Tagged: creative

Semi-Permanent Auckland 2014

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“Get inspired.” One of the key messages (amplifying) from this event. How the heck couldn’t you, with such mind-blowing storytellers? Speakers: Ian Wharton (Creative Director), Tiffany Bozic (Artist), Ashley Gilbertson (Photojournalist), Augustin Teboul (Fashion designers), Matt Willey (Graphic Designer), Galon Levin (Artist) and Abbot Miller (Partner) kicked off on the first day.

Ashley Gilbertson spoke about his time on the ground in Iraq (2002-2008) photographing immediate imagery of warfare and the human experience. What a ‘profound encounter’ of truth, conflict and bravery. Seeing pictures of bloody (dead) bodies, explosions, destruction and ‘a collection of photos of intact bedrooms of service members who died in Iraq and Afghanistan’ captivated the audience into utter silence. Incredible. Touching – nearly to the point of tears. No one will ever forget those (human) stories.

Fashion designers: Annelie Augustin and Odely Teboul provoked with their “black is our universe” collections. Having only launched in 2011, they have worked with musicians like ‘
Lady Gaga’ to create haute couture garments, and have been heavily published in the world-wide press. From humble beginnings (living in a tent due to pennilessness), they now both live in Berlin and collaborate with the local community to make their wares. They find inspiration through “creative accidents.”

Brilliant.

Unfortunately I didn’t make it to the second day – however I got my ‘quota’ of inspiration from the stories I heard, aplenty.

Looking forward to the 11th year!

Project ‘salt’

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Writing is my passion, and to hear my (new) play, being read aloud for the first time, is pure elation.

‘salt’ is about unrequited love, and mental health.

A few months ago I emailed/interviewed 10 people about their experience with love, in their lives.

What is love? Do you believe in love? When did you first feel butterflies in your tummy? Who was you childhood sweetheart? And so on.

Everyone found love (from the questionaire) from 5-7 years old, and they all remembered their sweetheart’s full name, including me.

What happens when love is one-sided? Or is it always, one-sided? Can two people love each other the same?

Do you believe in love?

What’s it like to be a lefty?

Did you know (apparently) up to 10% of people on earth, are left-handed? I never really thought about this dilemma: ‘lefty’ people experience a multitude of challenges, daily. One of my friends’ enlightened me on some of the alarming issues. She still has trouble driving a manual car (as there are 3 pedals), and always used to put her foot on the brake, instead of the accelerator. She now drives an automatic. When sitting at the table or walking down the road, the left-side dominates, naturally. Dislikes spiral notebooks, unable to use ink pens, making the bed with someone else is problematic, opening cans is impossible, using scissors proves difficult to master, and musical instruments are (definitely) designed for ‘righties’.

Left-handers are notably intelligent and more likely to be geniuses: Albert Einstein, Beethoven, Bill Gates, Aristotle, Mozart, Lewis Carroll, Helen Keller, Gandhi, Mark Twain, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and many more.

You can shop online for your left-handed products – brilliant. Are you a lefty?

Focus

What are you willing to give up, to be an artist? Are you a writer, sculptor, screenwriter, actor or photographer? How long does it take, to make a living from your art? Well (in my experience), you do a lot of work for contra, exposure and/or zilch income. However, if you stick to it like glue, you will get results. You just to need to earn some money, to cover the essentials. My advice is to never give up, in what you believe in. Dream. Focus. Create. And keep on doing it.