first attempt

Tags

art, arts, drawing, illustration, inner artist, pencils

I have no idea where the time went today. But at least I picked up my pencils again after many many years of neglecting my inner artist. And since all i did was do a few sketching exercises I don’t have much to show. But here you are my first attempts at drawing, so be gentle with any critique. And I promise to practise!

 

 

 

 

art-icipation

Tags

architecture, art, arts, crafting, creat, creativity, literature, Pablo Picasso, Picasso, quotes, random, thoughts

Tomorrow I am going to grab my pad and pencils and brave the word of art. I am going to create, if good bad or absolutely ugly is yet to be seen. But I am still excited, an art-icipation flowing through my veins, hopefully getting those proverbial creative juices flowing.

So as I sharpen my pencils and dust off my sketch-book, I can’t help but wonder about what role art plays in our lives, not just for those who make, but for those who take as well.

Art seems to be what is left, when all else is gone, and it doesn’t matter if it’s words, images, sounds, crafts or architecture. The Colosseum in Rome or the Pyramids in Cairo, the pots left over from Pompeii or Faberge’s golden eggs, melodies composed by  Beethoven and Tchaikovsky, Brahms and Bach, sonnets and stories written by Shakespeare, Wilde and Austen, are all mementos from the past, yet they still find a home in our world of today.

I read somewhere that many see creativity as the source of meaning in our lives. This doesn’t mean that if you are not creative you have no meaning, but when we create, we experience a surge of energy, a sense of purpose, fulfillment and contentment when we achieve what we set out to do. And it doesn’t seem to matter whether it’s crafting with the family, knitting a sock or painting a masterpiece.

Art is what separates us from monkeys, the way we use language to tell a tale, how we combine colour and fabrics, how we decorate our homes, own things we love but have no purpose other than just being beautiful. We value  the result of an individuals creativity, a four-year-olds painting holding pride of place on the fridge, a crooked vase holding a bouquet of flowers reminding of a ten-year-olds attempt at pottery, photographs decorating our homes taken for their beauty or the memories they hold, music a constant friend (or foe) to our ears, films and plays while away our hours,  gallerys, museums, monuments are places we visit, talk about and remember.

We may not always realise it, but we are surrounded by art, in one form of the other, our world filled with the results of creative thought. And it is what makes the trudge of every day life bearable, cushioning us from reality and showing us the true beauty of living. As the master Pablo Picasso said so well:

The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life of our souls

sunshine and art classes

Tags

art, art classes, arts, creat, creative, pinting, spring, sunshine

The sun has found it’s way back to Dublin and since yesterday afternoon clear blue skies and warm spring sunshine has been mocking my cold.  But while my nose dribbles and glows a vibrant red I must say my spirits have been lifted by the return of spring.

And because the new rays of sun have given me an infusion of energy I decided to make good on a promise I made to myself at the beginning of the year.

For a while now I have been thinking about getting back into drawing and painting. As a child and teenager it was my favourite pass-time but over the years other things have taken over my time and my scribblings have turned into blank pages. But every now and then I feel the urge to create, get my hands painty and attack a canvas with my arty attempts.

Because I wanted to do new and more things this year I decided to give art classes a try, however time flies by and all I have to show for my ambitions are a few new paint brushes. So this morning I decided to turn thoughts into actions and I found myself  an accessible art class and next Friday I’ll drop down and try it out for the first time.

I am quite excited about this and can’t wait to let my inner artist out to fingerprint. Who knows maybe I will even not be as bad as I think I am, which will hopefully motivate me to keep it up.

 

Abandoned Buildings by Matthias Haker

Tags

Abandoned Buildings, architecture, arts, dresden germany, interior photography, Matthias Haker, miscellaneous, photography, photos, random

Just saw these incredible images and wanted to share. Click on the link, sit back and enjoy.

Matthias Haker is a self-taught photographer currently living in Dresden, Germany. He’s specializing in architectural and interior photography as well as people, portrait, fashion and wedding photography. Let’s take a look at his decay photography collection … original and inspiring: http://www.cruzine.com/2013/02/11/abandoned-buildings-matthias-haker/

wordless

Tags

arts, Budweiser, change teh world, change the world, Emily Pankhurst, French revolution, Lorea'l, Martin Luther King, Max Frisch, McDonalds, Mikhail Gorbachev, miscellaneous, Neil Armstrong, Nike, politics, quotes, random, Red Bull, thoughts, wordless, words that changed the world

People say that pictures say more than a 1000 words but I am not so sure about that.  While I do love art and enjoy wandering around museums admiring all the old and new masterpieces I do think that words have a power of their own which can easily compete with a painting, drawing, sculpture or photo.

Don’t get me wrong I love that a work of art can make me think, dream, wonder and lose myself in the world or vision it creates but a single word can do the same.  Love, friendship, hope, dreams, family or even hate, envy, fear and hurt are all words that evoke ideas, memories and feelings. A single word or a selection of words can do even more, they can literally transform your life, thoughts and the world.

Martin Luther Kings “I have a dream …” changed the way millions of Americans thought. Neil Armstorngs “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” made the world dream of the impossible. Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité embodied the French Revolution which changed Europe forever. Emily Pankhursts  “Trust in God – she will provide” transformed the way women saw themselves and led to women being able to vote. Mikhail Gorbachevs “Perestroika and Glasnost” may have failed in their essence but these words were the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union. They led to the end of the Cold War, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the reunification of Germany, which in turn led to the the EU, be that positive or negative is a debate.

And of course there is advertising, ads use images to sell but they also rely on words to get the message across. I mean how many of you have said “WASSSUP?!” even if you weren’t thinking of Budweiser, or have said “It Gives You Wings” even if you weren’t drinking Red Bull, or prompted “Just do it” and weren’t wearing Nike, told someone “because they were worth it” even if they didn’t use Lorea’l or sang “I’m Loving it” nowhere near a McDonalds.

There are many, many more examples of words spoken or written that changed the world, and millions more that changed a single person who in turn changed the way people think. But today I fell wordless, empty don’t know what to say so I will leave you with these wonderful words by Swiss play-write and novelist Max Frisch :

You can put anything into words, except your own life.