Showing posts with label fun. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fun. Show all posts
Saturday, 6 November 2010
Reasons for My Smile: Slumber Parties, Feeling He's Here, and a 100 Followers!
- Having a particularly awesome slumber party at my one of my darling friend's dorm and a random but equally wonderful sleepover at another friend's dorm :) It made me feel like a kid again :)
- Watching 10 Things I Hate About You with friends. Seeing my favorite actors as little teenagers was oddly entertaining.
- Feeling He is here :)
- Doing my own version of NaNoWriMo and Art Every Day Month because I've realized working on and hopefully completing my anthology this month means more to me than working on a new novel right now. So excited!
- Planning crafting parties
- All the love shown to me when I was ill and finally getting well again.
- Renovating my Halloween costume dress to turn it into something I can wear everyday. TeeHee.
- Organizing my dorm room. I love having white space.
- Getting my new inspiration board! It's here!!!! and it looks AWESOME!
- Wishing My Dad a happy birthday!
- Listening to some awesome TED talks on creativity. The links should be posted in my seeking inspiration post this week.
- Choosing to learn River Flows In You by Yiruma for my piano final. So pretty and so different from anything I've ever done.
- Loving Life :)
- And last but definitely not least loving the fact that I now have 100 followers on Google reader! Thank you so much my darling devotees. You all always make me happy.
Love you all and Stay inspired,
P.S. So let me know what you think. What made you happy this week? Feel free to let me know in the comments below.
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Saturday, 23 October 2010
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,
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.
Tuesday, 14 September 2010
My Top 10: Little known quirks
Dearest Devotees,
Since I had so much fun writing yesterday's post, I decided that I would write a similar one today. This post is about the random things I like to do/ or am interested in that you might never guess was apart of my personality if you didn't know me. I love finding out unusual things about people and I am hoping that sharing my quirks with you will help you find it easier to be quirky, and maybe even help me meet people with similar (random) interests. So without further ado, here are my top 10 quirks.
1. Greek and Roman Mythology: This is why I love books like Percy Jackson. I just love how ancient societies were able to create such amazing stories to explain things that they encountered daily.
2. The Sims, especially the Sims 3. I'm not a big video games person but I really love the Sims.
3. A really odd and wide taste in music ranging from classical, to hip hop, to metal, indie rock and country.
4. Youtube (This is more of an obsession) : particularly watching youtubers like Shane Dawson, Natalie Tran of Community Channel and Charlie McDonell.
5. Avatar -the last Airbender: The cartoon not the movie.
6. Magical beings in novels in general.
7. All types of dance, gymnastics, yoga and other similar activities that involve testing the limits of your flexibility (I have a pretty wide range of movement).
8. I absolutely love singing, am a songwriter and have been told I have a nice voice, but I have no desire to become a performer. Why? Stage fright.
9. Flying does really weird things to me (the air pressure causes splitting headaches akin to those Harry might have felt through his scar) yet I continue to adore flying.
10. Psychology and any study really that helps me understand why people act the way they do.I own so many non-fiction and self help books, its obscene.
Love you all and Stay inspired,
P.S. So let me know what you think. What are your quirks? How do you feel about them ? (I actually happen to like mine :) )Feel free to let me know in the comments below.
Saturday, 11 September 2010
My Top 10: Amazing Places I would love to live
Dearest Devotees,
Some of the following places are real. Some of them aren't. Most of them I will only ever live inhabit their confines in my dreams. Since I am unlikely to be forwarding my mail to any of these places any time soon, please indulge me as I list the top 10 places I would love to have the good fortune of calling home.
1. Hogwarts: After I read Harry Potter, I was hooked. After anxiously awaiting the arrival of my Hogwarts letter on my 10th birthday, I was devastated when, by the next morning, it had still not shown up. (I had to assume that this meant that the ability to hold things due to static cling was not, in fact, a sign of magical blood.)
2. Anthropologie: If you've never been in the store called Anthropologie I honestly cannot help you. The best way I could describe it is by saying is that it is as if they took all things indie, kitschy, craftsy, artsy and sweet and put them all in one store. I have sincerely considered moving there on separate occasions.
3. Libraries (especially large, old fashioned, public libraries): I once spent a whole summer reading books every day from 9-5 for about 3 months if memory serves. I would also take books home during those days, to read for as long as I was awake and not at the library. As you can see, I was a very odd child.
4. The world in which Percy Jackson lives: Granted it might extremely scary sometime, but how cool would it be see all the beings that Greek mythologies are made of walking and talking. Plus learning archery from a Centaur would be pretty awesome.
5. Genovia: Because with a ruler as cool and epic as Mia Thermopolis from Princess Diaries, I feel like life would be really interesting.
6. A wonderful imaginary land called Magical: A world that exists only within the confines of my mind and my novel and which you may all get to read about one day.
7. European Countryside: Be it French, Swiss or Northern Irish, I know I would be SO Happy if I could one day call such a place home. It's breathtakingly beautiful, and gives me dreams of horse back-riding with my kids in my private stables.
8. In the prairies of the Western U.S: Simply Google Colorado. One day I will have an artistic retreat here for at least 2 weeks. Until then I will have to satisfy myself with imagining myself through fields covered in yellow flowers.
9. New York: Fashion Institute of New York. The Museum of Modern Art. Broadway. The Energy. The Life. I could go on but I won't because I don't think I need to.
10. A Palace in a world in which Dr. Reid exists: The little girl in me has always wondered what it would be like to be a real princess and live in a palace...
Love you all and Stay inspired,
P.S. So let me know what you think. Where would you live (if there were absolutely no constraints with regards to time or reality)? What would you be your dream place to be? Feel free to let me know in the comments below.
Sunday, 22 August 2010
The Blogger Inside Tag
Photo from: A winged pearl
I am
A girl of many dreams and tons of ambition.
Yet I often feel like a lone autumn leaf in the wind.
I believe in God.
I believe in love and hope.
I am
A person with a mission
An ultimate dream to reach self-fulfillment and understanding of the world around me
But also to successfully build myself as a brand
And to create my dream company a clothing company called Vanille.
You may be wondering, "Who is Aury?"
Well, she started out as the main character of my first novel.
A person I've role-played for several years of my childhood
And still continue to do so occasionally today.
I love travelling and have grown up all around the world.
I love airplanes although I am afraid of heights and feel very much at home in airports.
I love magic and the whole idea of an alternate world.
From Greek and Roman Mythology, to tales of Hogwarts and shows like Avatar all these things intrigue me.
I love reading and I adore libraries.
I love the Internet because it is a wealth of information just waiting to be discovered.
I love social media because it keeps us all connected.
I love art, music and literature.
Art to me is everything that uses imagination and creativity to make it come alive.
I love fashion design and costuming because of their process.
An intangible idea and/or message is turned into clothing by the designer, identified with by the consumer and transmitted to others by the wearer.
I love how you need to have an analytical, critical and artistic mind in order to create a successful design.
I love culture and diversity.
I stand for tolerance and understanding.
Home to me is wherever my heart is.
Wherever my family is but also wherever I feel most at peace.
Deconstruction is a huge part of my world.
The deconstructed and disjoint nature of this post is a true portrayal of my mind.
I feel like my mind is a jungle.
A thick but thriving marshy forest full of ideas, questions and answers.
The problem is not a dearth of resources but one of logical connections and pathways to the resources.
If only I could find the way.
This is the real me.
Trying to make sense of what makes my reality so that I can share with you.
I am Aury.
Love you all and Stay inspired,
P.S. This is a blogger inside blogger tag that I have just created. The rules are as such:
1. Do a blog post in any format that you like and that you think accurately portrays who you are.
2. Tell us what you think makes up who you are. It can be as long or as short as you want.
3. Tag 3 bloggers and pass it on (I tag Dori from Dori the Giant , Krissy from Shimmer Like Gold, and Debbie from Debbie: The College Years )
P.P.S. So let me know what you think. Feel free to introduce yourselves to me 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.
Thursday, 10 June 2010
Seeking Inspiration: Never Alone
I love people, I really do. I love being around people (particularly people I know and love) and I can even be said to get my energy from being around many of the people I love at the same time. However, and I'm sure all of you lovely artistic and creative spirits out there can relate, sometimes you just need to get away from it all for awhile to enjoy some quality time with yourself. Inspiration can most certainly come while going through the motions of your daily life, but it is much more likely to hit you in the moments of calm in which you can take in everything that you've experienced, process it all and create with it. This is why I did an artistic retreat at the beginning of this year. I just really needed some time to let things sink in and to prepare my heart, soul and mind to create. This is why some writers go away to quiet little cabins in the middle of nature to write. This is also why I've decided my favorite time of the day is dawn because everything is so quiet and calm and beautiful that I am able to ponder various things freely and without distraction.
Lately, I've felt an intense desire to disappear into some remote place with nothing but the bare necessities, and all my art supplies, and I really think that I may do this after summer school is over before the next school year starts. It would be a creation (rather than inspiration) centered artistic retreat and would honestly be one of the best ways I could spend the remainder of my summer holiday.
That said, not everyone has the luxury of dropping all of their responsibilities and disappearing into the wilderness for two weeks, and even if you do, that isn't always the best plan of action. So here are some ways of injecting little drops of solitude into your week.
- Set apart a creative space for yourself in which you can return to regularly when you want to create. Decorate this place in such a way that it inspires you and moves you to create.
- Use beautiful music, pictures, or scents if suitable to help create the desired atmosphere.
- Find a particular time in the day in which you are least likely to be disturbed while creating. If necessary, ask people not to seek you out at this time. If necessary, get noise canceling headphones that can block out average background noise (very useful if you happen to have a roommate).
- Give yourself time to think. Seriously, I've heard of CEOs who schedule meetings with themselves throughout the day, so they can just stop and breathe every once in a while. The best thing for you to do at these times it to just sit quietly and let your mind wander.
- Take tranquil scenic walks or runs. By doing this, you can exercise and wind down at the same time.
- Do yoga/meditate at the beginning and/or end of your day. Again its all about clearing your mind and taking stock of all the stimuli you receive each day.
Assignment for the week
I'm still working on last week's assignment but I'm happy to say it's going quite well and that it has two different parts to it that I will be really excited to show you next week. That said, here's this week's assignment. It's another song called Never Alone by Barlow Girl and I actually have the assignment for this done.
My Translation
It's a part of one of my songs. It's a pretty loose translation of the above song, (I only really used it as a spring board) but it also has to be pretty loose since they are both in the same medium. I hope you like it. The song is called Locked up.
Chorus
Locked Up in this tower
Away from it all.
Don't want to listen
'Cause I don't wanna fall.
Locked away in this tower
Away from it all.
Don't want to listen
Because I don't want to fall.
Broken pieces, parts of me
Lying on the ground.
People, places, things I've seen
Have turned my life around.
Run me into desperation.
Seeking for a light within
The cold
and the dark that surrounds me.
Ran up here to get away
From everything else.
Hope is so bizarre to me
When all I know is hell.
But yet I want something more.
I long to finally reach that door
And break out.
Escape.
But I am....
Chorus.
It's a work in progress and when its fleshed out complete with melody, harmony and accompaniment I will present it to you in an Artist Corner feature.
Links I've loved this week include:
I absolutely adore the SparkNotes site, especially when I stumbled upon this really sweet playlist on it!
I really miss polaroids, so much so I am considering getting a new polaroid camera. Until then this free application Poladroid is definitely keeping me happy!
Zen Habits is just amazing. AMAZING! I suggest you start off your journey there with this blog post.
All images come from We Heart It.
Love you all and Stay inspired,
P.S. So let me know what you think. What's inspired you this week? What links have you been loving this week? Feel free to let me know in the comments below.
P.P.S A huge Welcome to all my new devotees. You make me ridicu-crazily happy :)
Artist's Corner: A whole bunch of Boston winter pics gave me bliss!
This is a feature in which I will just share with you some of the art projects I've been working on every once in awhile. I feel like posting here will motivate me to do more and I really hope it will inspire you too :) Also, I feel like I talk a lot about doing art but don't show you any proof that I actually do do art.
I was uploading all of the pictures and videos from my video camera recently and discovered these.
I took them during the course of my first winter in Boston and was testing out the quality of the camera.
What do you think?
Love you all and Stay inspired,
P.S. A seeking inspiration post is currently in the works. Just wanted to post this tonight but I am really excited to get that post out to you because I really hope it will resonate with you all. I love and miss you.I had exams all week , but they went well! :)
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