Public Exhibition - 'The People Behind the Masks'

Too much red tape and bureaucracy exists in Northern Ireland. Too much red tape in the mind. Too much green and orange tape in the mind. A reluctance, reticence and aversion to spontaneity - that ingredient so crucial to creation and innovation. Creativity doesn't do tick box exercises. Cynical, skeptical, defeatist. These are words that describe the common condition. An unthinking monotony that accepts the monotony of under performance and delinquency. Don't unthink. Think anew act anew. Less unthinking - more unflinching enterprise. Pick yourself. Don't wait.

The world is not bipolar but multipolar.

"Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it! Boldness has genius, power and magic in it."
- Jon Minnis

This public exhibition was a reaction to politicians forcing themselves before the public. This was in the public and for the public and against those politicians. Check out a full selection of the faux-election posters I created.

How to be creative

Maria Konnikova says here:

"[We] know that much of what we associate with creativity—whether writing a sonnet or a mathematical proof—has to do with the ability to link ideas, entities, and concepts in novel ways. This ability depends in part on the very thing that caffeine seeks to prevent: a wandering, unfocused mind."

The above is an excerpt from an essay in the New Yorker, 'How Caffeine can Cramp Creativity'. The essay was also covered by Andrew Sullivan here. While on this creative path I also came across an academic paper on a theory behind the creative process which you can read here.

'Drink and Draw' with the Loft collective

The lovely picture above is one taken by a member of The Loft Collective (@loftbelfast) - a shared studio that hosts an exciting group of artists in the north side of Belfast city centre. The above event was a night eponymously called 'Drink and Draw' - held June 18 2013: Life drawing with alcohol in suit. Always good for freeing up the creative impulses and loosening the hand and wrist. Carrying on Ronald Searle's bibulous tradition supremely.

Click the link below and check out a selection of my drawings from the night: