Creativity takes courage

Quote by the French* artist Henri Matisse, whose work I studied during my days of GCSE Art & Design! The title of this post is relevant to 3 things;

a) The above image is my first shaped set ever! I've never made anything like it on Polyvore, and I really like the fact that it isn't square and that the pieces don't quite fit perfectly, I think it adds something. Trying something new or different requires creative courage.

b) Today I watched my sister's performance (at my town's theatre) which was written for the Olympic culture festival, and so my sister and her friends are the original cast! Standing up on stage, reciting lines and acting, in front of the actual playwright and associated press (tonight was the first time that the play has been performed) takes massive courage.

c) I've been watching the London 2012 Olympics (well, I love watching sport on TV, and I am mildly patriotic, I watched the Diamond Jubilee, Royal Wedding etc.) since the Opening ceremony** and the amount of creativity and courage involved in the Olympics is really inspirational. It's not just Danny Boyle's opening ceremony which was creative - every dive, gymnastics/trampolining routine, dressage performance, every athlete's requires artist design. It's not just the competitors who need courage either, the organisers, and so that decided to make the 2012 Olympics so eccentric and so different to any really seen before must have had courage too.

Therefore these two things, as illustrated by the above examples, go hand in hand.


*Speaking of the French - what a good night for their swimmers! Well done for winning against some pretty tight odds and even fiercer competition!

**I absolutely loved the Opening ceremony, seeing as some reviews have been mixed about it. It wasn't a complete spectacle, like Beijing, but it wasn't supposed to be, it represented the people of Britain, all people, and the crazy British sense of humour. It focused on some of the darkest parts of our recent social history (mistreatment of workers during the industrial revolution, Suffragettes, World Wars) but then reminded the world what Britain has given to everyone, the internet being the most incredible and appropriate example, considering that you are reading this online! Sure, some of it was confusing and chaotic, but so is life - even athletes are not machines, we're all human, and that's what binds us all, regardless of nation, country, language. Isn't that what the Olympics is really about?

Regardless, GO TEAM GB!

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. (Gandhi)

It's been another long week (hence the late-night blog update!) in which I have been to the theatre twice to see Les Miserables and Trojan women. I know, cheerful stuff, right? Anyway, not much else has happened aside from the usual, except for some reason I seem to have spent a lot of time thinking about the brevity of life (ironic, surely thinking about this sort of thing defeats the purpose of living life to the full?) which may or may not have something to do with the fact that I only just learnt that YOLO is not actually some kind of African greeting, it means "You Only Live Once", which I'm guessing most people already know.

The only thing that annoys me about that saying is that recently people my age have been doing stupid things and then justifying it by tagging YOLO after (publicly advertising) whatever (usually reckless) thing that they're doing. Why can't YOLO be used in the context of "I'm helping a friend", YOLO or "I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing", YOLO. I guess the problem with humans is that we are attracted to things that don't conform.

The casual collage above however, has many objects in it that are completely normal, and seem very ordinary. That's the point, the things in my collage are what they seem to be, and the style is determined to be "mainstream" which is paradoxically the opposite these days, that is to say, it's a rarity, it feels like everyone is trying too hard to be "different" or "edgy", and due to this they loose sight of themselves. Speaking of which, I wish I owned half of the objects in the image, especially the vintage suitcase, badges and butterfly pictures, but that's just me.

In the true spirit of YOLO (although I prefer the above quote, captioned on this post) I'll be temporarily abandoning this blog to revise for my final exams, which mean a lot to me. My first exam is in 2 weeks, and I really don't want to keep staying up so late to fit everything in, so I'm cutting a lot of stuff out of my life for the next month and a half or so. I'll be back around the end of June, before I go on holiday (can't wait!:D) but life goes on in the meantime, and I think it'll be over quicker than I realise - especially with the last day of school approaching so soon :o

Don't forget me and I won't forget you! Have a nice few weeks - I'll be back ASAP- wish me luck! ;)

Memories

Memories

I really like photos of people not looking at the camera, especially if they're looking into the distance, or taken from an interesting angle...I also have an obsession with putting clocks in the background of everything, and overlaying virtually every image I make with some sort of book/ photo montage?

The words "World", "adventure", and "travel" are also particularly relevant as I've just booked my summer holiday! A nice week somewhere sunny with a load of my closest friends - just what I need after finishing my final exams - and a great way to start what I hope will be a great summer :)

I also like putting mis-match frames around the different images, makes the whole thing look a lot less mainstream ;)

Speaking of summer, I've also paid for my end-of-school prom (!) which is only a few months away, which seems insane considering I can still remember my Year 11 prom so clearly...so I guess the title of this post may be "Memories" (well, it suits the image!) but really at the moment I'm focused a lot more on the future; which isn't always a bad thing.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! by nikigirl

May we learn from failure and continue our success.

I'm not usually an optimist but I've got a good feeling about this year, 2012 might actually be "the one" for me, or at least I hope so. Last night watching 2011 slip away really inspired me to remember that whatever happens, time moves on and will continue to do so forever...so let's enjoy it!

This year looks to be even more exciting than the last for me, I will *probably* be leaving home in september, starting university and an independent life, not to mention reap the reward from years of study... and say goodbye to the people and places I've gotten to know so well over the last 7 years, especially school and now I'm in the final few months! Ahh.... this is all pretty surreal...until I see my homework planner and realise it's still business as usual, for the moment :p

Winter

Winter by nikigirl


So. This week, had a mock interview, driving lesson, helped at open evening at my school...much of the same.

Next week however couldn't be more different, I've got literally one day at school before I go and stay at one of the world's best universities and be interviewed by some of the most learned history academics in the world...it's going to be amazing. Intense. Hard work. But most of all intense, insanely beautiful, both the city and the university, intensely hard, the studying and anxiety, constantly challenging (like life itself) but hopefully ultimately rewarding! I really can't wait to meet some incredible people, and have one of the most interesting (in every possible way) experiences of my life so far!

Paris/ end of the holidays/ ensuring I do some sort of work...

Paris by nikigirl

So, after finally dragging myself off Polyvore this morning I have come to the conclusion that I have done virtually none of what I was supposed to do over the last few days, especially involving school work and filing and revision etc. For this reason I'm updating earlier rather than later so that I have no excuse later before I go to work/ out to think to myself that I should update my blog above ALL ELSE as I normally do :) BUT, I have had a good time during the half term, definitely feel much more positive about school (ask me again in about a week...lol)

Admittedly I do have a full-blown obsession with the city of Paris, and to make things worse one of my friends went there with their boyfriend last week and had loads of amazing pictures of the Eiffel tower all lit up! So I had to make this to compensate....well not really, but I did.

City of Paris motto - "It is tossed by the waves but does not sink", what a great phrase! I shall try to adopt this position as I plough through schoolwork and the various trials of next week...wish me luck, it's a beautiful new day!