Tag: art

Aaaaaaannndd focus!!

~ Sue ~ Leave a comment

Photography wise, I mean.

Been looking around sites like Deviant Art and realised that a hell of a lot of people consider themselves ‘photographers’. I don’t think it’s an issue that so many people love taking pictures. I mean, I think its great when anyone does something creative. Creativity is the language of the soul, or was that food of the soul. I can’t remember, I am rubbish at remembering quotes. Anyways, creativity is good for a person.

It’s when people get all snot-nosed about it.

The people who spent 5 years at University, aren’t necessarily better photographers that anyone else, but it’s that they think that they are. **Making no sense- deep breath** What I mean is, why should having a formal education in something make you better at your chosen topic. It doesn’t. All it means is that you have more pieces of paper when it comes to trying to get a job. This is the ‘hallelujah’ moment I had last year, that no matter how much education you have, you aren’t going to necessarily ‘get better’. Sure, you may learn more skills, which is nice and all, but if you can’t visualise things on your own, then no amount of skill can change that. You can spend your 20s at College or University, and still end up as hopeless as you were at High School.

Sounds a bit ‘tough love’ but it’s true. The person who does something because they love it, is going to be far more successful than someone who chases a career because it will make them money. It is something, I think I needed to be out of College to see. It ‘opened my eyes’, if you will.

    “A person receives a richer eduction experiencing life, than they would at any School”

This nameless quote (I need to start noting down names) is speaking the truth. Whilst education is nice and all, it is mostly just an easy extension onto High School, where you can delay ‘adulthood’ for an extra few years. The only adult thing that seems to happen is the debt. The thousands and thousands of pounds worth of debt College gifts every student. So that before they can graduate, they need to find a job, and when they do, it all goes into paying College loans off. So College graduates have this big pressure on them to get a job in their profession, sometimes annihilating any enjoyment for the subject, the person once had.

Taking a subject you enjoy, and trying to turn it into a career is hard. Most times people give up, because it either becomes too hard, or they lose enjoyment. And, let’s be honest, there is no attraction in working a job you hate for the rest of your life. If you have read this blog at all before, you were aware of the stress I had trying to start my own business as soon as I left College. At the time, it seemed like an awesome idea, start earning money from my own work. But, as frequently happens, it didn’t quite go like that. I had a massive creative block, that I just couldn’t get out of.

The thing with working in the Creative Industry, you can try as hard as you can, but if you have no inspiration, then it is hard to produce work. So I took a gap, and starting working on other things, such as writing. This helped. Because I could write about my apparent failure, I received advice from other people who had the same experience. These, I suppose, would be my peers. People who were trying to sell their own work to make a living, be it as a designer, artist or writer. Their encouraging words were what I needed, and helped me carry on. I would still try to do something, but I wouldn’t force it too hard. As if it becomes a chore, it is too hard to do it for pleasure again. So I went and did other things. Wrote a few articles for websites, and slowly I’m getting my motivation back, and am now creating work I feel happy with.

I know that this isn’t over, and I will battle with trying to keep my creativity my whole life, but I know how to deal with it a bit better.  I know that most people deal with creative pits, where they can’t do anything. I also know, that it took the will of working nothing but a normal job for a few months, to spark my desire.

The truth is, take a break if you need it. I can now afford that luxury as I build up a backlog of work, as well as working in a call centre, which pays the bills. College will never offer you that luxury, you have to work through your block, and for a lot of artists that’s why their creativity crashes after they graduate. I know. It happened to me.

I’m not saying I regret anything, because I loved college, and I did learn a lot, but the heart was already there, I just needed the vessels to help carry everything.

To any students who may read this, NEVER EVER think that you are better than another artist or author, just because you had a better education. Talent is not something which is created in a classroom, it is something one is born with, and true talent will always shine through.

 

 

When It Hits, It Hits

~ Sue ~ Leave a comment

So….after weeks of complaining, I am FINALLY being productive.

Score 1, to Sue.

*Victory dance*

Ok it is one think I did. So maybe I shouldn’t get too excited, but I can’t help it. I got so happy, I went over to Flash, and started animating my intro for my Vlogs. Yes, after months of being on Youtube, I am FINALLY making a proper intro rather than just use crappy text. YAY

For now, check my latest Vlog.

It Just Goes On It’s Own

~ Sue ~ Leave a comment

My imagination that is.

How is it, that I can be all inundated with creative thoughts when I am at work, but as soon as I get home and get stuff out, I have nothing. :/ This is something that has been happening for the last few weeks. And, if you have read this blog before, you’ll be no stranger to the fact that I don’t cope well with having no motivation.

I have heard that once you put too much pressure on something, it can become harder to do. So because I am trying to force myself to be creative, it is a lot harder to actually do. It was easy in college to blame the projects for my inactivity, but now I can do the projects that I want. I can design things in my own style. I should have this massive sense of creative freedom, now that I am freed from the boundries of education.

But I don’t. I just sit in my room and procrastinate about my failings in life. That is maybe how I am not so productive these days.

Procrastinate. That is the word of the moment. Because it seems to be all I can do right now. 😦

Regime Change

~ Sue ~ Leave a comment

Yeah, so after deciding that this place is starting to sound a little bit too whiney and such, I am forming some kind of structure for stuff.
This is my vlogs and my blogs.

I spend way too much time complaining, and after looking through a few blogs, I felt I needed some kind of consistency. So, in a bid to liven everything up, I am giving myself a schedule, or a set of challenges, even. Basically, I have the task of talking about certain topic on certain days of the week, and its done to also encourage me to look at new things, so I can talk about them.

Yeah, well…it seems like a good idea to me.

MONDAY–will be book day, where I reccommend books that I like, and talk about them.

WEDNESDAY— Website day, I have to talk about a website (includes blogs) that I think people should look at.

FRIDAY– Music day. Whether a song, band or album, I talk about why you should listen to it,

SOOOOOO……

Seeing as today is Monday, I have a book, I think that anyone with an intrest in Art or Design should read.


Art And Text
It really is a great book, with lots of great images of typography. I have loved typography since I was little, and this book just shows why I love it. The whole point of the book, from where I am standing, is to show that typography is more than just letters that physically spell out something.

It shows conceptual art, where the lettering, is just one part of the piece. There are installations, paintings, and lots more. I really like the variety of work on show. But the thing I like most about the book, is that unlike most art books, the work on show helps a person feel like they can achieve something extra out of typography. That with a liitle imagination, writing can be much more objective, and even more direct. But then, that’s what I take from the book. As with all art, it is all in how someone precieves the work.

I’ve Been Workin’

~ Sue ~ Leave a comment

So been busy.

I’m at the point where I am half way through my website, which I am pretty pleased about. But I have been spending a lot of my holiday with friends and family, which is something I don’t often get a chance to do. But with me not going to college next year, I am aiming to use all my free time during the day to work on websites and other projects.

Due to my financal status, I am planning on using the next few years to do small scale work and get my business plan in gear. I hope that by the time I am in a better situation, I will be getting more work through the door. Because at the moment, it is hard getting enough work to properly start my business.

Luckily I still have the evening job, so that has made the situation of earning through my work, not quite so bad. And it is also allowing me to take opportunities, such as working towards blog sponsorship (which is a possibility) in the coming months. I am also in a position, where I am working towards showing in an exhibition next year, which would be awesome.

So things are moving, and the next year or so will be deciding the best way to move further. Exciting times in the life of Sue.

FREEDOM

~ Sue ~ Leave a comment

Freedom! What gives you that sense where you feel completely free?

For me, it’s music. It is something that moves me so much. Whether I am listening to Tchaikovsky or N Dubz or Slayer, music is just so expressive.

Me and Gemma were talking about it yesterday. Because music is written from the heart and involves emotions, it easily effects other people emotionally. So because it’s based on emotion, it should also be open to interpretation. Compared to how a person is feeling, or what they have been through, they may think differently about a song. And artists should be able to accept this.

If people expect their work to be accepted on an emotional level, then they should be aware that people may view it differently. But that’s why I love music so much. It is all open to how I feel, not what others say its about.

Throughout history music has been used to voice opinion when people feel like they have no voice. In states which people feel as if their rights have been. taken away, they often rebel through art such as music. It is a way to get their voices heard. And this sense of unity, as the music brings people together, make the opinion louder.

With the UK on the cusp of becoming depressed under Tory rule, there is great expectations that the underground music scene will become more active again. With the unlimited amount of cutbacks getting pushed forward by government, people will feel jaded.

Because you can use music to describe anything, it will always have a sense of freedom, wherever the music itself comes from.

Inspiration- artists

~ Sue ~ Leave a comment

I am currently trying to drum together lots of things, which inspire me in work, and what I do. ]

I am going to look at all the artists, both graphic and traditional that inspire me.
The first one, is an artist I talk about frequently. Salvador Dali. I love his obscure images he created. The fact that he was so incentric and was amzing at attracting attention to himself and promoting his work. Which in any type of art, is necessary. You need to have the courage and belief to promote yourself and your work. And thats what I took from him.

I also admire Kat Von D. I know it sounds a bit ‘off’ naming her as an artist. But aside from the profile she has provided to the tattooing world, she also has an ever increasing portfolio of work, that she does, alongside the day job. She has a very good outlook on life, and I like that. Again she is another artist, who believes in endless self-promotion. But in a world where artists, no matter what the genre, have to do some self promotion, if they want to succeed. So if you cannot sell yourself, and your work, then there is no point in looking for an artistic career. She also takes a huge influence from music, which is one is my main influence in life in general. She also has a habit of overworking herself, which is something people are constantly telling me I do.

John Constable is another one of my favourite artists. I love how he came out against what was the trend at the time, which was a lot of drawing from imagination and things. He believed taht he had to take art from what was directly in front of him. He is noted as saying that ‘beauty in the world, is noticing its imperfections, that in itself is perfection’. I think that is great, as not every leave you see is not identical and they are all different. Although his work was very upmarket, they are genuinely beautiful images.

Charlie Harper is another influencial artist. He is lead singer for a punk band called the UK Subs, and he also produces his own art work. I first saw his work two years ago at a punk festival, called Rebellion, which I go to every year. He shows a lot of urban. grunge style work, and his work comes across as if he is frustrated. Many strong emotions are shown in art. I love the idea that Charlie doesn’t feel that just because he is succesful with music that he should stick with that, and he does well at art also.

Eventually

~ Sue ~ Leave a comment

I had web design class today, where I started Scott’s website. It should have really been started a few weeks ago, but that didn’t happen. Mostly because of my lack of motivation, but I have now done the index page. Which in itself is great, because all other pages of the website are almost the same as the index page, its kinda like the main template, just the contents change about.

Also I made steady progress in the project for ‘Create Not Hate’, where I felt I was actually doing some high quality work for a change. The main concept of the idea I am doing, is where there is a face, but the features have been scrubbed out. This is to show some form of censorship, which happens towards young people, as they are often not given a chance and just judged. Well, thats what is supposed to be translated through it. I did some high quality drawings, and experemented with some plasticine.

I am hoping to try and get some picture of my work up, which would be nice, if I ever update this at home, rather than being at college or work.