Showing posts with label competition. Show all posts
Showing posts with label competition. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

NOT ONE-TRACK-MINDED

One-track-minded people are those who achieve things - sometimes great things, sometimes terrible things. They are the ones you hear about because they'll have discovered something momentous or solved a problem nobody's ever solved or gone spectacularly insane or committed some particularly atrocious crime. Their locomotive brain drives them relentlessly along that one track they've chosen and doesn't stop at all the little stations along the way to have a coffee and a look around.

I am not one-track-minded, as my record shows. But I've always thought I should/would/could be if only I...um...stuck to one track. Oh yes, for short periods of time I can enter that zone where it's always four in the morning and breakfast is at nine pm and the outside world is really really outside and the mind is totally focused on the idea, the task, the problem. It's a marvellous zone to be in, exciting, challenging, even if it's totally obsessive and egocentric, shutting out anything and anyone who is a distraction. But I can't stay there, distractions rush in like noisy children, new tracks appear out of the blue - which one to follow? It's a fairground out there, irresistible and irrelevant distractions all over the place.

Know what I mean?

Anyway, I'll get back to La Vie en Rosé very shortly as soon as the deck is cleared of other unfinished business. Meanwhile my non-winning comic strip, along with other non-winners, is at Forbidden Planet, and there's a plan afoot to collectively publish a book of the non-winning graphic entries, a kind of Salon des Refusés. You can see some of the other entries on flickr here. Any Londoners interested in comics (ie sequential art: more sophisticated title) are very welcome to attend the next forum of Laydeez Do Comics on Monday 30th November, 6:30pm, details on their website. I'll be doing a short (10 minute) visual presentation there.

I've made a new section to post my POEMPICTURES . I was inspired by this new site.

MORE

Sunday, November 01, 2009

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

RECYCLED FASHION

I was flattered and honoured to be one of the judges at the Recycled Fashion Show held in St. Christopher's School in Letchworth on February 28th. The show is organised annually by Emma Semple, who heads the art department. My fellow blogger Dick Jones, whose Patteran Pages many of you frequent, is Emma's husband and was the drama teacher at St. Chris for many years. The spontaneous, supportive, creative atmosphere of the school was palpable and I must admit I felt a bit envious in retrospect - my own schooldays were nothing like this!

I was stunned by the kids' inventiveness and skill and wanted to film the whole show but while the catwalk was in progress, we judges had to take notes and then adjourn to a quiet room to decide who should win the prizes. It was a real struggle because all the costumes had been interesting and quite a few were exceptional but in the end, we managed to agree. During the final parade and prize-giving I was able to bring out my camcorder and kept it running for about half an hour. Unfortunately, there's a ten minute limit on videos posted to YouTube so I've had to edit drastically and jumpily. But at least you can have a glimpse of the event and some of the amazing designs created by children and teenagers from throw-away materials: eat your heart out Armani, Gucci, Miyake, Prada, Versace and all - the fashion future belongs to creative kids and recycled junk.

The interviewer is Michael Wright, author, artist and lecturer, who was also one of the judges.

The video is on my YouTube page:

http://www.youtube.com/user/Saysimoi

MORE