Its a wonderful Life

New Year has always been a time of mixed emotions for me and I guess everyone has their own way of celebrating it. When I was younger it definitely involved a long night and lots of alcohol and other substances. As I grew older and out of that, it became a struggle to decide where to go and what to do, which was more often than not an anti-climax. I’m also not one for New Years resolutions but whether I like it or not I always end up analyzing and evaluating the past year. My pet hate though is the self or otherwise imposed pressure to have a good time and feel super elated when the bell for midnight goes. So now its a good meal, a glass of something strong, the company of my nearest and dearest and a showing of one of the most uplifting and life affirming movies I know.

Frank Capra’s Its a Wonderful Life, staring James Stewart is the story of a man who has come to the end of the line and is ready to kill himself. His time on earth seems to him to be one of missed opportunites and personal failure, until his appointed guardian angel, (who is out to earn his wings) replays his life, to show him how much poorer others lives would have been had he not been around. So if your still struggling for something to do or your stuck in on your own, grab your self a copy and fill a large glass with something strong and heart-warming and put yourself on the right foot for 2012.

The Power of Making

On my travels I have stockpiled a fair few objects, toys, dolls, books, stamps and textiles… as well as a heap of sketch books. Why I picked them and what I love about them is man’s and women’s innate use of creativity in describing his world, through the making of toys and objects, whether practical or decorative. The art or craft of making is as old as we are. Mankind has being trying to shape his world in one form or another since he fell from the trees. Either as a way of expressing his thoughts or describing his surroundings. Or, as a way through craftmanship, to improve his life. The art or craft of making objects exists at all levels of skill, from the master craftsman and model-maker to the very elementary figures we carved from plasticine as children. I was hugely impressed by this level of craftsmanship and skill when I visited Museum Rietberg, in Zurich recently. It has a hugely impressive array of artifacts and objects, tracing the global history of mankind’s endeavours to shape his world, dating back thousands of years. Though what actually triggered this post was a look at the current exhibition at the V&A in London, entitled ‘The Power of Making,’ which celebrates the role of making in our lives, in presenting an eclectic selection of over 100 exquisitely crafted objects. I am just annoyed I won’t get chance to actually visit but I would love to hear from anyone who has or will, it looks fascinating.
Peru

Lesotho, South Africa

Peru

Steve Jobs

I was genuinely saddened by the passing of Steve Jobs. Being a fervent, resolute, card-carrying Mac user from the first day I started working, I asked myself what it was about the mac that could make me feel emotional about the death of its creator? And how it was that a computer could inspire me to work better or be more creative? After all, its just a computer like any other? But like photos or places I’ve visited, a computer holds memories and parts of my life (even more so now that we pour so much of ourselves into them) and in that sense a mac always felt more personal than any other personal computer. Back in the days when I first started using a mac, it felt more like a vocation, back then, owning or working on a mac was like being part of a special gang of people, with Steve Jobs as the leader. I always felt that working on a mac, I was somehow obliged to do better, honour bound to live up to the inventiveness and creativity of the tool I was working with. Also, in the beginning, before the internet was really underway, I and the other mac users I worked with, definitely felt like we were part of a global community of other (mac) users. And I can’t remember how many fights I’ve had over the years with different IT departments to persuade them to use macs and how fearful they seemed to be of them. Even now your typical tech support guy seems to have an innate fear of working with Mac’s, which I never understood as they are simplicity themselves to use? Well, if there is an afterlife, after life, I’m sure Steve Jobs is already up there, trying to figure out a way to to make it function more simply or look more beautiful.

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.” [Stanford commencement speech, June 2005] Steve Jobs 1955-2011

Evolution of a blog

evolution of a blog

….so three months in and how am I doing? Well, when I started out I kind of half hoped I would be competing with the Satorialist for views by now, I’m not quite there yet! I have a steady, if small flow of visitors, about a thousand or so a month, which is not great but not quite disastrous either. I’m calculating in my experienced blogger mind this depends mainly on a couple of things. One; Content (both verbal and visual). And two; Exposure. With the content I’m reasonably happy, but I can definitely see where I can refine and improve it. (I’m open to suggestions!?). With regards to exposure, I’m not the facebook, twitter, et al kind of person, so I really have to rely on tag, web searches and exposing myself on other peoples blogs. Of course it would be nice to have a thousand clicks a day but I’ll be just as happy when I get the content and focus of the blog optimised. The rest I hope will follow in time. Till then……I shall endeavour to make it as pleasant as possible….

gattobravo

Here’s a link to a really great site thanks to my friend at sparkman. A sketch blog (albeit, with a purpose).  Anephel at gattobravo, reviews and critiques good food and wine, as well as the occasional feature on design, architecture and music but illustrating everything. A great idea, stylish and beautifully drawn and painted.

The internet is great

Just to let you know, before you read further, this post has nothing to do with Art or anything painting related, except for the picture itself which of course is a painting. It was just that I thinking this morning on my half hour journey to work, which is my thinking time, (I don’t generally think much outside of this time!), how fantastic the internet actually is and even more so blogs and such. I mean when I was a kid we didn’t even have a real T.V. it was beige, only tuned to one channel, and in those days stopped broadcasting at eight o’clock or thereabouts…and now you literally have access to the whole world, or at least the whole world which is online! How great is that? And, I also realized, that the the only limitation to blogging is your own imagination. You are even your own censor. When I realized this I realized what the possibilities could be for my blog….(if only my imagination wasn’t so limited!) Does that mean there will be swearing and rude stuff…probably not!

Also, the tags I have added have nothing to do with Art, they are just a way of trying to attract more readers, like word worms on a hook. I have noticed that every time I put a well known artist name as a tag or header I get more hits on the blog. So then another thought occurred to me (that’s a lot today)…..and this is only an experiment. I will put some of the top forty searches on the internet, as tags on this post and see if it really makes a difference to my number of hits, and then I will let you know…some are incredibly obscure, at least to me, (maybe someone can explain); 1 – Google (no surprise)…also 1 – 11 year old gives birth…! (US only)  2- youtube 7 – aquarius 8 – Helena Bonham Carter??? (US only) 9 – Horrible bosses trailer (US again) 15 – Virgo (why Aquarius beats Virgo I don’t know) and lastly 15 – Seattle weather (They must have some serious weather in Seattle)…and off we go. Hope you like the picture by the way…more in the same vein as the last.

Earworms

 

Sometimes one thought, one song, one memory lives with us throughout the whole day. In German when you have a song you can’t get out of your head its called an ‘ohrwurm’ (or ear worm). Here are some earworm’s for your week…