Tomorrow's Presentation

Hello everyone! So tomorrow I'm going into work and giving a presentation on self expression through art, this has been such an awesome thing to do and I feel totally in my element. Not only do i get to do art, but i get to experience it with others and help them!

Swoons

So here is my powerpoint, I'm sorry about a couple of things.

1. The english isn't good because it has to translate well into Bulgarian, it does make sense but some grammar is not good. 
2. Also, the last slide will not play, so it has to be played separately. 

My talk will involve what my presentation is about (I will obviously have a translator since my Bulgarian is not up to scratch and this is something that cannot afford to be mistranslated). The topic is helping people express themselves. There was a point raised by a student that she did not enjoy making art in certain ways other than the way she likes and knows, so this will hopefully nudge them to exploring other techniques and give them the desire to try new styles. I believe the lack of not wanting to change comes from a lack of inspiration, self confidence or ar unaware of other styles, because this is exactly the way I felt about myself and have had friends in the past feel the same way. I will instill self confidence through this process. So, enjoy!




After the presentation I will que the video which will launch my ongoing project with them. Oh my god i am soooo excited!

Let's Make a Fingerprint Racoon from Animade on Vimeo.

My project idea is to make a visual journal. The journal cover will be our starting point for the day. We will make pictures of ourselves, in mascott form and put them on the cover. The mascott will represent yourself in the most postitive way, in whatever style they feel most adequate. And from there on we will start with page number 1. This will include a picture and some text, anything they want and feel is appropriate to describe something e.g:

• How their day went
• How they currently feel
• What their hopes and dreams are
• Goals 
• Things that make them happy
• Life events

The journal is something that they can read and discover things about themselves. The journal will be examined by the psychologist in order to help them though something (all the children have different problems). So in order for them to better express themselves and move on, the journal will always be a go-to place to let off negative emotions in a positive way. It also allows a lot of self reflection in a positive manner. Positive thinking is the best!

1500 words for a years events, not bad!

And maybe not so many pictures, and not so many relevant, but a nice look-book of the visually appealing kind.

I am sorry for the huge post.

Click on the icon to see my instagram

The world is turning so fast I can't stop looking

So it has been long over due for a blog post, now more than ever. So much has happened to me this year physically and spiritually, and it is time I come out of my shell as I feel I can gather my thoughts appropriately. I promise myself I will not leave it this long. I don't know If i will promise that my posts will consist purely of illustrations and of such a topic, but it will be consistant of important issues and personal subjects.


mental trash can
(expression.) a place where one writes 'junk or 'crap'
in order to 'take out the mental trash' and make space 
for more .

eg: my blog is a landfill!


I am sorry for bombarding you with so much in one post but is is inevitable. I will have to make subtitles "wow, that's when you know!". So I will begin with post number one.

My working year.
My last year has been spent working at a home for the elderly, Sunrise Senior Living of Bramhall. Over the year I have come to experience life in work, adulthood and true teamwork. Having to work along side people and work in unison is something that takes patience and trust, the latter being some kind of personal difficulty. The job itself felt like a good move for me, as the core motivation was to help people and ensure excellent quality of life, something that I feel is very close to my heart. I feel like I have had an inside look at things that not many people will see and experience, the emotional side of being there for people in need. I found that I could go home happy, and be pleased with the work I had done in making people feel better. However, there was something that I had perhaps ignored, or tried to avoid for sometime. Having to go home when you know someone is sick, or having trouble coming to terms with their aging and sickness, was a very very hard thing to do. There were times at night where I'd stay up and worry about it, there were times I stayed an hour behind, this is not the kind of work you can pick up and go for 5pm. It is very hard to detatch yourself to something like that, and for me i feel it is impossible. But I do have some lovely memories, and I often think of the residents and collegues I became friends with. I often smile, when I think of how many people I made smile, through a bad day. One inparticular (Names have been changed for protection), Vivienne was struggling with depression because she was losing her ability to walk, and communicate. There were times she would leave notes and tell me she didn't want to carry on. But everyday I would try my hardest to fit in a spa-bath for her, she loved having a spa-bath. Because of her illness she would often fall, many being quite bad falls. The spa-baths always made her smile, we would even joke, it was so nice to see someone who is going through something so life changing, to smile and joke, and forget about everything for 15 minutes. That is one of my many highlights. And so my year at Sunrise came to an end, taking with me some great memories and friends.

My Spiritual year
As always I am learning and reading, challenging my beliefs and questioning. I believe that the best way to learn it through challenging your beliefs and opinions, and not to be offended or scared when new theories are infront of you. Everyone is entitled to their beliefs, however, one should not become settled in them for too long. That is what I believe. This year I feel that our world has taken a big step in challenging beliefs, traditions and people's comfort zones. I see many people promoting feminism, one speech that I find to be most on point was made by Emma Watson in United Nations to launch the He for She campaign, on September the 20th. In the past so many men have been scared of the word feminism, the very notion of it seemed to appeal only to women, which brings me to the point. Emma Watson has challenged that problem, and challenged men to step up, as a whole we need to change this, not as a gender, not only as women. 

“It is time that we all see gender as a spectrum instead of two sets of opposing ideals.” -Emma Watson, He for She campaign

It is a very inspirational speech, which is why I chose to write about this. 

I have seen many people discovering the idea of feminism, and adopting it - I applaud you! It is still an upstream struggle. And there are some who are still unwilling to see that the heart of feminism is equality and essentially a subheading of humanism. So to the people that say;

 "People who never mention the words "feminism" or "women's rights" were suddenly interested." - Amy McCarthy on Huffington Post
*This post may cause mild frustration

It is never to late to start. I see this kind of opposal all the time, and it has got to stop. Who are you to question someone elses motives? If you suddenly want to beome a vegitarian, feminist, activist - who is someone else to tell you that because you didn't think that way 1 year ago, you can't think that way at all. It is scaring people into silence and it is this kind of toxic perversion that sends us back into the stone age. Stop! 

Live and let live. 

Travels and Working Abroad
Finally, the last three months I have spent living in Varna, Bulgaria. Whilst my time here has only been short, I have done a couple of things of which I am proud of. I have become a member of the Bulgarian Red Cross (BRC), working with children who are living in poverty, have family troubles or are from a low social status. The purpose of the work is to provide a sanctuary, and a happy place for them. As I cannot share much details of the children and problems, I can briefly say that I have found it to be similar to working at Sunrise, bitter-sweet, wanting to do more but knowing that you cannot for obvious reasons. My time there has left me in ucertainty of my future, as I wanted to teach before and empower youngsters through learning, but i have interests in psychology now. However time will let me see which path is right for me. I personally find it extremely hard, emotionally to deal with accepting the hardship some go through. Though my soul wants me to help these people, I find that I am often overwhelmed by my emotions. As I have not been here long I will update more on this subject later on.  

And this week, actually I am writing this article whilst working (naughty me, but it's a slow night) I am currently at the Bulgarian Red Cross Festival, the first since 1991 (that's older than me!) and I am proud to be here. I am representing England, though not officially, but I am the only English person here. It is a Festival which celebrates the BRC's achievements, rewards the volunteers and brings together all the humanitarians. We all have in common the desire to help the less fortunate and people who need our help. Earlier this year a natural distaster hit various parts of Bulgaria. A flood destroyed the homes and belongings of many people, the majority of which were already living in poor conditions with little to no money. After the floods, many of the people were homeless, with no clothes, shelter, food and water - and this is where the Bulgarian Red Cross comes into it. The BRC not only provides, food, water, shelter and health care, but volunteers continue to work with these victims until their quality of life is restored. The BRC also continues to work with many deprived people, like the place I work with children. It is purely funded by a small government allowance, not nearly enough to keep the whole thing going, which is why it relies on donations. Life is very hard in Bulgaria as the government is very corrupt and was not very long ago considered a 3rd world country, so there's not much money to give out. But luckily there any many people who are willing to lend a hand, for nothing but a thank you. This week has been eye opening, and it makes me feel good to know that there are so many good people scattered around everywhere. Thank you!

 

"Through humanism to peace and friendship"

Late Night Epiphany and Rants

So tonight i've been hit by a huge wave of enlightenment / inspiration. I was just casually listening to U2 and my imagination started going wild. I've been trying to perfect the way i'm drawing human figures and faces, for a little while now. And I know practice is what makes perfect in this scenario. But I feel like i keep hitting a huge brick wall recently, theres something visually missing or wrong and I can't put my finger on it. Maybe it's just a lack of substance so far, since most of them have been personal meanings.

Another thing that i've strangely come to just this very moment realise is that i need to stop comparing myself to other people. It came in to my mind for a sec and it seemed like one of those statements that people just say but because it's so over used nowadays it just doesn't sink in, but it kind of came back and hit me about how serious and how much that is holding me back. I know most people probably won't care, but writing this down really helps me organise my head. Anyway, I realise that no matter how much I adore Ellie Willis' style of drawing, even though it is amazing, that's not my style, and even though it may not be as realistic, or so intricate, mine is the same but on a different side of the spectrum. It just knocked me off my chair like how much it's making me feel negative towards my own creations.

And I know it's off topic but i need to stop comparing myself to people, period. It hit me so hard that THAT is my biggest problem and ridiculously terrible habit. I know it sounds stupid how someone can just suddenly realise (when it should be extremely obvious) but when you're mind is kind of full, it doesn't focus on one specific thing and I think tonight i hit a point where i really had a strong sense of self focus. I know i knew it all along but it really came into focus tonight.

It's not much, cause I don't feel like sharing some of them, but here you go :)

A Question to my Blog Viewers

So I've noticed that every time i post on my blog I appear to get quite a few views, and out of curiosity I would like to know more about you! I'm going to set up a new poll to the left side of my blog so you can tell me a little more about how you found me, and why you decided to step on to a very remote blog on the internet, with many more blogs like it all over. A comment in the comments section of this post would also be amazing, but I do realize it's a bit of a bore having to set up an account (if you don't have one) just to reply to a blog post, but still, if you can, it would be awesome. 

So it's a thanks, I suppose! For finding your way here and boosting my confidence :)