I counted it a privilege to do the tour this year and was really glad I was able to do all five events. The team were awesome and so welcoming and friendly that it was easy to feel part of it, which for someone who is not always the best at fitting it is saying something. Yeah the miles took their toll but it was worth it, and hopefully the youth who attended got as much out of it as I did.

Don’t know what they thought of the art zone I did (more on that in a bit) or the artwork created during the second session, but I hope they managed to take something from it and it helped them in some way, or at the very least didnt distract. While not every piece I created was a successful piece (in my eyes) I did manage to create 9 pieces (one a two part piece) in five, two and an half hour (ish), sessions.

So, here are so brief thoughts/reflections on my part in the YROT, and I think I’ll start with the second session where I was painting. Even during the course of the five events I learnt a lot about what I can achieve and the things I need to watch while doing and considering these types of pieces:

• as always, planning is key, having a firm idea of what I want to do is always a good starting point, although time and inspiration may lead me down different paths its better to start from a place where I am sure of where I want to end up.
• I need to remember acrylics dry darker, and if I have used a grey or black gesso thats going to be amplified.
• need to experiment more before an event to find new techniques and interesting working methods for live sessions so its not just painting
• as always need to improve composition, scaling, colour, shadow, and general techniques

The art zone… that one needs the most work as it was the first time I had tried such a thing so inevitably it was the one that I recognise more things that need addressing:

• Need to work on the introduction a bit, to make it clearer about the freedom of the zone, the gift of creativity in all of us, and the use of images and text and inspiration
• could do with more, and more varied, images and quotes and preferably bigger than A4 for the art so it can be more easily seen
• need for more resources as always, pastels and paints seem to be most popular so that requires the need for palettes and fixative sprays
• try to incorporate a more structured area for those that want guidance through creating a piece
• more time would be nice, but more importantly more time to clean up afterwards as even with help it takes a while.

These points are not to say anything negative about what happened but rather as way to help me improve so that if I am ever asked to do similar things again I can make it better. I am hoping to get some feedback from those who attended YROT.

Anyway, in other news I have now moved house, and now to settle in, fix what needs fixing, but all in all a quiet Decemeber looms… I hope

Sorry I have not update this is a long while I have been distracted.

I’ve been  (and still am) doing a series of live art gigs with Alove (part of The Salvation Army) all around the UK, which has been really awesome to be part of, it will mean by the end of the fove events I will have created (hopefully) 10 unique pieces of art for them, which is quite a challenge when they are all trying to link to the one theme . I have also been doing work for some guys on youtube, doing various little tasks like logos, character sketches, and even youtube backgrounds which are slowly all getting completed. Of course there is the normal oh-so-occasional pieces of proper paid work as well and of course games and life that get in the way.

The biggest distraction at the moment however is that I am going to be moving flats in November, its just across city but its still a big move as I have been in my current flat for four and a half years, so thats a lot of collected junk. The new flat is an area of Edinburgh called Granton and its tied to a project going on in there run by the Salvation Army. It will be an interesting, and I am sure challenging, move into one of the more deprived areas of Edinburgh.

Anyway, just a quick update, you can keep track of what I am doing through twitter (and even google+) if you prefer more inane but frequent updating.

Laters peeps.

So, here I am sitting, at what counts as my desk in my house, chilled tunes flowing forth, while the steady stream of twitter stimulates my peripheral vision. I asked a few days ago for help, and some responded. I asked for inspiration, for ideas. What it has led me to is this, I have an idea forming sparked from these ideas, pieces art by others, and my own fevered imaginations. This post will be that idea taking form, an experiment in some ways also, as I form this idea as I type.

So where did the idea germinate, well there were three main sources, “The forgetting of the message” from afront, the reminder from Juanito about surrounding myself with inspirational stuff, and then there was this image on deviantArt (LINK).

These got me thinking of some works I have done before and then an image came to me. A figure, on their knees, their hands outstretched above them clinging to prison bars, but the bars are floating in mid-air, the figure is in a busy street with people walking by. Then my mind jumps to the phrase, “invisible prisons”, the idea of being alone in a crowd, of being distant while people are close.

So here is where I am, the theme is that of “invisible prisons”. Could cover groups, individuals, mental, physical, spiritual, cultural, anything that divides us from others, illness, pain, suffering, all these things can separate us, wither by our own action/inaction, or by others. These metaphysical walls, prisons, pits, voids, all serve to disconnect us from each other. We need to be connected, we need to be part of something more than ourselves, community, be that religious or not, its doesn’t matter, we are social creatures. These ties, these connections can be too easily severed because of difference, indifference, prejudice, hatred, misunderstanding, lack of empathy. They are reunited in hope, reforged in love, reconnected in peace.

“Invisible Prisions”, a collection of works exploring the disconnected, the disenfranchised, the disheartened, and the hope, peace, and love of true community.

There we go, that’s roughly how my mind came to this, almost as it developed, now the tough work begins. Reseraching the ideas and thoughts above, and developing them into a series of works.

Well now that I have my little studio space, although I am still getting used to it and comfortable in it, I have found myself lacking ideas. This is because I have been going through a bit of a creative dry season, just finding it difficult to come up with interesting, challenging, and worthwhile images at the drop of the hat without some external influence. I decided that what I should do to help focus my mind is start a series of works based around a common theme or subject, much like I would do if doing an exhibit at a gallery. Of course this is when I hit my mental wall, so I thought I would throw it open to the web and see what comes in.

So, dear reader, what theme/subject/whatever should I explore in a series of works? Or can you point me to something you think would spark the creative juices?

I kinda made a mistake, and have lost my posts, well I say lost they are stuck in a massive SQL backup, oh well, fresh start it is then

I will add a few older posts that I know how to find, but in general I think this will be a fresh start for the blog and thats probably a good thing.