A whole bunch of imagery that keeps me up at night

I love nights when I stay up, devoid of caffeine, but still full of energy due to some uncharacteristic surge to the brain.

Especially the creative kind of surge.

I think it's due to watching alot of TEDTalk videos, my recent favourite being Five Lives of An Artist by Raghava KK (shown below).

It's rejuvenated my thoughts about art and creativity, and the intuitive, almost instinctive need to express. Most importantly, it brings me back to basics, to the reasons why I love art so much (though government examination deadlines ruined it for me - I personally don't think that anything creative, or any amount of free expression should be reigned in by schedule or other forms of time constraint, therefore I don't think I can be an artist by trade. Wow this is a long disclaimer).

So these are the artsy things that have tremendously inspired me this week, and I hope they will do the same for you too.

This is my amazingly talented friend, Hong Yi, who is causing quite a stir at the moment with her videos going viral, and appearing on 9gag #likeaboss nonetheless! For as long as I have known her (or known of her), there isn't much this girl can't do (on top of being artsy, she's gorgeous, athletic, and a straight A student to boot). I truly wish her all the best and I can't wait to see more of her work! I will also be there to ward off trollific comments because I'm badass like that. From afar. heh. Check out her blog for more!

5 Lives of an Artist

     

Allison Harvard has also become one of my favourite models/artists. I have been guiltily sucked back into watching America's Next Top Model, and I love how awkward she is, but at the same time she is startlingly beautiful, unique and eloquent. I also like how relatable she is (in terms of the awkward weirdness in my case). And she takes amazing photos!

My 2012 so far

As you get older you try to hang on to little snippets of time.

Maybe I'm just grasping at this fast decaying youth.

Time is wasted on over-analysis.

Saunter

Things I love right now. In no particular order.

images via NastyGal, LustForLife, FabSugar

In Love with Terri Chung

I came across this wonderful illustrator Teri Chung the other day and thought I'd share her beautiful beautiful work.

I love her use of watercolors and how she accentuates the images with a childlike charm! See if you can recognize some of these designs.

I'd better start sharing as many things as I can before SOPA and PIPA bills akin to it come underway. ;)

The Importance of Being a Big Rock

Not to squander Oscar Wilde. But it just occurred to me that most decisions comes down to priorities. (A little late, but better than never)

When I was younger, I knew that it was important to prioritize, (after being yelled at to do so repeatedly) but never knew what it actually meant or why it was so important.

To put 'first things first' or, to 'place the big rocks, and let unimportant stuff be pebbles' or something or other. Oh, oh and to make sure that the big rocks get prime attention.

Okay.

But as you get older, I guess you find that alot of the nuances of how people behave and react to situations come right down to priorities. What gets put first, second and last. Who deserves attention in the explicit order of first, second, and last. What one DEFINES as a big rock, maybe different to what another person defines as being important, but that just comes down to semantics.

I want to rearrange my rocks, and make sure that the right things become the big rocks, as I think I may have mistaken my big rocks for pebbles.

Some may say it's getting my priorities straight, but hey, who am I to tell you what your priorities are? I just want to make sure that I give the same attention to the ones who put me first.

You're my big rock if I'm yours, so let's make sparks fly.

The Year That Was

With much reluctance, I have decided to gingerly climb onto the bandwagon to write my thoughts on 2011.

For me it was a year riddled with triumphs and being trumped on a daily basis, distractions and crazy dalliances, revelations and regrets. It was a year filled with looking backwards, and dreading the forward march alone. A 'crossroads' year, where my decisions and everything surrounding them kind of propelled the direction of my young life.

Most, or should I say, least importantly, it revolved around caring too much about what people said, what people thought, what people were doing and what people thought I should do.

As much as I value objective and constructive external views, I think it's about time I valued my own just as much, if not more.

Unapologetically, 2012 is for the taking, and I hope to call it mine.

"Well, you're the trouble I was looking for"

Quite nonchalantly, I find myself blogging twice in a day! Giving you a slight indication of what I do with my time at the moment. But I can't help but share this video of probably one of my favourite musicians of all time (most of the rest are unfortunately dead).

I love how he earnestly reminisces and describes how the music industry was like, before the Internet and dotcoms and tweets, how it was like being a musician back then. Especially when he talks about just having a voice through the Internet, no matter the reach.

I never thought I would actually be able to relate or identify with some of the things they say (no I'm no big muso but you're welcome to mistake me for one lol) in these interviews, but just having the amazing pleasure of playing in a band and being invited to play at cool, paid, acoustic gigs is a sufficient taste (albeit at the lowest fraction) of what musicians go through for huggee performances, and arena venues.

Being the worrier that I am, I constantly worry about being good enough, warranting that kind of attention, and being frankly, quite embarrassed of just saying, 'come watch me play!' just in case everything didn't turn out just as well.

We'd practice and I'd make sure to practice (while freaking out) till I could drown out the pressure of just merely performing, and sometimes I would forget all the fun and my genuine love for singing because now there was an audience and an expectation (not just my shower head and bathroom tiles), despite the fact that most of the audience were made up of friends who would love and support us and come to watch us again and again unconditionally.

At the end of the day, I think we all wish we could fall into things that we love to do for a living just by doing them and not worrying about impacts, the future or where our next meal is coming from.

It's a great big world out there, with a whole lot of noise, and I think it's having to rely on recognition and the volume of your 'voice' to get to where you want that gets to me sometimes.

My motivation is to discard of goals, aspirations and concerns about where I would like to be, and just focus on where I am, and what I would like to do now, and to make sure that today doesn't go to waste.