Rose-tinted heaven

Rose-tinted heaven

Found some of my old polyvore images from earlier in the year that I never got to publish on here, despite it being close to 1 'o' clock in the morning, I thought - why not? I need a good old clear out of my drafts, or "ghost posts" as I prefer to call them. Here are some creations that I never found the words for.

2 Years Later...

My most recent Polyvore design

2 Years ago today I started this blog, beginning with images (coincidentally, images that I started using when I first opened my Polyvore account, at around the same time) from my GCSE Art and Design course. It started as a blog about art, concerning the creation of different types of artwork that I'd learnt about, but now my blog is much more about myself, somehow, and how this increasingly is shown through my art.

So basically, where as the the art did all the talking previously, now I do the talking, and the art is simply a more visual explanation for my thoughts.

I'd like to think that I've learnt a lot, since that 16 year old, bored after GCSEs (although admittedly I am very bored after leaving school, and genuinely cannot wait to get my results, go to university and start learning again, but that's just me I think) who had little direction in life other than some mediocre artwork and a random blog. Not that the art has really improved dramatically, although it has evolved somewhat (I primarily use Polyvore rather than GIMP to make images, and rather than photo manipulation I tend to use internet images and "arrange" them into bigger pieces rather than create the components themselves from scratch if you know what I mean).

This post is a pretty big milestone then, certainly, I know there are much older blogs around, but as far as Blogspot is concerned, the average lifespan of a blog seems to be under 2 years, so I think it's an achievement that I have continued to update this, if only for its consistency rather than for any extraordinary content, after all I'm not trying to change the world, I just want some way to record the things that I do and that I find interesting, I'm not fussed about having 100s of followers, although of course I like the idea that at least someone is reading what I write.

At this point I'd like to thank my actual followers (currently at around 15 I think?) for putting up with this nonsense, in the hope that they find something (if only occasionally) worth reading on here. As a side note, I have had over 3,900 views on this blog, which is far more than if I had decided to never publish it!

So here we are, I'm not world famous, I'm not a celebrated blogger or by any means a talented artist, I'm not a budding author or even an exceptional writer, but I am I believe, much closer than I was 2 years ago to finding myself, though if there's one thing I can be accused of, it's forgetting the past in favour of obsessing over the future, as opposed to say, living in the moment. (Ironic for a potential History student, right?)

For example, I tend to forget or overlook the things I've already achieved, the work I've done, however small, and instead I worry about what the future holds, where will my life go next etc. (to be fair, until I get my A2 results I don't even know where I'm going to be living in 2 months!) This however, is no way to live, there needs to be more of a balance I think, between positive reflection and active (but not anxious) anticipation of the future. That can be my target for the next year, until this blog's next milestone ;)

Maroon 5's song Payphone actually sums up the above scenario pretty well;

"You turned your back on tomorrow
Cause you forgot yesterday..."

The only way to the future is to remind ourselves of the best parts of the past -

"Who controls the past, controls the future: who controls the present controls the past"

- George Orwell, 1984

Who would have thought Maroon 5 and George Orwell would ever have belonged in the same sentence? Only on this blog!

A tree, a real life representation of Carl Jung's tree of self actualization....just kidding -

(A photograph I took on a shady walkway in Calpe, Alicante, if this picture is rotated it makes a really nice desktop background!)

Reflection

Reflection by nikigirl

Friday the 13th! Unlucky for some but I've been lucky enough to have a pretty good day so far; in terms of school and home so here's to hoping the weekend is good too! (Although by default it WILL be good just because I don't have to get up at 7/ do any serious schoolwork :P)

First week back at school always makes me reflect on things a lot. You'd think the last week of term would have inspired the same, but I was too busy thinking about exams to really consider anything else. Instead, as I said, this week I realisied that time is moving away from me, faster than ever - only 12 school weeks left until I go on study leave and leave school forever! That's incredible considering all the weeks that went into the 7 years I've been at secondary school, not to mention the 7 years of schooling I had previous to that!

I calculated. *If* I get into the university I want to go to I only have 262 days left until my first day there, so that's;

22,636,800 seconds
377,280 minutes
6288 hours
37 weeks (rounded down)

Approximately! The crazy thing is, only 12 of those weeks include school, the rest is all studyleave/ holiday! Presuming I move into uni the weekend before Fresher's week - that's only 260 days left living at home! :O

Anyway, back to the present, this is where I must learn to live, one day at a time rather than in the past or the future - do you like the image? I deliberately included loads of symbols representing the passing of time, the hourglass, the pocket watch, the blossoms, the birds and even the girl...and then I added a couple of bows and a vintage photograph effect just because ;)

Enjoy the weekend!

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!

A cup of tea never fails to calm me....

A cup of tea never fails to calm me.... by nikigirl

I really, really love this image. I didn't even plan/ think about it, I just obsess over this shade of blue, so I put some objects of that colour together with some text and photos of an attractive model and voila, with a couple of effects and ever-present butterflies it actually turned out nice, one of my favourites I think.

Don't judge me by the fact that I'm posting so late :) I have A LOT to do at the moment, we're talking all kinds of coursework, homework, interview prep, driving lessons...wait....yes....I did just say it - INTERVIEW PREP!

Now of course I'm extremely excited at the prospect of an interview, and the free food/ accomodation (and I mean accomodation of the brilliant, beautiful, neo-classic/ gothic kind) but what makes me more anxious is the idea that I'll have to miss 4 days of revision before the mocks. And still have to do the work......all of those lessons I'll miss! (Not to mention my mum's 50th birthday :/)

Can't be helped, but I really am a busy little bee at the moment, and will be for the next 10 days, and then it's mock exams, and then the terrible waiting begins afresh! Oh my life....never mind, in one month it'll be Christmas again and all will be good in the world (how quickly it comes round!)

Autumn Days

So my life at the moment is pretty much a waiting game. It's like the moment you reach a roundabout, and you're looking in both directions to see if you can move forwards, and the seconds of looking around, at everything, everywhere, seem to take an age. And then you go too slowly and stall. Or maybe that's just my terrible driving!

Still waiting on 2 universities, one of them will get back to me in about 14 days (not that I'm counting, but I am) and the other could take up to 2 1/2 months - or at least they have done, in the past. It seems I'm in need of a bit more patience, but it is difficult to acquire these days. I feel as if I'm living in a hurried sort of present, the sort that looks forward constantly, never quite managing to live in the moment but always straining, trying, desperately to look into what is still a very unknown future.

How very sombre. In other news the sun is shining here and I expect it might well be the warmest November on record - not that I'm complaining, it's great, makes all of the waiting and anticipation, this limbo, a bit more bearable...

Autumn Days by nikigirl on polyvore.com

Tea, and other such Time

No point lying, I'm so much more into Polyvore instead of GIMP right now as far as image-editing and composing is concern which is really strange considering I actually joined Polyvore 2 years ago and only really started using it now... such is life, I suppose.

In other news, this week has been a continuation of stressful driving lessons, homework and coursework deadlines combined with the fact that I'm still waiting to hear back from universities, my mock A2s are in a month oh, and my job no longer exists so I have virtually no disposable income :(

Bad times indeed. BUT, I must remember the tone of my last post, and remain positive - things can't stay this way forever, the only thing that stays the same is that things always change! Although I titled this image "Tea time" I'd like to now draw inspiration from W.H.Auden;

But all the clocks in the city,

Began to whirr and chime:

'O let not Time deceive you,

You cannot conquer Time.


Today of course, time has a particularly special significance, not only is the date 11.11.11 but it's also Remberance Day, so let us not only remember those that fell in service of their country, but also those that were left to remember, especially during those first few Armstice Days when happiness to some, would have seemed like a different era, a lifetime away, a mere memory...

GCSEs are over, and it's one of my summer resolutions to start an art blog, no matter what the outcome!

Will now begin to demonstrate the main purpose of this blog, art, by uploading various pieces I have created, for all the world to see :D

The programme I used is a website called Polyvore, which is free to sign up, and I found easy to use - all of my work I have posted was made using this site - it's great;

I'll start with oldest work May 2010, this piece is part of a set I made for my GCSE Art Exam brief, based around the theme of "Work, Rest and Play"