Category Archives: Creativity

Mental Detour

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The weather has been pants for a few days now: I’ve had thunderstorms and vertical rain. I don’t really mind because I don’t have to go anywhere and have been extremely busy sorting out chores that have been on the to-do-list for ages already. I finally started to mend some dresses and skirts and I finally finished my chocolate satin dress. I don’t know what happened but last week one thing led to another and all of a sudden I was sick and tired of the mess that has been lying around for some time now waiting for me to fix it or finish it. Oh… I remember what caused it: be prepared to dive into my warped mind…

Last Friday I received a wonderful surprise in the post all the way from New York, the package from Ismoyo that I’d won a while ago. Thank you, it’s totally sweet! So I wanted to take some pictures, I always take pictures of everything and that’s what it all started: me wanting to take pictures. I have a small desk near the window where my sewing machine sits and it’s the best spot to take pictures since the light conditions are always perfect. But the desk was piled up with dresses that needed fixing. So basically I ended up cleaning up the mess. Halfway I decided to sort out my CD collection too, all the archive CDs that is.

And before I knew it I was throwing out stacks of old CDs that my Mac refused to read and burning Gigs to DVD, reorganising years of archiving. Then I got all hyper and realised that I only have two LaCie Porsches that I really needed to sort out because I don’t have the extra backup space anymore. Well I do basically but it needs a lot of reorganising. So while working on websites for clients I suddenly realised that if one of those Porsches would crash I would have a serious problem: I don’t have the extra backup available, the second Porsche became home to my music collection instead.

What happened next is that I started my online research for internal and external HDs to see if I could afford one. I asked Christiaan for advice since I had a slight idea what I wanted but wasn’t sure if that was the best option but he confirmed my feeling *thank you!*. So I decided to buy an extra 500Gig internal HD since that is the cheapest way for now and I do need to invest in this if I don’t want to get myself into trouble. Over the weekend I ended up wasting time waiting for others to help me so I lost a few hours there but have been catching up these last few days.

Why the detour you wonder? Because I need to get rid of clutter: all the clutter around me on desks, the clutter on my Mac which used to be organised but most of all the clutter in my head. I’m probably over-criticising myself again because some from the past told me I was the most organised person they’d ever met and I guess I can see why. But you see, I can’t design new projects if I don’t have a neat place to work: neat place clean of clutter means no clutter but room in my head… So I decided to throw out and declutter starting with the pile of clothes waiting to be mended.

And since I finally have a clean window desk I finally took some pictures. Now if you’ll excuse me I need to get back to decluttering so I can start some web design soon!

I’ve finished my chocolate satin dress, more mending to be done…

Lovely surprise in the post all the way from NY

Cute Japanese generosity I received from Ismoyo, thank you so much! :)

Beck’s Canvas

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I received an invitation last night from Barbara and one a while ago from Inci, both good friends and both (ex)student Graphic Design at the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam where I used to work. I can’t remember which year Barbara graduated but Inci graduated two days ago *congratulations!!!* and both invited me to their parties in Amsterdam which unfortunately I won’t be able to attend because of some obligations. Their invitations reminded me of something that was brought to my attention recently, another invitation which I received through this blog…

I’m talking about the art project Beck’s Canvas organised by Beck’s beer in collaboration with the Royal College of Art here in London. Beck’s Canvas offers talented artists a way to expose their artwork to the public using the label on Beck’s bottles as their canvas. On the evening of the 16th July, Beck’s will announce the four artists selected by a panel of judges from the Royal College of Art to showcase their art on the labels of over 27 million bottles to be distributed nationwide from August 2008. I’ve been invited to the exclusive launch of this event which will take place in exactly two weeks from now.

Beck’s have championed talented artists without compromise for over 20 years, a very interesting, unique collection and taster can be found on their website including artists such as Tracey Emin, Damien Hirst, Jake&Dino Chapman, and Tatsuo Miyajima. Beck’s Canvas marks an evolution of their ongoing support for emerging artists and their vision to bring inspiring and challenging artwork to a broader public. I’m really looking forward to attending this gallery exhibition and see the actual artwork of the four finalists on display. I hope I’ll be allowed to take some pictures and show them on here!

Watch this space after the 16th…