Art rules the world

I just finished painting my mom a picture for her birthday and realised how much I miss painting. I just sat in my room (it was freazing outside) ah and I just painted with some chilled music on. It was really theraputic. Later when I have my own house, I'm gonna have a room, just for painting. Yup. And I'' let my kids paint what they want on the walls and and it will be full of canvases and different coloured paints..

My favourite type of painting has to be the kind that shows expression, and when you look at it  you can imagine that the artisit had a good time doing it. You can almost imagine him or her sweeping or dabbing the brushstrokes along the canvas, and behind the paint is a happy, carefree life. Paintings full of colours that don't necessarily match or look real, but they look right. Some of my greatest inspiraions; not only for painting and art, but for life in general...

 Matisse, Master of Colour

Le bonheur de vivre (The Joy of Life)

" Creativity takes courage. " 

     - Henri Matisse

  Kandinsky, Master of Abstract Expressionism

Autumn in Bavaria

 "Of all the arts, abstract painting is the most difficult. It demands that you know how to draw well, that you have a heightened sensitivity for composition and for colors, and that you be a true poet. This last is essential."

- Wassily Kandinsky 

 Van Gogh - Master of dreaming

Cafe Terrace at Night

"I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day."

Vincent Van Gogh

 One of my favourites...

 

Monet; Master of impressionism

Water lillies

"I am following Nature without being able to grasp her, I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers."

 - Claude Monet 

And another ...

 Impression Sunrise

"People discuss my art and pretend to understand as if it were necessary to understand, when it's simply necessary to love."

Jackson Pollock; Master of chaos
Lavender Mist

"I have no fear of making changes, destroying the image, etc., because the painting has a life of its own."
 

"The modern artist is working with space and time, and expressing his feelings rather than illustrating."

And my favourite of them all...

 I dream of painting and then I paint my dream- Vincent van Gogh

 Today, I will paint.

I will paint great things;
Greater than you could ever imagine.

I will paint as though
getting covered in this creamy,
silky smooth consistency
is completely irresistible.

I will paint furiously and spontaneously with a free spirit,
making it quite impossible to not end up
speckled with paint.

Paint will speckle my hair and my face.
Speckled, resembling tiny beads of dew on morning grass
or specks on birds' eggs in the spring.

Paint will trace the outlines of my fingernails.
Smeared across the surface,
the paint will create a keen resemblance
of a poor attempt toward removing
tried-out, cheap, convenient store nail polish.

I will paint, I will paint :)

I'll paint my life on this unlimited sheet of canvas

We had to write a piece on who we are in the world for Journalism before exams, and how different things influence us. It is probably important to know yourself and who you are - so here is mine, adapted to sound a little less journalism'istic'... :)

I am an enthusiast. I am intuitive. I have a ton of vision. I am an extrovert. I want to understand the world, to experience it. I absorb ideas and am quick in sizing up a situation. I excite in the thought of new ideas. I look beyond the surface to understand things. I am flexible and learn to adapt quickly. I constantly want to learn more. I am very aware of the possibilities this world has to offer me; I crave adventure. I like to finish what I start, I get things done. I am organised, but more importantly – I am spontaneous. My mind has a lot of thoughts about a lot of things, sometimes too many. I am inventive, creative. I enjoy conversation. I engage in silly topics that make me laugh but I enjoy thought-provoking, deeply interesting ones too.

I am light-hearted – but may seem intense when I express things I feel strongly about. I would make a very bad criminal lawyer, because I am too sympathetic and sensitive to people’s feelings – and would not be able to put my feelings aside in order to be logical. I look at the bigger picture in situations of conflict and rarely react with negative emotions.
I am upbeat, I am prone to giggle, and I am an optimist. I value knowledge and challenging myself. I am very, very curious. I enjoy interacting with people. I am fascinated by the different kinds of people that walk this world. I am gregarious and friendly and so I try my best not to judge before I get to know someone. I am a pacifist.


I am not afraid to feel, or to express myself; I write, I paint, I act, I dance. I am really good at opening up my heart. I am not afraid of love. I am not afraid to feel sad, and I miss people that are not a big part of my life anymore; but I am able to move on and look at the bigger picture. When I love, I open myself up to the positive and the negative, and love no matter what, with all my heart. I am a risk taker, but I am cautious with people’s feelings. I am intimate, and a loyal friend. And I laugh, I laugh a lot.



I am gentle, caring and complex. I am an artist. I put faith into my instincts and intuitions, but I take in other people’s opinions. I look for the good in people. I am patient. I live in the present moment, but I dream about the future all the time. Creative, and absolutely ridiculous dreams. I always want to be active. I make the best out of situations that aren’t necessarily the best. But I also get weak sometimes, and need the help and support of my family or friends. I love music, all kinds. And my imagination is wild and vivid.

I value my independence and am able to be alone. But I wouldn’t be the same without the ones I love in my life. I put other’s needs above my own a lot, and I genuinely care for people. I like to be involved in the things that happen around me, or in activities I take part in. I appreciate the world around me and the people in it. I trust easily, and I am kind. I try look for the good in people. I would rather create harmony than pick arguments. I take time just to think, or sit in the shade and read.

I have travelled, and will travel more. But I am proudly, proudly South African. I have loved, and will love more. I have left my mark in places. I treasure my life. And I want to fulfil it still with the most crazy, adventurous and ridiculous wholesome experiences. I am ready for whatever comes my way, and want to embrace it with all the energy that runs through my veins.

My life is a painting, with every single colour you can imagine blended into the next; it swirls with electrifying hues of bright and vivid colours.

And I never want to stop painting.

I never stop dreaming

I wrote a list of things I had to do in life when I was 15. Silly things, and more serious things. I have done a lot of them, but I have added to the list. I believe you have to live with a drive to want to do something in this life. Whether it is to want to sit back and relax, or climb a mountain, or anything. You have to love something. I have recently read Jane Eyre and The Great Gatsby. Now as scholastic as this might sound, both of them had effects on me other than what the essay topics forced me to think about. As much as the typical student complains about the work they have to do, the awesome thing is that all the English students love the classics really. The beauty of classics is hidden way beneath the surface that most people live on. That's whats great about what I am learning here. Looking beneath the surface. And actually cracking and digging your way through it to be taught, or to be curious or to get to know someone. I mean Jane Eyre. That chick has this crazy, restless, beautiful imagination. Tedious as some might find it, she describes her surroundings with full and ripened words that I really can't help getting caught up in. Ah and Fitzgerald - he writes in this way that you can actually feel what he says. He speaks of wings beating in the trees and the sound of an organ as the full bellows of the earth blew the frogs full of life. If that isn't amazing writing then I really don't know what is.

I'm quite weird. I enjoy things like that. When I read something, I try my best to take it allll in, and not just skim over it so that it fades into tthe back of my memory not to be thought of again. And it isn't oly English that has this effect. I have come accustomed to the theatre here at Rhodes like it is where I have meant to be spending time all my life. And being involved in additional pieces other than the work we have in lecture time is just a really fun experience. I try find excuses to be at the theatre. I never want to stop being involved. I remember something really clearly in my mind. Last year in Egnland, to get into town from Canford, you had to walk along the river, and there was this awesome shortcut I found halfway throguh the year. If I walked up a few stares and up onto the bridge over the river - you could make your way through the trees. You could barely see 5m in front of you, but I somehow always ended up where I needed to be. Well, they didn't really look like this picture - but the scope of it was simlilar. I used to do that just for fun, and just sit there and take it all in. I'm quite weird like that.

Journalism is shaping up too. The most interesting thing we've done is look at how the mediated world has an effect on how we shape ourselves. It is really true - I shape myself from the people around me, form what I ahve done, and form what I want to do. I get inspiration from doing this, from writing, and from music adn books. I got to read a few other people's blurbs on who they thought they were in the world. See, this is what I am interested in. One day, I want to travel, and meet the ordinary person on the street, and find out what it is that makes them extraordianry. 

And I want to write about them. And express myself. And see the world. And paint. And act and dance and love.

 My mom always says that I should have been born in the 50s, so I could have grown up in the 60s. :) with a van and a life like Kimya Dawson sings about in My Rollarcoaster. I would have realy loved that. I met loads of people in my town I lived in last year that were like that. I loved them. Rod even had a van with a sunflower on it and the dogs that have bouncing heads on his dashboard.
But I feel I still fit in well in this advanced and fast moving world. The thing that makes it special though is that there are places and times and people that can teach you how to slow down. There's no rush in this life. It is never too late to do something you want to do. I spoke to someone last night that says there is no such word as 'tomorrow' in his vocab, there is only the now. Seriously though, in the words of Tom Petty - life is a highway adn I want to ride it. And every day is a winding road - taking the good with the bad and appreciating everything around you. But you have to be dreaming all the time. And have dreams, and then try put them into a reality that will happen when it happens. Or you make it happen. But either way - there has to be something you live for.

 I think I might put that list up soon.