Archive for January 2017

Tuesday 17 January 2017

Creative 'Shlump'
| 05:45 | No Comments

Creative 'Shlump'

I'm in a real tricky position in my life right now where I've just come out of education and been in full time work for 4 months now, in a job that I've been at for 3 years. It's made me realise how much creative freedom I had at school/college and how the materials really were just provided to me. At the beginning of December, I remember really thinking about how something seems missing in my life - and it really is that creative flare that I took for granted while studying creative art courses.


During my creative 'panic', I bought an iPad as I thought I would be able to express myself using the many apps available, and the technology to use it as a drawing pad as well. Since the purchase, I've enriched myself in plenty of drawing apps, podcasts, books, magazines, news articles etc. - but it still just feels like I'm consuming all of this media and not doing anything with it. It's making me realise that these media types I'm taking for granted really are hollow and meant for a temporary fix while I'm on a train for waiting for a bus. On a completely different point as well - I'm really glad Vine is dead for this reason.

So how am I going to 'create my own creativity' - well, it's easier now that I'm an adult with a pay check and car. It means that accessibility to materials is somewhat easier - but it also means that creativity comes with a price. Without all the depressing ins-and-outs, here's a list of things I dream of looking into and wanting to master:

  • I would love to produce music. I've always collected acapellas, instrumentals, stems, remixes, EPs. I love messing around with music, making mashups for my friends and made stem remixes of popular chart music. But I would love to be able to churn out original songs and make a profit off of them - even if it is as a remix artist.
  • Following on from my previous point, I would love to be able to play the piano or guitar. My only problem is my patience, and that I have absolutely none. It would be a struggle for me.
  • I would like to draw more. Art lessons between the ages of 8-14 seemed like a chore, and quite honestly, a useless subject while I was trying to find my feet. It wasn't until I picked up Graphic Design for a GCSE that I realised the therapeutic side and the satisfaction of finishing.
  • One day I intended on owning my own studio. I imagine a white washed room with brick walls and various back drops for young artists and friends to 'explode in'. Throwing paint up the walls, photoshoots for varying reasons, acoustics for recording artists. It'll be multi-faceted, but I also need the income to fund such a destructive ambition.
  • I want to write a book on life experiences. Growing up as a pretty mentally stable teenager in a friendship group of others that aren't - it's made me realise that my outlook on life is different to others. I would love to share my experiences and insight on how I enjoy life even on the emptiest of days.
  • There should be more galleries near me. Although this isn't particularly going to make me create more, I do think they are such an odd concept that we as humans have constructed. We've created spaces that we naturally respect by being quiet in, it's a  museum of so many artist's interpretation of the world, and a real explosion of personal thought and expression - yet, remains so faceless. We're seeing an embodiment of an artist; whether dead or a live, but for the majority of the time we are left without a face to match the work to.
  • And on a completely contradictory and controversial level... there's nothing stopping me from wanting to do porn one day. Porn to me is being completely comfortable with your body, it means some of the safest sex you could ever have, and shows a completely different side to a personality type that you might not have explored. Of course, if my parents were to ever read this, I'm sure they would be horrified because it's shameless and also a failed career choice... but... I'll keep my options open. Maybe I just want to experience what it's like on set.  
Creativity these days just translates to money. 'Expensive' art, or this consumable media with purpose really does mean using money in the right way. It's only when money doesn't become part of the piece, that we label it as 'political' - it's seen as stigmatised and then people start reading the art work; trying to find 'the purpose' or 'meaning' behind it. What I'm trying to say is that I want to create enriched work; on a financial and personal level.