Showing posts with label art. Show all posts
Showing posts with label art. Show all posts
Friday, 18 February 2011
Dear Devotee: How to unleash your creativity and begin your creative journey
Dearest Devotees,
I got an email from one of you wonderful people who take out time from your busy schedules to read this blog of mine asking me how to unleash their creative mind. She wanted to know how you begin to explore your inklings and how to find your home art form and was wondering if I could give her a list of references and things to explore and aid her in her journey. First of all, to that lovely devotee, I'm really flattered that you thought to ask me about this. I think it's great that you are making this effort and seeking help in it as well. Secondly, I thought it would be a great idea to write a post on my list of references since I know that a lot of you are here because you have beautifully artistic and creative spirits as well and may like knowing of some references to strengthen your creative side.
- Join online/offline community projects like ScriptFrenzy, NaNoWriMo, Art Everyday Month, 365 day challenge, etc. These are great ways to get involved in the ever growing online creative community as well as a wonderful way to kick yourself out of a rut and to create with abandon for a while.
- Have a Creative Genius Day/Night: This is a wonderful idea I got from Jenny's post on her blog Life After College. It involves setting out blocking out some specific time in your schedule to create a day or night just devoted to creating and engaging your imagination. Think of it as a really mini artistic retreat.
- Get out and try random stuff. There are so many different forms of art out there, so many different experiences just waiting to happen. Just get up and try stuff until you find something that you find interesting. Who knows, you may be pleasantly surprised at what you may find.
- Engage in Artist Dates or an Artistic Retreat: Engage your creativity by feeding the desire to have new experiences inside you. If you don't have much take some time to see that new movie you've been dying to see, or if you happen to have a free week coming up (spring break anyone) why not commit yourself to exploring different inspiration sources through an artistic retreat.
- Read and work through books like The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron and Art and Soul by Pam Grout. They are wonderful for overcoming the initial feelings of apprehension.
- Creating a regular time to create and partake in artistic exercises weekly , if not daily: Make your artistic pursuits an official part of your day by giving them a specific time slot in your day. I know it may sound obvious but you would be surprised at how much of a difference it will make to your level of artistic output just by giving them an actual time slot instead of waiting until you are free and feeling inspired.
These were just a few of the suggestions I would give to any friend seeking to begin their walk down the more unconventional path to the discovery of your inner artist. Whether you are new to the concept of artistic self exploration or whether this is a path you've been treading for quite a while now, I would suggest looking into the suggestions above to help you take the next step in your journey.
Love you all and Stay inspired,
P.S. So let me know what you think. What would you recommend to those seeking to unleash their creativity? What advice would you give to them? Feel free to let me know in the comments below.
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Sunday, 9 January 2011
Seeking Inspiration: Visualise
Dearest Devotees,
Last semester in my Modern Drama Literature class, we spent some time talking about the importance of the scene and setting and how in some plays, the scene is so important that it can even be thought of as a separate character. Outside of art, everyone knows how important atmosphere can be to our mental, emotional and physical states. This is why some people take walks by lakes and sit in candle lit rooms with aromatherapeutic oils when they are feeling stressed. I find that when I'm feeling creatively blocked atmosphere matters a lot. To overcome my creative blocks I usually:
- Make sure I'm working in a clean, airy, well-lit (preferrably sun-lit) room.
- Make sure that all technological distractions are set to a minimum- that means no facebook, twitter or tweetdeck, and that my phone must be on silent or vibrate. To prevent my computer notifications from distracting me I use programs like Concentrate and Ommwriter to turn all my notifications off as soon as I start working until I'm done.
- Surround myself with inspiring quotes, pictures and works of art.
- Have calming music and sounds playing in the background, such as Ommwriter's nature soundtrack, and some of my favorite classical pieces like Yiruma's The River Flows in You and Maxene Cyrin's piano version of No Cars Go.
If I'm still feeling stuck after all of this, I try to get my mind moving in the direction I want to go by using the visualization technique. I believe that all art tells a story, and therefore has a plot, themes and a setting. Perfect chemistry between characters and the setting is vital to the creation of a good story. With the visualization technique, all you have to do is to imagine the setting or scene that corresponds to your work and mentally place yourself in that setting. It could either be a literal place such as a clearing in a forest, or a figurative place such as a world in which you are the best version of you. After imagining yourself in this place, feel free to explore it and allow yourself to get to know the place better. Imagine the little details, and think about how your interactions with the space could influence your actions (or those of your characters). Using visualization in this way helps you to have (almost) firsthand experience of the place you are trying to portray and could lend believability to your work.
Another way of using the visualization technique is by thinking about the message you would like to get across, imagining the effect it would have on the lives of you or the desired audience and figuring out what it would take for you to get that desired effect. For example, let's say you want to get across the message of what it means to truly love yourself in a song you are writing. You've written about half the song, but you are not feeling pleased with what you've got because it feels too preachy to you. By reminding yourself of the reason you are writing and thinking about what you would need to do to get the message across to your particular audience, you would be able to understand your audience better and therefore write a song that would appeal to them.
Finally, visualization is not just a technique that can be used by artists in a creative block. You can use visualization to reach any kind of goal that you are having difficulty with, be it creative or not. People use visualization to help them reach academic, physical, spiritual and life goals all the time. Being able to imagine yourself somewhere can help you rekindle the flame, when fear and intimidation may have snuffed it out and can help you get back on track when you're feeling derailed.
***Seeking inspiration assignment***
Create a work of art (it can be any kind of art, dance, music, design, poetry anything you want) that represents the story that you think is being told in the picture below. Or visualise your favorite place in the world (it doesn't have to be real). Explore the place and create a work of art that best depicts this place.
I know this has nothing to do with anything but this little boy is just too cute. Plus laughter and smiles are great for creativity.
If you are lacking inspiration and have never heard of this search engine- Go. You're Welcome :)
I love TED talks! I recommend that you check out the talks given by Isaac Mizrahi, Elizabeth Gilbert, but really you can just choose a topic and search for the talk or look for a person that inspires you.
Okay. This video is probably one of the coolest things I've ever seen. Love Steven Johnson for it. The full talk is on TED too and is totally worth watching.
I love being made to think by videos like this.
Love you all and Stay inspired,
P.S. So let me know what you think. What's inspired you lately? Feel free to let me know in the comments below.
Saturday, 23 October 2010
Are You a T.A.T.A ? To The Teen Artists Trapped in Academia
Do you wake up every morning just longing for the chance to express yourself in art? Do you feel personally attacked by the existence of school uniforms and overly stringent dress codes? Do you long for the day that you will be free to learn the way you want to learn things, and about the things you want to learn? If so you may be a Teen Artist Trapped in Academia.
I feel like I can comment on the existence of the Teen Artists Trapped in Academia because I too was once a T.A.T.A. Trust me, the plight of a T.A.T.A is very sad. They are hardly difficult to identify and chances are that if you are not one yourself, you have at least run across some in the course of your life. Fitting into the conventions of academia is pretty hard especially if you are not a conventional person, and let's face it, the current state of academia can only appeal to so many people, because everyone is not the same, does not have the same goals and values and does not learn the same way. If you can't fit into the conventional academic structure, you might think that learning is not for you and that education is not a very worthwhile venture for you. You might think that school and education are equal to torture and may begin to look for several ways of fighting/escaping the system.
I can't blame you for wanting to stop the torture. I just think that it might be more worthwhile to try to work with it and to make it work for you.
Ever since Grade School I've known I was a little odd. I couldn't organise well. I would go through phases in my clothing during which I would pursue a particular style of dress for months at a time. I had a melange of mismatched bracelets, bangles and scrunchies on both hands, and took great delight in changing my hair style at least once a month. I spent weeks of my summer, reading in the public library, and hours creating and playing in my own incredibly intricate fantasy world, past the age of 10. By the time I was 12 I knew I wanted to be a fashion designer and literally counted down the years until I could go to University and start working on my dream. I hated learning traditionally, and always learnt better when I could physically be allowed to understand the concept holistically. Abstract cramming and random studying was never my thing, and classes in which you just sort of had to know something (i.e. commit something to memory), left me quaking under my sheets in horror. So if you do think that the traditional school system thing is not working for you believe me when I say I know how you feel. In fact, I was recently thinking about words of advice that I could give to current teen artists to help them learn to live with (and possibly love academia). Here are some of the tips I came up with:
- Embrace the fact that you are different and that you, like everyone else, have your strengths and your weaknesses. Look for your strengths, and spend at least some time every day working on them/ enjoying them. If most of your school work doesn't inspire you, definitely work on it but try to spend some time, writing music if it's what you like doing or join a dance class as an after-school activity. Do something that makes you happy everyday. It works wonders for your self-esteem.
- Don't put your dreams off until university. No. Scratch that. Don't put off your dreams period. Try to live them at least a little bit today. Do whatever you can for to work towards your dream in a little way today. It is never to early to start living the life you want to live.
- Try to look for the bright side in learning everything that you have to learn in school. Sometimes you might discover a hidden talent or random interest in an unexpected subject. Sometimes all you'll learn is that whatever you are taking is not for you. At least you've learnt something.
- Remember that no knowledge is wasted. Art is a reflection of life. Academia is awesome because it enables you to broaden your knowledge about the world around you and gives you the opportunity to build your well of experience. Creatives especially should be curious about the world around them because you can only improve what currently exists if you know what currently exists. So the next time you're trying to figure out how to survive another day in that class you hate, remember that inspiration can come from anywhere, and give the class (yet) another chance.
- Study the way you want. Only you truly know how best you learn. If you realise that rote memorisation does not work for you, try to learn the material in another way. If you don't know how best you learn, try taking a learning style test. No matter what kind of learner you are (visual, kinesthetic, auditory, etc), learning in a way that uses various methods to learn to learn the same subject matter tends to help you learn better. For example, while studying from your notes, you could try making lists, diagrams and pneumonics to help you remember what you've learnt. You could also try explaining general concepts out loud to yourself, to make sure you understand what you've just read.
- Adopt a more holistic approach to studying. I personally can not strictly memorize anything to save my life, so I try learning concepts and general ideas first, before attempting to place specifics into the mix. By getting the background info of a subject, I am able to paint a picture in my mind of what I'm trying to learn and then it becomes so much easier to remember the random facts that I need to know. One way in which you could make this easier to do would be to always know the why behind any particular fact. Knowing the why, even if its not necessary for the test, helps you make connections in your mind, and these connections can act as a guide leading you to the right answer if you ever get lost during a test.
Academia is not the devil. In fact, it can be a really powerful ally and can bring a whole new dimension to your art.
Love you all and Stay inspired,
P.S. So let me know what you think. Are you a T.A.T.A? Do you know one? How did you adapt to the world of Academia? Feel free to let me know in the comments below.
Seeking Inspiration: Creating from Chaos
Dearest Devotees,
There is a wildly held belief that artists must not only be able to live with and accept chaos but must able to miraculously draw beauty from said chaos. Now, whether there is any truth in this statement or not I can not say, but I have noticed that creative minds are usually able to create connections between seemingly disparate things. This talent helps artists to be able to see things in a new light and helps us free our minds from the conventional roles in which something is used. Have you ever taken anything apart (be it an idea, an object or a problematic situation) to understand it better only to find that taking it apart leads you to come up with a new way of looking at it? This process of destroying to rebuild is at the core of the idea of creating from chaos. When things are taken apart you are forced to see each part as an individual piece, with all of its own possibilities and potential roles outside of the roles that it had been playing in the group. This inspires creative thinking that can honestly lead to anywhere. Some ways in which this kind of connective creative thinking can come in handy include:
- Looking for a theme for your first clothing collection from your mood/ inspiration board.
- Renovating your room/personal space
- Creating a storyboard for your next short film/youtube vlog/music video
- Finding inspiration for your NaNoWriMo Novel
- Looking for a stylistic theme for your costume design project
- Solving a mini-crisis-soon-to-be-epic-crisis at your new business or within your group of friends/family (like when one friend thinks someone said something about the other that the other didn't person didn't say i.e. one of those he said-she said situations. )
And so much more :)
So, how do you develop this amazingly useful skill?
Well you could start with this week's Seeking Inspiration Exercise...
First of all, gather loads of wildly different things together, taking care to include a mix of both 2D and 3D pieces mix, and throw in things that appeal to all your senses. Mix them together, and move them around in any way you want on a flat surface like a board (the desk or the floor works well too).
Then, ask yourself these questions...
Is there any common theme?
What is the mood that you get from the scene?
Is there anything you are most pulled to?
Study your answers to the above questions and choose one of your answers as a springboard for your next work.
Links I've loved this week:
I honestly don't know how I hadn't known about this site before. Ideas is like a well of inspiration in and of itself.
Have you got what it takes to be a creative entrepreneur?
If you haven't seen this awe-inspiring talk on where good ideas come from, you need to see it. Now.
Soo much truth. Honestly if you are a writer you'll agree with me.
Three simple steps to a Clutter Free Creative Space has some pretty good ideas.
Love you all and Stay inspired,
Saturday, 9 October 2010
How to Improve Your Vocals i.e. My Top 10 Tips for improving your sound
Hi Darlings,
I mentioned earlier that I'd started taking voice classes in order to improve my sound. I'm really glad I did because there are so many valuable things that I've learnt because of this training. This is valuable information that could interest anyone be you a closet rock star or seasoned opera singer. Enjoy
1. Do not clear your throat by doing that close-mouthed coughing thing. It scratches your vocal cords and can cause you to lose your voice. Instead drink water or swallow/ lightly cough in order to clear your throat.
2. Drink TONNES of Water. Try really hard to avoid singing with a dry throat. It is aweful for your voice and doesn't sound good.
3.Don't listen and critique yourself while singing. What you hear yourself sing is different from what others here from you.
4. When you have a cough or any sickness that harms your throat do not sing.
5. Always warm up your voice before singing . Sing a particular phrase with increasing pitch and decreasing pitches or you could sing through the scales (your do-re-mis).
6.If your voice tends to be dry, drinking milk or eating chocolate some time before practice can actually help.
7. If you have a vocal performance coming up, warming up and daily practice is really important, and even if you don't have one coming up, warming up your voice at the beginning of the day is usually good, especially if you tend to sing a lot randomly throughout the day like me.
8. When singing higher notes, breathe deeper and try to open all your airways as much as you can. This is important because the tendency is that the higher we go, the more we want to close up because of innate fear of the high notes.
9. When the air is really free and you are singing on or near the top of your range, a lovely thing called vibratto can happen in which your voice sort of vibrates (haha) on whatever pitch you are singing. It's beautiful when it's natural but you shouldn't force it because it can be really bad for your voice. Also it doesn't sound as nice.
10. Always sing from your diaphragm: Seriously. I didn't take this seriously until I lost my voice the day of my voice final, after practicing everywhere I could the week up to my final. I woke up and it was gone. Thankfully my professor was lenient and I still ended up doing well but honestly try to make a conscious effort to sing from your diaphragm by using deep breaths that fill your stomach to sing.
Love you all and Stay inspired,
P.S. So let me know what you think. What advice do you have for the singers out there? Any performance horror stories? Feel free to let me know in the comments below.
Thursday, 23 September 2010
Seeking inspiration: The Art of Role Play
"When patterns are broken, new worlds emerge." ~Tuli Kupferberg
"Imagination and fiction make up more than three-quarters of our real life."~Simone Weil
Hello Dearest Devotees,
I think it was towards the end of the summer that I read Harry Potter Book 4 (The Goblet of Fire) that I first decided to explore my own imaginary world. Using Hogwarts and the rest of Harry's world as a jumping off point, I began to create an intricately detailed alternate reality, occasionally furnished with ideas from other fantasy-like books I'd read but largely full of places that I had come up with. Each place had their own wildly different culture, languages and physical environment as well as their own well established royal family. I loved being in this place that I called "my magical world" ( I know. Extremely creative :P) so much that I would spend hours of my day interacting with this place and with people and friends I'd created in this place. I would imagine full length conversations, and would sometimes even invite my siblings to join in my crazy adventures.
It was around this time that I first gained serious interest in writing novels and I'm pretty sure it was sparked by my love for the imaginary place I'd created. I desired to share this world with others and I thought that by "becoming" a character in my imaginary world, I would be able to have a special connection with the characters and therefore be better able to accurately represent them in my books. The character I chose to become is called Aury and I now have a wealth of stories that in diary format that I have collected over the years about her life. Acting as Aury was my first experience in the art of role play. I later found out that actors often use role play to get into character and to be better able to portray their characters during performances. In a similar way, role play helped me to realise that in the world I was creating in my book, Aury and all her friends are people with "real" emotions, problems and relationships and not just characters. I want my readers to be able to believe, at least for a little while, that she is real and in order for that to happen I must believe it too. Only by truly believing this will I be able to make her actions and emotions real enough that my readers will be able to see themselves in her and relate with my novel.
I believe that role play is a skill that can be used by people in general and artists in particular. Our art comes from our realms of experience and our personal realms of experience are pretty limited when you imagine all that it could be. Role play enables to expand that realm giving you the opportunity to tap into feelings and experiences you may not have otherwise had in order to draw from these experiences and create something extraordinary. Also role play can be used to help you reach your goals and ideas of the person you want to be. If used well, it could help you get a realistic idea of what it would take to become that person and maybe even let you decide if that person is really who you want to be. Finally, the art of roleplay can be used to help you understand people in your life better. It will give the chance to " walk in their shoes" and understand things from their point of view. The art of role play is so much more than a game. It is a way of letting your imagination help you see what your eyes can't.
Seeking Inspiration Assignment:
Use the art of roleplay to pretend to be someone who you could see as the opposite of you. Or step into the shoes of someone you aspire to being. Be this person for at least a day.
*Clarification edit*
In order not to freak people out I would recommend you do this on a personal day- a day in which you have a lot of personal time. Or you could just take some time out and just go through the motions of an average day in the life of your character by only pretending to do the activities.
Links I've loved
GenYwealth gives 5 weird habits that can make you rich. Hmm...
A truly original way of glamourising your filofax by the Glamourous A.
I so LOVE the Lolita Lifestyle.
These dates are soo sweet!!! .
I really like this ode to overachievers. I don't know if I'm there yet but I think I'm pretty close.
Wishful thinking is giving a free course for Creative Professionals. If you haven't signed up yet do it! It's gold.
Two pretty awesome morning routines on Zen Habits.
And its pretty random but I really love Taylor Swift's Mine and If I Die Young by The Band Perry. The colours in their videos are so beautiful.
Love you and Stay inspired,
P.S. So let me know what you think. Have you role played before? What for? Feel free to let me know in the comments below.
Thursday, 9 September 2010
Artist's Corner: Poetry 101 by 8 year old Aury
So I was rooting through a pile of papers while unpacking earlier this week and stumbled upon the first poem I ever wrote. I got a kick out of it, and thought that I should share it with you guys. I was 8 so this poem is probably the equivalent of basic doodling and scribbles by future artists.
Blue
Blue is the colour of the sea
Blue is the colour of the sky
Blue is the colour that we feel
when our happiness goes sailing by
Blue is the colour of the lake
Blue is the colour for goodness sake
that shows what we can be
But above all, isn't it pretty?
What can I say? Blue was my favorite colour back then and I just loved waxing poetic about it.
Love you all and Stay inspired,
P.S. So, do you have any of your old art work/ writings that you have stumbled on years later? How do you feel when you see these things? What does it tell you about that time? Feel free to let me know in the comments below.
Monday, 6 September 2010
A Day in the Life: Where I am now
Dearest Devotees,
I could make tons of excuses for not posting for the past couple of weeks and not informing that I wasn't going to be. The thing is that at the end of the day they would all be just that... excuses. I am sorry that a year in I haven't established some sort of blogging routine yet, but this is because this blog really is an extension of myself. When I write here, I give you all a glance into my mind and soul, and I pour myself into each and every post. That's why when I burnt myself out during summer school ( I know, it was too much school) I just needed to stop doing stuff. I sort of took a forced digital sabbatical because where I went, I had no access internet through my mac for 3 weeks! I did blog a little while there because I was able to convince someone else to let me use their computer a little, but the connection was really slow so I had to stay up really late (think 3 am) to blog. Eventually, I just couldn't do it anymore, and spent the rest of the time just hanging out with my siblings and parents, playing the Sims 3 on my Mac and reading amazing books like Mistaken Identity.
I also decided to take some time to re-evaluate myself and have discovered that I have changed so much over the past year, I have outgrown a lot of the things that used to define me. The original plan I had for this blog no longer suits the person I am today. When I first started I thought I would be mostly a fashion blogger with some lifestyle tips thrown into the mix, but I've realised that I see and enjoy fashion more as art and as form of self-expression through personal style. I am only interested in trends in so much as they tell me about large groups of people and enable me to understand them better through their clothes (Costume Analysis). So fashion on this blog is going to be mostly about personal style, design and fashion as a form of costuming. Also, this blog is going to continue being mostly focused on the creative lifestyle and artful living. I am really interested in lifestyle design right now, and I would love to share with you guys all the ideas I have on living life more creatively.
I will do this by writing about different subgroups of people who follow their dreams with total abandon. I will show you how to incorporate art into your daily lives and how to find inspiration everywhere. I will help you find your muse, and develop and sustain a relationship with her. I will help you see find mentors and role models, people who have been there and show you that it can be done. I will help you to gain understanding of yourself and of those around you so that you have a better grasp of human emotion for your art as well as for your relationships with people. My aim is to help you live life more fully because I've realised that having a bunch of things and a long list of abstract achievements do not make a full life. In the end it is the people you meet, the experiences you have and the relationships you build that give you true happiness.
I know it sounds like I have it all figured out, but I don't. I will be the first person to admit I don't know it all. However, I am extremely willing to devote myself to seeking the answers to every question I encounter. I want to know more and I promise that as I learn more. So really if you think about it I am taking this journey with you.
I am writing for all you lovely creative and artistic people striving to live a life full of inspiration.
This is my purpose.
Love you all and Stay inspired,
P.S. So let me know what you think. Are there any topics related to artistic living that you would like me to explore? Feel free to let me know what you think in the comments below.
Friday, 30 July 2010
Seeking Inspiration: Dreams
Dearest Devotees,
One night when I was in boarding school a couple of years ago I had the most surreal dream ever. It was exactly like something out of a horror movie, except I don't watch horror movies so I don't have these kind of dreams. What basically happened is I went to sleep that night, just like any other night and woke up the next morning soaking with sweat and with my heart racing. I won't bore you with the details of this dream, but I will tell you that it involved a zombies, people in my boarding school, a crazy mad scientist professor and a giant mud pool on the school field. It doesn't even end there though because the next night, I had a similar dream, with the same characters but a slightly different story line. It even started off where the last one left off. I will never forget how the dream ended because just after the heroes (a friend and myself) saved the day, I remember seeing a movie poster on a tree by the gate of my school in the dream. It said "Zombies" and had a really cool picture of my friend and I on the front with the other main characters in my nightmare-movie. It was like The Twilight Zone.
So what is the point of this little spiel of mine. Basically it's that inspiration can come from anywhere even from your dreams. I told the friend who featured in my nightmare-movie about the dream and she said that that was the coolest thing she ever heard and that we should definitely make it into a movie. That experience showed me just how much inspiration is apart of our everyday lives. I'm not saying every dream is going to be a perfectly packaged and ready to go work of art but it could lead to explore something in a way you may not have otherwise. After all, when we dream our brains are truly free to explore and create without our self-imposed reins of reality and practicality. They continue to work out problems that plague us doing usually coming with a truly creative and imaginative (albeit sometimes unrealistic) solution to our problems. So if you're running low on inspiration why not try documenting your dreams either in a dream diary or on a dream board. You may be surprised by what you find.
Now let's get real. I want to let you guys know the main inspiration for this post came from an amazing movie that came out this past month, a movie I'm sure you all know as Inception. I will not go on a for too long about this movie but I will say that I really really enjoyed it and that if you haven't seen it I definitely recommend it. It was not only visually stunning with great actors, it also had an fantastically unusual plot that left me questioning everything I'd known by the end of the movie. A movie that amazes me and makes me think is definitely a winner in my books. So there's my random movie recommendation. ( Also, I feel compelled to say that if you haven't seen Toy Story 3 yet, especially if you saw the first two when you were a kid, you should see it. You will not be disappointed. )
Now for this week's Seeking Inspiration Assignment:
This week's assignment is to create something based on a dream you've had or just based on the whole concept of dreams. It can be in any kind of art form you want, a poem, short story, video, painting, dance, whatever you like. I have a song called Dreams that I am working on, but it isn't done yet, and I have finals this week. So after finals I will put it up :) It will probably be an a cappella rendition of the song in video format.
Links I've loved lately:
I thought this stop motion video of a guy walking round the states in his levi jeans was really cool. I loved the music especially.
Now that I'm actually working on my Vanille my future fashion company, I am eating up everything I can about the business of fashion that I can find. That's how I found Daily Fashion Diaries which is a blog about few girls trying to make their way in the fashion industry. Also, if you are looking for an internship in the industry you should definitely check out Daily Fashion Jobs. I must warn you though: most of these are LA and New York based (no surprise).
Merlin Mann gives some great tips on how to future-proof your passion.
HA! No words.
I took this really cool quiz on HomeGoods Decorating Style Quiz.
The Organisation vs Creativity Debate: Why you need to be organised to be creative
Beware of Your Inner Whining Artist on the Lateral Action blog.
Donate rice to the hungry by playing this simple but super fun game. Go on I Dare you.
I really loved this creative weekend to-do- list.
This video of fireflies is just so pretty and I thought that this piece was really nice.
Love you all and Stay Inspired,
P.S. So let me know what you think. What inspired you this week? Feel free to let me know in the comments below.
Sunday, 25 July 2010
How to Know if You're a Songwriter
I started poetry when I was 8 and though it wasn't what I'd call great art, it was definitely an amazing medium for expressing myself. Ever since I was in preschool I have loved literature. I know this because, one of my earliest memories is of my dad teaching me to recognise words and to read and memorize short sentences and paragraphs from a small book of classical poetry and tales ( I know, its pretty crazy). He would do this before he travelled and quiz me on it when he returned. I also remember my mom reading to me and encouraging my intense love of books at the ages of 4 and 5. I just loved being able to escape into another world so much so that whenever I read I became complete oblivious of my surroundings and entered a state of flow (or hyperfocus).This early admiration for the written word led to desire to write and express myself like the authors and writers I admired. I also had a healthy appreciation for music and after trying out several forms of dance and music groups like tap, ballet, hip hop, orchestra and chorus, I decided to try my hand at songwriting. My first song was really silly but it had a catchy tune and my siblings thought it was pretty cool so I kept trying and have been writing songs ever since.
Anyway, that was just a brief intro to my history with songwriting. Lately I've been meeting a lot of musicians and fellow songwriters so this got me thinking about how you can know if you are a songwriter. Here's what I came up with:
Music is constantly going on in your mind, whether its your own song or someone else's song that you really like.
When you walk down the street you are either listening to music,humming or singing (hopefully softly :P) to yourself.
You've been known to study music theory in your spare time.
You carry paper and a writing utensil around with you always in case you have a "lyric moment".
Friends sometimes catch you dancing to the music in your head. This is because it is so loud that you can forget that it's not technically playing anywhere.
Singing in the shower is near superhuman habit to break for you. After all, its where you get some of your best ideas.
You sometimes walk according to your beat of the moment.
You either know how to or are trying to learn to play, at least one but usually several instruments.
You can read and write music.
Your everyday words tend to have a poetic quality to them.
Music is VERY important to you.
You associate your emotions with music automatically.
You have been known to come up with songs in the weirdest places (toilets, at formal dinners, during important ceremonies).
You feel like you could use a song to describe almost anything in your life.
Your ipod, mp3 player, or computer may be full to the brim with music.
You have songbooks...of your own music.
You may be working on a demo or already be writing professionally.
You can not imagine a world without music.
You have a recorder to record tunes that you spontaneously create on your way to class. This recorder is likely to quickly fill up memory-wise.
You analyse lyrics and melodies of songs for fun.
You take personal offence when a song does well in the pop world and lacks what you would see as substance and quality.
When you're playing around with your instrument of choice, or even humming it could lead to your next masterpiece.
If you are not a singer, you already know what singer would best suit your songs.
When you get into a talk about great songwriters, composers, lyricists and musicians, you could go on and on and on...
Some of these characteristics are characteristics of a composer (someone who writes music- melodies, harmonies and instrumentals) and others are characteristic of a lyricist(someone who comes up with the words). When I refer to a songwriter I mean someone who comes up with both. Anyway, if you liked this post, I intend to do a couple more about music in the next couple of weeks so keep an eye out for that. And if you have anything in particular that you want to know about music, you could email me at aury4eva@gmail.com, and I will try my best to help.
Photos from: We Heart It
Love you all and Stay inspired,
P.S. So let me know what you think. Are you a songwriter or musician? What do you think identifies a songwriter? Feel free to let me know in the comments below.
Wednesday, 30 June 2010
Dreaming of the Show: Nurse from Romeo and Juliet
My idea of the Nurse in her youth
So this is a special request from my little sis, the best little sis EVER! She sent me such an encouraging letter the other day telling me how proud she was of me and I just want to say I love and I'm really proud of you too sister!
Ever since she suggested doing Nurse in Romeo and Juliet I've been trying to figure out what would be the best representation of her character, should I have the chance of running a Romeo and Juliet production . This post like all other dreaming of the show post will be done in the process of costume designer. To find out more about costume design and dreaming of the show posts you can click here.
Nurse from William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
Time period and place I would set it in:
21st Century America
Plot Summary:
I don't know if there is anyone who isn't familiar with the plot of Romeo and Juliet but it can be found here. Just to refresh your memory, it is a play about two teenagers who fall in love and who come from opposing families in a long standing feud. They have to meet in secret and after they get married in secret, it is hard for them to stay together because of the feud and because of Juliet's father's insistence on her marriage to Paris ( the suitor her father favors). In order to stay with Romeo, she and Friar Lawrence come up with a plan of escape. They decide Juliet should drink a potion to put her in such a deep sleep that she appears to be dead, and after her family has placed her in a tomb the Friar and Romeo would rescue her so that she and Romeo could run away to Mantua. Unfortunately, Romeo never gets the message of the plan. Instead thinking that Juliet is dead, he kills himself at her tomb (as well as Paris whom he finds there). Juliet wakes and finding Romeo dead, she kisses him one last time to retrieve some of the poison that killed him and when that doesn't kill her she stabs herself with his dagger. After seeing what became of their children, the two families reconcile.
Character summary: I imagine the nurse as having a character similar to that of the cool aunt who encourages you and who believes in love, free will and flower power.In the beginning she is Juliet's confidante, who takes care of her and worries about her, but is also someone Juliet feels she can trust with the knowledge of her secret relationship and who believes she must follow her heart. She is the one who tells Romeo Juliet's name, and even helps them to meet by getting a rope ladder for her. However, as time goes on she seems to become more hesitant to help them and finally tells Juliet it would be best if she just married Paris and acted like Romeo was dead( I imagine at this point in my production she would tell Juliet to just 'go with the flow'). At this point Juliet stops speaking to her because of her 'disloyalty', . Despite her change of heart I still believe she deeply cares about and loves Juliet and wants nothing but the best for her.
Keywords to describe her: flower child (70s youth), grown up hippie, cool, generally laid back, caring, peace, love and happiness, loves Juliet, responsible, up to date with current trends, young at heart, slightly annoying and embarrassing at times.
Key Elements to The Nurse's Style:
long maxi skirts
free flowing floral print tops in bright colors
big flower hairbands and curly untame hair
tie-dye shirts on days off,
minimal fringe on bags and shoes
beaded leather headbands
tan leather jackets
vests paired with billowy shirts (blousons)
flared trousers
Delicate gold peace sign earrings and flower necklaces.
Make-up: pretty light. even distribution of foundation, light grey eyeshadow with brown eyeliner and pale pink lips. The goal is to appear youthful, with a minimalist approach towards makeup. Brightly coloured nail (maybe sky blue).
The Nurse to me:
In case you were wondering the pictures are of Jennifer Ferrin and Drew Barrymore.
Photos from: We Heart it and Google images. I claim no rights over them.
Love you all and Stay inspired,
P.S. So let me know what you think. Have you read Romeo and Juliet? What did you think of it? I personally didn't consider it one of Shakespeare's best but it was beautifully written. How would you portray the Nurse if you had the chance to run a Romeo and Juliet show? Feel free to let me know in the comments below.
Sunday, 20 June 2010
Artist's Corner: A Haiku on Bliss
Lately, I've been feeling moved to write poetry again. It's been the strangest thing, because for a while there I thought I'd sort of moved past that point in my life. Apparently I haven't though, and I can't begin to tell you how glad this makes me. I absolutely adore poetry. All that emotion, captured beautifully and compactly into just a few words. In high school I would write poetry at the back of my notes during class whenever I felt bored. In those days writing was my source of escape. In many ways, it still is now actually, but for whatever reason I haven't felt such an intense need to paint a picture with my words since then. That is what poetry is to me, by the way. It is the creation of a poignant vivid visual experience by using experienced emotions as your paintbrush and words as your paint.
I'm really glad I'm writing poetry again. It's my purest form of self-expression.
Here is my latest haiku, inspired by the theme of bliss.
Bliss
Bright Bursts of colour:
sprinkles of rain mixed with dazzling light
on a summer's day.
Love you all and Stay inspired,
P.S. So let me know what you think. What does poetry mean to you? What is your purest form of self-expression? What is making you happy today? Feel free to let me know in the comments below.
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