Everyday Creativity

"Everyday creativity refers to a process which brings together at least one active mind, and the material or digital word, in the activity of making something. The activity has not been done in this way by this person (or people) before. The process may arouse various emotions such as excitement and frustration, but most especially a feeling of joy. When witnessing and appreciating the output, people may sense the presence of the maker, and recognise those feelings."

David Gauntlett

Making is Connecting

Just....Be.

During this winter "break" I have spent a lot of time with the people that I love and it has been amazing.
Due to high winds and "Hurricane bawbag" myself and my family were stranded on the Isle of Bute without power and any method of reaching the mainland. Safe to say we spoke.... A LOT.
What has been amazing is the sense of community that small places like Bute have when something awful happens. We had been without power for three days straight with only half hour intervals to quickly charge phones or have showers and it makes you really appreciate the wee things. To the extent that when the power came on briefly lastnight we were slightly dissapointed because everybody would just go back to watching TV or emailing or texting. You forget how nice it is to just have eachother and appreciate just being human with nothing else plugged in. I'm glad I was prompted to remember that.

Everybody should switch everything off for three days and see how it feels.

Motivate

Feeling the peer pressure this month, setting myself limits and targets for my thesis is easy but sticking to them is a whole other thing completely. It is good to be truey self motivated, however, and it really makes you feel like you have accomplished something that day. Having the ability to self motivate is so vital and I'm so happy that I have grown in self confidence over the years of being an art student.
Had a conversation the other day about careers (again) with a friend who has recently graduated and works as an egineer for a large oil company in Aberdeen (of course). I spoke about how I was afraid of having a "real job" like that, to which he replied "yeah but that wil never happen with you, you'll never really be in that situation where you have a 'real job' anyway."

All I do is take pretty pictures isn't it, easy peasy.

The start of something exciting and wonderful

Catriona Grant- Examination Room

"It's a British thing"

I was in a meeting a week or so ago when we were being told how to complain (yes I know) and offer constructive criticism to our peers and to our tutors, institution, headmasters etc etc. The girl advising us said
"It's best to say something nice first and then deliver the complaint because people can get upset if you just say something bad."
It is safe to say that not many people agreed with this and the girl then lost respect from most of the room.
When somebody asked "why can't you just deliver the complaint, if there is something wrong, somebody should fix it"
Her answer was not only ill informed but a wee bit racist
"I think it's a British thing"

Well there we go.

Now, I'm a firm believer in "it's nice to be nice" but at the same time... you can't just dance around the problem so people don't get upset, being sad and upset sometimes is part of being alive, we have to experience the bad to appreciate the good whole heartedly. This is something which being in art school has really taught me, being constantly reviewed with honestly from my peers has toughened me up and I'm glad that I've been upset and got some bad reviews because otherwise I'd think I was sailing through very easily and wouldn't push myself any further. In fact, I'd maybe say that my peers have been too soft on me, I've made some pretty shambolic pieces of art in my time, so if your reading this, don't be put off if I cry, I'm grateful inside...really... eventually.

So essentially... that girl was wrong. You can't just hug somebody before you tell them that you hate them, it's just stupid, not "British".

                                   
                               "You look very pretty today Daisy... but I'm breaking up with you"

Let's get a moo-ve on

Nice to be back at University again and back on the ole blog, now excuses for not keeping this up to date but never mind, I'm back now.

So much to think about, its all very exciting and scary because I'll have to figure out what I fancy doing for the rest of my life soon, no pressure.