it was set in NYC...

Unfortunately, unlike Juno I have no glowing review for The Visitor...I found the movie was overly sentimental, overly constructed/stylized? and highly oppressive/quite heavy- I guess that is the mood the director was trying to achieve though...if you have seen this film and have an opinion, I'd like to know!

In any case, I did take one inspiration from the film...

I think I want to take up African Drumming(Djembe)!!!

pic: wikipedia

Playing drums has always been a childhood wish (along with trombone, sax and double bass- LOl what's the deal with small person and big instruments?!)

I like rhythm so much, I remember as a child playing pots and pans and even stringing up an icecream bucket to be 'the little drummerboy'...this love for rhythm and noise even extended to me 'tapdancing' on the kitchen tiles.

Anyhow no drumkit or drum lessons ever eventuated because of my mum's preconceived ideas about what constitutes a gender appropriate instrument...or maybe she was just being sensible it what she would be able to stand the sound of!!

In any case, since I'm on the topic of music, just yesterday I was listening to Nigel Kennedy's Four Seasons and thinking what an utterly sublime piece of classical music it is, and that if I could play the violin I'd want to be able to play just like him!

Similarly, if I could play Cello, I'd want to be able to play like Yo Yo Ma. And piano, I have no favourite artist as long as I had the ability to play great composers like Ravel, Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, Debussy etc...

The great thing about African Drumming is unlike the others which you need to learn as a child just to be able to make nice noises, I think hand drums are relatively easy to learn as long as you have a decent sense of rhythm! I wonder how much they cost??...I think this will have to wait till after the DSLR...and I definitely need to take a vow of abstinence with the CDs! :-p

I love Drinking Water!

Drinking Water
acrylic on canvas
2006
April Steele (Canada)

It always makes me HapPy to discover nice art :)!

I love how whimsical her style is...Check out the rest on her website!