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Shinjuku Gyoen – a place for creativity

July 27, 2014

IMG_8983Some places inspire creativity. Recently in Japan, I visited Shinjuku Gyoen and it is such a place. You arrive there mostly via train to Shinjuku, apparently the busiest train station in the world. It’s a short distance that you walk from there, surrounded by people, tall buildings, lights, traffic, signs and noise.

You orientate yourself through the ticket office, the pathways and a forest with the tips of tall buildings from streets away peeking though the canopy.

Shinjuku buildings through treesYou then find yourself in a place that opens into the greenest heart of peace.

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Shinjuku Gyoen opens upIn that space, there are painters beneath trees, beside the water, their easels before them, an eye on the view and their backs turned away as they concentrate. There are others like me, taking photographs, striving to capture the light and peace of that place to take home somehow.

IMG_8960IMG_9009Reflections of clouds in the water, the roundness of trees balanced in the air, the greenness like a balm, gentle canopies and vistas framed. The garden is designed to invite you to stand and make your own landscape.

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IMG_8973It’s a place where creativity happens and is fostered, where you can be at peace in a place of beauty and feel yourself grow like the trees and blossom like the flowers.

You can see why people are drawn there to create. Or if like me, you come without this prior knowledge, you might be surprised at what you find there and find a part of you reignited as you walk, trying to fashion a vision of this place to hold onto and call your own.

The thoughts and images linger and I try to capture them again here as stepping stones to trace my way back to a creative flame I can rekindle.

music & images

The Impossible

September 8, 2013

Nice to meet youOn Friday, my Impossible Project Instant Lab arrived. I ordered it nearly 12 months ago as part of a Kickstarter project. It’s been wonderful to watch the development of the instant lab over time from prototype to testing to production to postage and arrival on my doorstep. The instant lab turns digital iphone (and other) images into real analogue instant photos, just like polaroids, so the art of new technology meeting the beauty of older classic technology.

I learnt about the instant lab through Susannah Conway who has written Instant Love: how to make magic and memories with polaroids, with Amanda Gilligan and Jennifer Altman, and who uses polaroid photographs so beautifully in her blog. Falling in love with the dreamy quality of polaroids, I am keen to use the instant lab as a step to engaging more with photography and eventually with polaroid cameras. The art of polaroid photography seems a bit tricky and technical but is something I want to learn.

It was exciting to unpack the box and see the instant lab, to touch it and to extend the tower of the lab that the iphone sits on. I read through the ‘Quick Start’ guide, checked out the Impossible film, then worked through updating my iphone so I could download the app that links the processes. I checked out some of the people engaging with the lab through flickr, instagram and twitter and looked at their images to see what was possible.

At the same time, I’m also reading Brene Brown’s ‘Daring Greatly‘. This is making me aware of the little voices in my head all the while making the task of creating pictures with the instant lab, seem more difficult than it should be, if not well, impossible.

I can hear myself worrying about mucking up the film which is expensive and of which I only have a small supply. I can hear myself thinking, ‘Who am I? Not a photographer for sure. I didn’t even engage properly with the ‘Photo meditations‘ course I just did with Susannah Conway, to be able to learn as much as I could.’ I can hear the words swimming around my head, ‘It’s only for professionals, it’s complicated…it’s the culmination of so much you haven’t done’…

In ‘Daring Greatly’, Brene Brown (p 34) defines vulnerability as:

uncertainty, risks, and emotional exposure

I am feeling all this and exposure is the perfect word for this context in every respect.

I don’t know why it’s become so vulnerable and why the excitement of the arrival of the instant lab has been replaced with something like fear – of failure, of waste, of scarce resources, of lack of creativity. How did this occur?

I still haven’t printed the first image but I am getting close. I have selected the image of choice for my first print. I am aware of the need to take the first step and to enjoy the experience whatever the outcome.

I look forward to the exposure, to putting the pieces together, to watching that magical creative piece of me appear almost instantly and to honouring its place in my life. I look forward to doing the seemingly impossible.

inspiration & influence music & images

About the hummingbird

August 25, 2013

IMG_5546Symbols are a strange thing. It’s funny how some particular symbols seem to start appearing in your life. Perhaps they were all the time and you just start noticing them or perhaps they have just started gathering like birds flocking together. As Carl Jung says in ‘Man and his Symbols’: “As a plant produces its flower, so the psyche creates its symbols.” (p53)

In my case, the symbol appearing in my life recently and calling for my fervent attention is the hummingbird.

I first noticed it when I was shopping in London in April. It always interests me what draws you to particular clothes: the style, patterns and symbols that attract us at any point in time. I was drawn to a scarf with hummingbirds dotted all over it. I wore it like a talisman as I travelled around the UK, a piece of comfort I wrapped around me at a time of transience and changing environments.

Hummingbird scarfI went to the British Museum and of all the wondrous antiquities and images and amid millions of objects in the Enlightenment Room, I fall in love with a tiny stuffed hummingbird sitting proudly on a perch in a glass cabinet. My image of the bird somehow sums up a whole day and the entire trip. I know not why and wonder again at how we are drawn to one image, one object amid so many, that resonates and sings to our soul.

Suddenly hummingbirds are everywhere: they are a recurring symbol in the book I am reading, Tracy Chevalier’s ‘The Last Runaway’; they pop up as a key symbol front and centre in a visual in one of Susannah Conway’s lessons in the e-course I am doing, ‘Journal Your Life’; I am reading about the hummingbird, then go to twitter and up pops @HumbirdsSong; I go to a student graduation and one of the Aboriginal students I talk to has the personal totem of a hummingbird and a gorgeous hummingbird tattoo on her forearm; I notice there are hummingbirds on the box where I hold my scarves; I pick up a birthday card for a friend and the brand is Papyrus, with the symbol of, yes, the hummingbird.

 Hummingbird scarf boxSo what is all this about? What is the symbol saying to me? Why is it appearing and what is its message?

The card is the first clue and the first time I read anything of the symbolism or legend. It says brightly in a greeting card kind of way:

Legends say that hummingbirds float free of time, carrying our hopes for love, joy and celebration. The hummingbird’s delicate grace reminds us that life is rich, beauty is everywhere, every personal connection has meaning and that laughter is life’s sweetest creation

It’s a lead that I value and I look further and find the following about the hummingbird as a spirit animal, totem and personal symbol:

The hummingbird spirit animal symbolizes the enjoyment of life and lightness of being. Those who have the hummingbird as a totem are invited to enjoy the sweetness of life, lift up negativity wherever it creeps in and express love more fully in their daily endeavors. This fascinating bird is capable of the most amazing feats despite its small size, such as traveling great distances or being able to fly backwards. By affinity with the hummingbird, those who have this bird as totem may be encouraged to develop their adaptability and resiliency while keeping a playful and optimistic outlook.

I search further and read more about the hummingbird. It is so perfectly the symbol for me and especially my time right now. All the messages ring true:

Being present and enjoying life:

It is a reminder that life is meant to be savoured. It is about being more present and bringing playfulness and joy into your life.  It’s about exposing yourself to more joy and showing love. “The hummingbird’s wisdom carries an invitation to take part in and draw to you life’s sweetness, like you would drink the nectar of your own flower.” (from Hummingbird Spirit Animal)

Taking time to draw strength from within:

The hummingbird is a reminder that “the sweetest nectar is within”  (from Hummingbird Animal Totem). It’s a reminder to look at how we are gaining and expending our energy and whether there is any frittering away of energy on needless worry. It’s about the need to take time to recharge from within, knowing you have the resources to take you forward to meet any challenges.

Resilience and adaptability:

The hummingbird is “the bird of the impossible“. It can fly backwards; it can fly over 2000 miles; its wings make the symbol of infinity as it flies. It is a symbol of resilience, of tirelessness, of being adaptable to a situation that is a bit more demanding than usual. It symbolises that difficulties can be overcome and how this might occur:

The only bird able to fly backwards, the Hummingbird guides us back to our past, showing us that we must not dwell on it and that we need to move joyfully forward, showing us the power of discipline and will-power, the ability to do anything we wish in our lives. It  teaches us fierce independence. Recovering lost parts of ourselves enables us to become healthily independent.

These themes connect into a powerful message to carry with me. I wear a little hummingbird to keep me connected to this wise energy.

hummingbirdWhat symbols are coming into your life right now?

What are you noticing and what are the symbols saying to you?

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music & images

Seeing afresh – The August Break

August 4, 2013

Yellow!It’s time for the August Break, a challenge started by Susannah Conway a few years ago as a way of taking a break from blogging so intensely and with words. Basically you aim to take a photo each day in August and share it via your blog or instagram or on the flickr pool set up for the group. It’s a way to sharpen your visual awareness, practice your photography skills and also connect with others focused on the same challenge.

I am loving this year’s August Break. For me, it’s doubly lovely and exciting as I am doing Susannah’s ecourse, Photo Meditations, at the same time. The two dovetail perfectly and without pressure and I am loving learning about photography from Susannah on the one hand via the e-course and then learning to look around me and see afresh on a daily basis for the August Break.

This year’s August Break also has a list of daily photo prompts that for me has been like a visual treasure hunt! Day 1 was Breakfast (easing in), Day 2 was Circles and Day 3 yesterday was yellow.

I had a huge and difficult week this week with my mum having some medical emergencies and being in hospital for a few days. Finally she was home and settling yesterday and I was doing some shopping for her and myself. In between, I am looking for yellow, something of value, something special, something I can practice my ‘Photo Meditations’ learning of week one on, something that sums up how I feel now some normality is returning.

There in the middle of the supermarket, a trolley of yellow sunflowers, a little oasis of yellow and sunshine inside a busy place. I park the trolley, get out the iphone, take a few shots and keep working till I get what I want, find the right plant that speaks to me and then I have it. I am so pleased with my yellow shot of flowers and walk out of the supermarket as if on air.

That’s what the August Break is about…seeing afresh, looking for beauty, for meaning in the visual world around us, the treasures that we can find or make from the details of our lives to share with others.

Many thanks to Susannah for the joy that is this year’s August Break – as always brilliant! As well as my own experience, I am loving seeing all the versions of breakfast, circles and yellow in everyone’s lives. And it’s only day 4! So much to look forward to this August. And now to find something that defines today’s prompt, ‘Love’….

music & images poetry

Poetry: Destinations

October 27, 2012

Meow Gallery: The gallery is empty.

 

Destinations

You are the exotic destination
I depart to, my fervent feet
walking the streets
to the Venice of your heart.

Or perhaps you are Oliphants,
deep in the Kruger, from where high
above thorn trees, I watch hippopotamus
float down the river somehow.

Or perhaps the Eiffel Tower,
shimmering in the morning light,
from where I look down at the city
laid out like the story of a novel.

You dream and then one day,
you step on a plane and arrive
to do the most ordinary things
in the most exotic way.

You are my destination,
sometimes nearly ordinary,
sometimes taking
my breath away.

music & images

Contrasts

September 2, 2012

If I summed up my life in one word at the minute, the word would be ‘contrasts’. So many contrasts, so many diverse experiences: temperatures, travel, people, locations, meals, seasons, time alone, time with others, visuals and words.

I’m living and working away temporarily at present, so life is different; taken out of my usual surroundings and contacts. I’m in the same organisation, but in a different role, a different town, a different climate and working with new and different people.

It tests you, being out of that familiar zone of the constants of your workplace, away from the home you are accustomed to returning to each evening and all the people you are used to seeing in your daily routines. In a strange and contradictory way, it brings you back in touch with yourself as you become the constant in a swirl of change and contrast.

In the past two weeks, I have:

  • had my feet in both the  city and country, moving back and forward between them
  • seen snow, sunshine, warm days and sleeting wild winds, some days experiencing a 25 degrees (C) difference in temperature
  • felt the beginnings of spring in a cold climate and a town where the trees are still mostly bare
  • enjoyed a full garden of spring flowers in the city in a warmer climate where the season is more established
  • spent many hours on my own as well as meeting dozens of new people through my job role
  • focused on visuals more than words generally; this is the ‘August Break‘ influence and I have been seeing more, stopping to see the contrasts, reading and writing less, and taking more photographs
  • savoured beautiful regional wines and food whilst other times eating woefully boring meals at the end of a busy work day when there is not much energy left for cooking

And today, spring breaks through from winter’s grasp here and the day is gloriously (relatively) warm and full of a sense of blossoming.

So what’s settling me in the midst of all this contrast and change:

  • the anchors of my loved ones
  • the daphne bush in the garden here and the sprigs of daphne in the house shooting their fragrance through the air
  • the pieces of home I carry with me: a ‘French Pear’ candle, my jewellery, my scarves, my music
  • the electronic devices which connect me wherever I am
  • the cameras I am one way or another carrying with me and using to stop and record the contrasts
  • the beautiful wines of the region accompanied by the freshest produce: apples, pears, asparagus, cheese
  • the freshly roasted coffee in the cappuccino that I pick up on the way to work
  • the books, sudoku and blogs I enjoy that keep me grounded
  • my online friends from ‘Blogging from the Heart’ who keep me inspired and committed here as I weave blogging in and out of my busy life

What contrasts are you enjoying and how are you keeping settled in between it all?

I’m breaking through,
I’m bending spoons,
I’m keeping flowers in full bloom,
I’m looking for answers from the great beyond.

from U2 ‘The Great Beyond’

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