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Archive for the ‘creativity’ Category

Stumbling upon a secret field in Skye

Posted in art, creativity, from the dark room, life, photography on October 9, 2007| 6 Comments »

I’ve had a few days break on the Isle of Skye. Despite the fact that I’ve lived in Scotland all my life this is the first time I’ve ever visited Skye. I took my camera and I’ve taken some of the loveliest photos I’ve ever taken up here. It’s an island which is bigger than it first appears. It’s takes quite a while to drive anywhere because a lot of the roads are single track with passing places, winding up and down and around the mountains, through the glens and across the bracken moors. It makes every little trip here an adventure.

One of the trips was to a lighthouse. You have to park your car in the car park at the top of the cliff then walk down a long, long trail to the lighthouse (and, yes, walking back up and up and up the same trail back to the car is VERY demanding! Especially if you spend your life avoiding serious exercise!). Right at the bottom of the trail is the lighthouse which is surrounded by a black, oily bog. Once you slurp your way across the bog (waterproof shoes essential!) you come to the very point of the peninsula. The lighthouse is behind you, across the sparkling sea you see the outlines of the further islands and before you, suddenly, you become aware of this field of stone structures. Yes, the whole area is rocky and you have to clamber over huge rocks to get to the field but there before you, as you get closer, you see hundreds upon hundreds of stone sculptures.

See
rock sculptures

I took a lot of photos cos its just stunning, amazing, incredible. Go see the collection here.

This is simply an immense outpouring of the human creative spirit (well, unless you believe it was the fairies wot did it!) How did this start? Well, I can tell you it’s infectiously compulsive. One of those structures is the one I added to the collection. Any idea which one I made?

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Creative vs destructive

Posted in creativity, life, personal growth on October 9, 2007| 4 Comments »

Everywhere we see a continuous play between forces of creation and those of destruction.

Right inside the cells of our bodies these forces and unceasingly active. Biologically they’re known as “anabolic” and “catabolic” effects. Anabolic functions build and catabolic ones break things down. We need both to be functioning well to be healthy. If they are in complete balance there’s a dynamic status quo – part of what we call “homeostasis” (a complex set of balances). If catabolic processes dominate the system degenerates and degrades. To grow, the anabolic forces have to dominate.

Makes sense, huh? Whilst creativity might involve breaking some things down, we can’t grow anything by reducing it……the building, creative processes have to be predominant. How does this fit for your life? How much energy do you spend pulling things or people down? How much time do give to destruction? And how much energy do you spend creatively building things, helping people to grow?

It’s not hard to find critics, especially cynical, destructive critics, but time spent with them is rarely rewarding. Isn’t it much more life-enhancing to be with creative people, those with positive energy and outlook, who solve problems and are motivated to make things better?

We need the critics. We need those who seem to thrive only by pulling things down. All heroes need challenges. We grow by engaging with the challenges and overcoming them. But it’s also worthwhile being aware of the toxic effects of the nay-sayers.

It strikes me that life is short and is best spent predominantly with creative, positive-minded people. They energise. They support. They help us grow.

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The Stirling Girl

Posted in art, creativity, from the dark room, photography on September 30, 2007| Leave a Comment »

The Stirling Girl, originally uploaded by bobsee.

Over recent months Stirling Council has erected some information panels around the city. On one side is a map of the area and on the other are some images of that area as it was along with interesting little histories.
On the panel at the foot of the “Back Walk” I found this image. I’ve never seen it before even though its from the 1920’s.
I find it quite captivating. I love how the more you look at it the more you see. Within the picture are many of Stirling’s famous landmarks – the Wallace Monument in the feather on her head, Stirling Castle on her hat, along with the Wolf and Robert the Bruce, then around her neck the Old Stirling Bridge.
Have you seen other examples of this kind of drawing anywhere?

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It’s an amazing world

Posted in creativity, from the dark room, photography on September 15, 2007| Leave a Comment »

These 360 degree panoramic images are simply stunning.

You can see The Colosseum, The Great Wall of China, Petra, the Taj Mahal, Machu Pichu, Rio de Janeiro, Chichen Itza, the Eiffel Tower, Giza Pyramids, Cordoba Mosqu, Angkor Wat and the Yulonghe River

These images take a long time to load, even with a fast connection, so be patient, take advice from Christopher , slow down and enjoy life.

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How to be creative

Posted in creativity, from the reading room, humour, writing on September 13, 2007| 1 Comment »

Have you come across gapingvoid? It’s the website of Hugh McLeod who draws business card sized cartoons. His top post of all time is this one on creativity. It’s long but it’s worth it! And some of the cartoons are hilarious.

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To create is to be human

Posted in creativity, from the reading room, life, personal growth on August 31, 2007| 1 Comment »

Great post (in fact great series) across on successfromthenest on creativity. It was the title of the post which caught my attention “Saying you’re not creative is like saying you’re not human.” I couldn’t agree more.

I do find it helpful to understand people by considering how they adapt to (or cope with) changes and challenges, how they engage with the world and how they create – I agree with Tony Clark about this – a lot of people think they aren’t creative because they don’t draw or write but we are all creative every day. How you make decisions, how you problem solve and how you express yourself is all based on creativity.

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Tangled up in Bob

Posted in creativity, from the music room, from the reading room, from the viewing room, music, video, writing on August 29, 2007| 6 Comments »

OK, so this is how the web works. I sat down at my iMac and typed “Jack Kerouac writing tips”. Not sure why that came to me right at this moment but it did. I started clicking through some of the finds and came across a lovely blog called “myinneredge” where I read a post about Kerouac which mentioned Natalie Goldberg and I thought “it’s ages since I read Writing Down the Bones. I really enjoyed it” so I followed the link to her site and found she had just completed a film about Bob Dylan – “Tangled up in Bob” – what a great title! Not just because my name is Bob and I love the “tangled up” idea…….

So that’s how the web works with hops, skips and jumps. And the thing is, there is NO endpoint. As I typed “tangled up” I heard a Genesis song in my head –

where to now…….?

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In need of more laughter?

Posted in creativity, humour, photography on August 26, 2007| Leave a Comment »

Here‘s more to enjoy. Brilliantly observed and very funny.

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Pearls of Wisdom

Posted in creativity, from the reading room, humour, life on August 24, 2007| Leave a Comment »

I’ve recently been playing with Stumbleupon and stumbled across this page.

It’s good to read aphorisms and when they are spiced with humour they’re even better.

The “thought for the day” at the bottom of the page captures the tone of the whole piece –

Thought for the day: Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.

Check it out. I think you’ll laugh at (and agree with) all these “pearls”.

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Interview with God

Posted in creativity, from the viewing room, life, photography, video on August 23, 2007| 1 Comment »

One of my colleagues emailed me this link today.

OK, so I’m prepared for the fact that you might be put off by the religious slant, or you might find it a bit cheesy, but, hey, I think there’s way too much cynicism in this world. (I DO enjoy satirical comedy but that’s not the same as cynicism)

So, go on, take a chance, go watch this little presentation. The photography is really beautiful. The poem “An Interview with God” (anonymous poet apparently), which provides the text of the presentation, I rather like, and the music, by the way, is from the Forrest Gump score. As a whole this is a very touching work (have your tissues ready), and, you know what? It made me feel good!

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