Bit bored tonight, so thought I would get a wee bit creative. Well, creative in that I am posting a photo post on a Saturday. Yeah, I’m lazy. So I am going through try and post 5 of my favourite photos from my phone.
I have so many photos on my phone, I kind of picked more nature and landscape pictures. I love photos, they capture a moment. I think it can be easy to snap away and not look at photos. The days of selecting pictures for a photo album are gone, so no harm in looking back.
I have been super lazy over Christmas, as usually I go for a long walk around the local area. This year, I have sat at home, watched too much TV and ate my weight in chocolate. In a bid to try and give myself some energy, I thought I’d go for a walk in Dunfermline, and took some pictures. My legs were tired afterwards, but it was a nice day for a walk, and the Park in town was super busy. I like seeing that other people are out and about too.
I missed yesterday, and feel bad for it. So, to break up the monotony of wordy posts, have some random pictures from my phone. I take a lot of photos, and I like to share. I like the colder part of the year, as everything seems to change.
Today I was down the the public park in the town I live. Used to love going down their for a picnic when I was a kid. There is some ‘gates’ which looked like old prison cells, or that’s what we believed when at school.
It’s great looking around where you live. I love taking a camera with me. It helps me realise that there are some nice things about living where I do.
Today I ventured outside with my new camera. The Canon PowerShot SX510 is a digital bridge camera, something that I wanted since I did a photography course at college many years ago. I like taking pictures, although I am not the best at it. But that is the good thing about hobbies, you do not have to be particularly good to do it, you just have to do something that you enjoy.
Anyways, I was to meet a friend today, and because I was in town early, I went for a walk down the main park in Dunfermline, Pittencrieff Park (also known as The Glen). It was a gift by Andrew Carnegie to the people of Dunfermline, the town of his birth, after he made his fortune in America in the steel industry. He also donated a library. gymnasium and concert hall to Dunfermline, and also various projects through the USA, particularly New York’s famous Carnegie Hall. Carnegie believed that one third of life should be spent learning as much as they can, the next third spent making as much money as he could. The last third of one’s life should then be spent giving earnings to worthwhile causes to better society. The Glen is one of my favourite places in my hometown, so I thought it was the perfect first trip out with my new camera.
And then I ventured up to the Abbey, a building dating from the early 1200s. A beautiful place.
The one thing that struck me as strange, was the number of squirrels about. I am sure that the squirrels used to hibernate, but the mild winter and constant food from visitors mean that they haven’t done so in years. Visitors are encouraged to bring nuts and seeds to the park to feed the birds over the winter, and the squirrels feed off them. And because they get food of people, they have no fear and can come right close to you.
Some days, you have to just take stock and realise what is around you.
I’ll be honest, most of the time I don’t look around and actually pay attention to what is around me. Mostly because I have other things on my mind. When you do take the time to look around yourself, you realise that your surroundings are not as bad as you maybe thought.
+FOLLOW THE BRANCH+
+LOOK UP+
+THE RIVER+
+WATERFALL+
+DUNFERMLINE PALACE RUINS+
+++++++++
All photographs are taken by myself, and are also on my Flickr.
Due to request, I am searching for a method of printing these photos well, so that people can purchase prints. Flickr will be updated when this happens.
STEVE OLSON
“My Art gives contemporary art a juvenile delinquent phase. Its
self-made style icons gleefully trashed conventions of beauty and
society while pick pocketing from the coolest underground styles and
beliefs of the previous centuries…” Steve Olson
Steve Olson, a pro skateboarder in the 70s and 80s and prominent
figure in the L.A. and San Francisco Punk Rock scene, creates Post
Modern work that weaves narrative themes of capitalism, pop culture,
social decay, and modern banality with the energy and fun of early
Punk. Steve Olson’s work confronts and undermines the way society
constructs and imposes a traditional hierarchy of cultural values and
meanings by critiquing contemporary society and our relationship with
it. The artwork explores power and the way economic and social forces
exert that power by shaping the identities of individuals and culture.
Questioning the nature and extent of our freedom his art challenges
our acquiescence to authority and conventional thought.
Bold imagery, layered texture, deconstructed material and a playful
relationship between art, language and meaning gives this thoughtful
work a dimension beyond its visual impact.
———–
ALEX OLSON
———–
Known Gallery
441 North Fairfax Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90036
info@knowngallery.com
**I know that I am in Scotland and have no hope in going, but I am still promoting because I think this father and son exhibition, will be really good. So if you can’t see this show, I suggest you look up them both, as they are both fantastic. I have known of Steve Olson for a long time, because I liked everything about the skaters, in California in the 80s, like The Z-Boys, and Steve was a part of all that. **
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.
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.
Ok, slight exaggeration.
But yesterday my internet router packed in. It won’t even power up anymore. It wasn’t a progressive thing, it just died. So most of my online activities have been placed on hold, as I can’t access anything. 😦
This sucks when I am trying to start off work things. Luckily thanks to my Blackberry I can still email people and view stuff over that, but I still can’t access large websites. So if anyone wants to contact me about work, either contact me on twitter or email me.
Better news, I entered a competition at my work to take photographs about the arts where you live. Basically you send like an application for it, and 5 people get chosen to take pictures for the competition. The person with the best photos will win a trip to London, where they will get a professional photography lesson. It seems a really great opportunity. So fingers crossed, it goes well.
I still have a big gap of research to do for both my Graded Unit and Art & Design Project, and I can’t do any of it, whilst I am here. Not even when its quiet, I would need to be able to put my pen drive in the pc, to save images, and I can’t do that. Mostly because the ‘powers that be’, seem to think i will steal data from the pc. Which is understandable, I guess, if not a little over cautious.
I got my photograph taken in the photography studio at college, which was exciting. It was taken by students, but it was still cool. Never really done anything like that before. We were told we would get a copy of the photos, which would be cool. I need some full shots of my self, as I have never felt more comfortable about my body. I think that has to do with the fact, that for the last few days I have been forcing myself to look in the mirror every day. Mostly because I need to love my self. I know it sounds stupid, but I’m sick of being told that I am wrong for the way that I look. I have always been large, and its time for me to be happy for that.
sueriot.com 