Cool pic!
I love this picture… and its completely real. A bit of ’post-production’ colour enhancing, but that’s all!:
Project Briefs
I hold in my hands the project briefs for my next year of uni, and I am excited. I love the potential that flows out of this moment. I love it that my mind is already freewheeling with a million different creative ideas, like those pieces of paper are a springboard or a starting piston that gives me the inspiration to run!
-Create a short animation (narrative or abstract and all points in between) that explores the theme of animating a joke.
-Produce a set of five thematically related, printed, image compositions… based around the theme of landscape, space and place.
-Produce an interactive web site for a company, product or service, real or imagined. Students will specify a brief as if it was issued by a client.
I’m not sure how I feel about the animation one, after all jokes often frustrate me with their lack of originality, but over-all I love the brevity of the briefs and therefore the space they give for interpretation and exploration.
Last year we had to make a portrait site about someone, so I turned this city into a person and made the site about her. I love taking a task and doing something unusual with it. I love creating web sites actually, so I’m looking forward to that one.
The issue of landscape is an interesting one. The module outline makes specific reference to the landscape tradition in British art, and there are definitely some excellent modern, abstract works using this as a reference point. Its definitely something I am looking forward to exploring photographically.
Intercessory Capers
There were many places I could have spent Good Friday. Usually I find myself holed up in a church, or another such noble place. In Wandsworth, I’d have been doing a walk of witness then embarking on a mammoth fast. Yesterday, however was very different.
To give a bit of the background to the tale, you need to know that, in the past at least, a small bit of tension/rivalry/general dissension has existed between this fair city and the other, smaller towns and villages around it. I guess like everywhere, there have been places we have looked down upon and besmirched… We don’t think this is an especially helpful thing, especially as some dear friends of ours in one of these said towns are planning and praying and believing for a centre of prayer, similar to the Boiler Room we have here. We believe that we need them and they need us in a way, that there needs to be some form of mutual reliance and partnership, so we decided that we would walk and meet them as an act of prophetic intent, a prayerful ‘Come on!!’
Undeterred by weather forecasts of doom, five of us set off yesterday morning to walk to Birchington. It was only twelve miles away, and the sun was shining (at that point at least). We prayed up a storm before we left, and then set off on our way, following an ancient road to our destination.
And, it was just amazing. One of the most incredible moments was looking up and seeing two large birds of prey circling above us. This was amazing, as you don’t tend to get those sort of birds here. We were very encouraged.
We walked through each of the little towns and villages, pausing to pray and drive a tent peg into the ground in each of them as a symbol of our connectedness:
It just felt so brilliant to be able to walk, to pray, and to spend time as a community just getting to know each other a bit better. We also all found that you see a place really differently when you walk through it – we all travel that road probably a few times a week, but one gets a much better feel for the land actually taking the time to walk it.
A top moment was when we made it to a village about halfway, and a lovely friend from church met us in a bus stop with a hot flask of tea and coffee. We were so grateful, and it was a real blessing to see her. We sat in the bus stop and had lunch together.
About four miles from the end of the walk, it started to pour with rain, but we were all in high spirits, and had a real sense of God being close, so I don’t think any of us felt cold or glum. It was funny because friendly supporters kept on driving by, waving, beeping and offering us lifts. They were such an encouragement, but we plodded on.
It felt so amazing to see the Birchington sign and to drive the last peg into the ground. We then met lots of people from the community there, and were then picked up by said lovely people and driven to a warm house, where we took communion and spent some time praying for each other (as well as eating and getting dry).
Yesterday felt a bit like one of those things you know you’ll never know the full impact of, but it was awesome to meet with and share with our friends in Thanet, and it was such a blessing to receive from them too. I am looking forward to all that lies ahead.
Fiddling Around
Today we had to pick our options (preliminarily) for next years uni. One of the options I think I’m going to go for is Digital Imaging…
I’ve never really had any training on photoshop or anything, but I’m beginning to get my head around it a bit more I think. I made this picture today, and though there is much about it I’d want to change, I don’t think its bad for a first attempt.
Winter Wonderland
Last year, a good friend and I ventured to the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. I blogged about the trip then… and the underwhelming nature of said attraction. This year, when I arranged to go again, I wondered if there would have been improvements.
And improvements there were… much more mulled wine, many stalls, and some great fairground rides (the most obscure of which gave one the opportunity to explore the intestines of a dinosaur… hmmm!)
I especially liked the 53m high Ferris Wheel, which gave some awesome views over the wintry city.
Here are some photos from the trip. A bit random, as I was playing with my camera settings, but I popped one of Santa in there just to prove I really was there 
Some photos from my travels
The castle/sun/leaves one is from Milton Abbas, all the rest are from my time in Penhurst, Sussex at the end of July.
More ‘Fullness’ pics
I was rooting around this afternoon looking at some of the photos I took at the Fullness retreat, these give more an idea of the location rather than what we actually did, I guess, but I thought I’d post them as I really like them.
This was outside at the back of the Custard Factory. The weather was lovely and the coloured graffiti really stood out. I wished I’d thought about popping out and snapping beforehand, as we were rushing to packdown, so I only had time to snaffle a few illicit shots… lots of bright spray paints, peeling paint and rust – my favourite sort of a place to take photos.
Again, there was much in this corner which could have kept me snapping for hours. I loved the starkness of the tower, which is out of shot to the top left, I loved the broken brickwork, the sharp angles contrasting with the curling graffiti, the plant growing out of the drainpipe and the small snatch of blue sky. I was inspired by the scrap of blue knitted fabric stuck in the barbed wire, too. I may have a bit of a photoshop twiddle with this, because think it’d look better in black and white perhaps, with some bleaker contrasts… we’ll see.
On to inside artwork now, a beautiful contribution from the beautiful Kate. I loved the ‘flowingness’ of this. A dangerous prayer to pray methinks, but she really captured the heart of the event with this.
I loved the picture of the girl with her hands in the fire. I’ve thought about it a lot since then. Was she warming her hands? Was it a cleansing thing, like the heat of the fire symbolising holiness? And then the fire seems to be radiating, shining from her face and hair. I like the thought that being that close to God radiates like that.
