Day 89

'Quick sketch of Edward Harland Statue, Belfast City Hall', Pen and Pencil On Paper

Just a Quick sketch today as wanted to get caught up on a few other things, It's of one of the statues sotuated at Belfast City Hall and The statue itself is of Sir Edward James Harland (1831-1895) a Shipbuilder and Politician and one of the founders of the Harland and Wolff shipyard that famously built the Titanic. 

Day 88

'I can be such a screw up sometimes', Pen and Marker on Paper

I'm just coming back to a familiar thought from a previous post... at least I think it bears some resemblance anyway? it's getting kind of difficult to keep track of the incessant ramblings that have come to pass this maybe something that I need to look at but for now, back to my point. We have a habit of messing up opportunities by doing or saying the wrong things at the most inopportune moment, it leaves with that feeling that makes us rue our own stupidity for allowing certain moments to allude our grasp. At the same time though it does give us an increased hunger to not make that same mistake twice so possibly this is something to take solace in for no though I think it best to work on not missing these opportunities and possibilities as much.

Day 87

'Match Wits' Pen and Marker on Paper

I don't know what it is but there is something that is ultimately satisfying about entering into some sort of verbal or mental battle of wits and coming out the other side as the victor. Whether it be because you have fired of a witty retort that has left your opponent reeling and unable to muster up a suitably clever comeback or simply that you were able to take someone that believed themselves to be your superior and knock them down a peg or two... one thing is for sure though it is something that I don't think we will ever tire of.

Day 86

'Throw in the Towel and Just Beat it' Pen on Paper

As I conceived last night the events of yesterdays celebrations have certainly taken there toll on me today, so much so I've basically been catatonic all day. It has left me thinking that sometimes we can misjudge when exactly is the appropriate time to quit while were ahead, instead we allow our joviality to blind us to the fact that push that little bit too far and we may regret it tomorrow. In saying this many of the decisions that shape our lives for the better are made in haste and against all aspects of common sense and rationality, but there is no denying that it normally has an adverse effect when we negate logic in the stead of indulgence. It's again one of things where it is difficult to find the exact balance, mostly as the allure of excess disrupts the equilibrium all to quickly. So whatever breed of gluttony that we fall victim to whether it be food, alcohol, gambling or any other vice that happens to afflict you. The chances are that we will reach that point where we should have thrown in the towel and just beat it, but instead for any number of inane reasons we are left nursing a guilty conscience or as it's sometimes known a hangover.

Day 85

'Castanet' Pen and Marker on Paper

Was my house-mates birthday today so spent most of today involved in celebratory activities, in fact today's drawing was drawn amidst the drunken shenanigans and goings on of all the people in attendance. For that reason decided to keep things relatively simple so it's just a drawing of an ladybird castanet... there's not really much else to tell so think I'll leave things at that for now as I assume that tomorrow I'll be a little worse for wear and trying to piece myself back together over the duration of the day.

Day 84

'Obsoletely Fabulous', Pen and Marker on Paper

Spent a good part of today toying around with ideas based on yesterday's post and thought about using one of these for today's 'draw' but felt instead that the drawing for today should be something distinct, as that has been the case for all of the other drawings thus far. Although similar themes return each day is unique and I like that about the work up to this point, instead I think that the post for Day 83 will just continue to grow over the coming weeks and months. I still wanted to carry on from yesterday with another illustration and today is a culmination of a recent conversation regarding how quickly technology has changed and how much we now depend on that new technology.  When if we think back to when we were younger we seemed to manage fine with what we had, but the thought of going back to those technological dark ages is abhorrent. Instead we look back at the technology of those times with a sense of  pointless nostalgia, a way for us to get our retro fix and this notion of retro is something that everyone has been enamoured with for some time... in many cases even those too young to have experienced it first time round. I myself am guilty of this on many levels and I don't think it really matters if you were there in the beginning, however I do think there is a certain level of respect that you should give those things rather than them being mere fashion items. This fondness of obsolete technology is also very fleeting as we tend to latch onto whatever is current and intriguing, quickly become restless as our attention span swiftly dwindles, before finally moving onto something else. There does seem to be a fine line to tread between balancing our love for the old and new, but one thing is for sure everything will eventually become obsolete and unwanted, remain so for some time and ultimately end up emblazoned on a t-shirt in Topshop.

Day 83

'Untitled Shop Promo Concept', Pen and Marker on Paper.

A close friend of mine is looking into staring a new business venture which I may be talking about more in the future as it comes closer to fruition. Whilst talking to him today about some of the ideas and plans he has I said I would draw up some concept sketches for possible logo's and promotional material... there are quite a few more but they mess around with the name of the outlet which is at this moment pretty hush-hush, so over the coming weeks I'll be coming back to this and posting more information and more concept drawings and sketches. Below are a few of the sketches that I could post that don't give to much away and link to where the above T-Shirt design comes from.

Day 82

'Fix up Look Sharpie' A Sharpie drawn by a Sharpie on Paper

There are two reasons for today's drawing, first off Sharpie's are awesome and secondly I like the thought of drawing an image of an object with the object used to depict it. The reason being that it's a way to further explore the relationship between object and image or the origins and the outcome. The link between the origin and the outcome is something that has been prevalent in much of my work prior to this project, so the drawing process inevitably brings up some of these themes again as they were ones that I have never explored as fully as I could have. Whilst the object both depicted and used to create today's drawing is a drawing tool, there is a possibility for further exploration here on a larger scale. Using more obscure objects and either altering them to contain a secondary drawing medium, such as ink or paint, or even just simply coating part of the object in this secondary drawing medium to be used to draw. For example creating a drawing a chair, using the leg of a chair coated in paint... this is the idea in it's simplest terms but there is definitely an opportunity to expand upon this more and possibly even by seeing just how elaborate the process can become and leave the end product as something that is seemingly simplistic. This again brings up further notions that could be explored, that being the relationships between effort, process, simplicity, complexity and impact.

Day 81

'Eggs is Eggs', Pen and Watercolour on Paper

One thing is certain after looking back over the past few months in the cases of both the drawings, their titles and the text that accompanies them it seems my mind has become preoccupied with idioms. The drawing itself was initially to be a brief nod to that age old question, which came first the chicken of the egg? particularly relevant when you factor in that yesterday's drawing was of a chicken of sorts. However rather than get into a debate about causality I went for the more idiomatic approach, I think I've begun to understand why this is of late as well. As I mentioned before when I choose what to draw for the day either the subject of the writing dictates that which is drawn or vice versa. In the cases of these idiomatic expressions, whether used as the title to spark the dialogue contained or as the starting point for the drawing, the link between something that is visually familiar and something that is verbally connected helps to give the drawings an extra meaning, allows them to be more relevant and provides an insight into how we connect the dots between one thought and another seemingly distinct thought... something that I think is important in deciphering and understanding any art work that we come in contact with.

Day 80

.'Counting Chickens', Pen and Marker on Paper

A few days ago I spoke very briefly about our penchant for dreaming and there was something that I forgot to comment on which came to mind today. It stems from how sometimes when we have those dreams and goals that we really want to achieve, we can fall foul of allowing ourselves to get carried away and lost in assuming something will happen before it's even begun. We often have a plan worked out in our head of how things will go, with each step of the plan smoothly transitioning into the next and following along with our preconceived outcomes for each stage. However in practice things don't ever really run as smoothly as we first envision, instead we hit numerous obstacles, we loose our way and in a lot of cases the whole thing can fall apart in our hands. The problem is rather than being logical, methodical and prepared for any outcome we tend to be too assuming. We always assume things will go exactly as we need them to and that every thing will neatly fall into its place when the fact is things aren't ever as easy as they first seem. I think again it is one of those inevitable things that is inherent in all of us that causes us to be this way, as a result we will always tend to plan what were doing next before we've even accomplished what we originally set out to do. It's something that can be a little dangerous as the further ahead we plan the more obstacles we are going to have to face to get there. Instead for me I prefer to try and be a little more of a spur of the moment person, it lends to a more chaotic existence of course... but if I have no chickens to count I don't have to worry about them hatching.

Day 79

'Henry', Pen and Marker on Paper

Not really much of a reason for the drawing today other than the fact that I just wanted it to be a little less intensive than the last few. The more detailed studies can take up a lot of time so up to this point where I don't find myself willing to invest a lot of time in the drawing I'll look at doing something more simple. This has meant that thus far in the project those are normally the days wherein I choose to work in pen and marker and also are normally still life drawings. It has also meant that I've pretty much catalogued most of the contents of my house over the last 79 days and I'm now rapidly running out of interesting objects to draw within my home. I think then over the next week or so I'm going to have to think more about the types of things that I can draw on those days that I don't really have the motivation or want to spend a few hours on drawing... well it's either that or buy more stuff.

Day 78

'Statue City Hall Belfast', Pen on Paper

Keeping things simple today and working from some of the images I took recently, the drawing is of part of one of the statues at the side of Belfast City Hall, to be more precise the memorial to Queen Victoria. The memorial was erected to celebrate the monarch's jubilee, built by Thomas Brock and unveiled by King Edward VII on 27 July 1903. On each side at the base of the statue are two life-size bronze figures, one of which is the subject of today's drawing, after reading up a little on the statue it is said that the figures represent spinning and shipbuilding respectively. Also at the back is a bronze figure of a child which is thought to represent education.

Day 77

'Harebrained' Pen on Paper

I had been thinking today about how people have a tendency to be dreamers, we all have things that we want to do with our life yet normally find a way of not realising them. This could be as we don't have enough confidence in our ability to succeed, we may not have the necessary funds or know how, we may have chosen to let go of our dreams as we get older and become more rational or it could just merely be that the idea is just too far fetched to conceivably work. For me I see these harebrained schemes that we formulate as a necessity they help us to distance ourselves from monotony, they give us something to aim for even if we never truly get to where we want to be and most of all they can give us that hope that things can be different. There are also those few instances where it can lead to something extraordinary, if you think back over all the things that man has accomplished at one point or another they were just crackpot ideas floating around the mind of a dreamer. It's important to some times get carried away by our flights of fancy as although there is always that feeling that we shoot for the stars only to fall face first in the dirt, there is always that possibility that we can actually achieve what we've always wanted to... it's only really our own limitations that normally stand in our way.

Day 76

'Albert Clock Face Detail'

Following on from yesterday I was looking again at some of the familiar places in and around Belfast, today specifically the Albert Clock down near Custom House Square, even more specifically the clock face of the Albert Clock down near Custom House Square. I think possibly when I have more time I may do a study of the whole structure and the surrounding area for now though I wanted to focus on a smaller area so I could do something a little more detailed. There's not much more to say today really so think I'll just let the drawing be a drawing for now and be back to my usual rambling self in the next few days.

Day 75

'Somewhere in Belfast', Pencil on Paper

Had the day off and thought I'd spend some time taking some photographs, something that I mentioned just a few days ago that I was hoping to do more, today just seemed like a great opportunity to get things moving. The reason for today's 'draw' was mostly that I feel that a few of the drawings of late haven't been the strongest, mainly as I've been trying to shoe horn something that can take a little time to get right into the space of 20 mins. With the free time at my disposal today I figured after taking a few photographs, that I would put aside a few hours and do a more detailed study. The reason being after some of the landscape drawing I did before I found that this was the type of work that I enjoyed most, the process of recording a moment that has just occurred, in a place that is recognisable. The thing I find most interesting with drawing a place that's instantly recognisable is that any person viewing that image will have some sort of connection, memory or association with that place, meaning that it makes the work more personal to them in that they already have a relationship with the place that is depicted. The power of an image in evoking an emotional response is integral to the impact that it has, the greater a connection or response that an image can generate the more impact it has and as a result the greater its resonance. I think that this then is what most people consider when creating a drawing, painting, sculpture, song, film or any creative project, the impact it will have initially and for just how long will it be remembered and revered by those that have seen it.

Day 74

'Good Darts', Pen and Water Colour on Paper

For anyone who is not too familiar with Darts, the term 'good darts' is something that people often shout whilst playing to acknowledge a good score by who ever is playing. The only reason for this today was basically that I fell things have been going reasonably well so far with the 365 Draws, I'm on day 74 meaning I'm about a fifth of the way there, which is strange if it was anything like any of the other resolutions or commitments I made to myself in the past it would be long forgotten by now... luckily though this is something that seems destined to not share a similar fate. There is a little more I want to say on this but will leave it until tomorrow, with having the day off I'll be able to elaborate a bit more and bring to light a few new opportunities.

Day 73

'Under the Weather', Pen and Marker on Paper

Today's is just a quick concept for a possible t-shirt design again, born out of the fact that I actually am rather under the weather at the moment. So going to keep this fairly minimal for the moment but may try and talk a little more about this tomorrow after some much needed rest.

With the much needed rest accomplished figured I would come back to this as promised... although I still feel fairly awful. There have been a few drawings so far that I haven't been completely happy with and think that this could have done with a little more development, in saying this though it is just a basic concept. On day 73 it was just a case that I had to either get the drawing done and dusted before I physically collapsed due to being both exhausted and ill simultaneously. It's crazy how quickly illness can creep up on you, the day before I felt absolutely fresh so basically in the space of one night of slumber my whole body decided to pretty much attempt to give up on itself. For the last few days I wasn't a completely functioning person, every part of me hurt, the construction of a simple sentences was like trying to build a desk out of dry sand and my sinuses felt like they had been packed with meat. What I'm saying probably seems like a complete exaggeration but when it happens to you it's always the worst anyone has ever felt ever. When it's someone else that is sick it's nothing compared to the last time you were sick as it is the worst anyone has ever felt ever... fact. I think we tend to ham it up quite a lot when were sick in a bid to get some sympathy as when other people fuss over us it helps to give you that little bit of a pick me up you sometimes need. There is definitely a fine line though between acting sick enough to get a little sympathy and just plain pushing your luck, n saying this though there is nothing quite as bad as getting sick to knock the wind out of your sails so here's looking forward to a speedy recovery so that I can get my second wind and keep on course for the remainder of the 365 draws of the year.   

Day 72

'A picture lasts longer', Pen on Paper

I've always thought that I don't take enough photographs and whilst taking more photographs at this point is more to do with helping to give me more things to draw, I do see it as something  that I would like to do more anyway. For the purposes of this project it will obviously give me more ammunition for the drawings themselves and as the project progresses will allow me to document and experiment with different ideas and concepts in relation to the final proposed outcomes. Which sort of leads onto the reason why I feel I should take more photographs in general that being that it is a good way of documenting and capturing many of the moments that happen throughout our life time. The moments that we share with friends and family, the moments that years down the line when thumbing our way through old photo albums it will serve to give us a "that was the time when..." feeling. The type of feeling that plays to that sentimental side inherent in all of us and causes us to affectionately reminisce of a time when we were a little younger and by all accounts a little wilder.

Day 71

'Haven't got the time so this will go here', Pen on Paper

Over the last few months I have looked a lot at the objects and spaces that I inhabit as a means by which to generate a subject matter for the drawings. Also in a few of the recent draws I looked more at the space inhabited by someone else, something that I decided to do again today. The drawing is of an area in one of the other rooms in the house occupied by my house-mate, it brought to mind a similar notion to one I mentioned before, that being how we leave our mark on a space. In this case though I was thinking more about how in a space we try and arrange like things in one place so that they are easier to find and it all has some sort of relevance and structure. One thing that does happen though is over time other objects tend to slowly encroach on the clearly defined areas that we previously masked out, either as we are in a hurry and don't put things back in their exact place or there is just more stuff in our room than there used to be and it has to go somewhere. I have a feeling also that space will become more and more relevant over the course of this project especially as it nears its end. The reason I say this is that as it gets closer to its resolution I will need to consider exactly how the objects I have created, that being the drawings, inhabit the space that they have been designated, that being possibly in a gallery space or even in the pages of a book... inevitably than the notion of space is going to become more prominent.

Day 70

'Everything but the Kitchen Sink?' Pen on Paper

It's been one of those weeks that makes me realise that things only seem to go wrong at the most inopportune moments, nothing ever falls apart until the point that you really need everything to stay together the most. It brings to mind that old saying, which I have decided to modify for the modern cynical times we live in, that now reads that 'it never rains but it rains shit'. I say this as for some reason it's never just one thing that goes wrong, instead it's a series of ever increasingly unfortunate events that leaves you disorientated, distraught and unable to comprehend just how it got to this point and how in the hell you can manage to cope with it. What makes these events more devastating is that they normally catch us unaware after a period of prolonged contentment. The ability to recover from having things explode in an instant is anything but, instead it takes time to piece everything back together and get yourself on an even keel again. Due to the nature of how this phenomenon takes place it means that it is something that we will never be able to avoid or be prepared enough that it doesn't faze us. However there is a certain type of resilience inherent in all of us that helps us to find some way to deal with those times when things collapse around us. To refer to something I actually spoke about quite recently with regards to the coping mechanisms we use to deal with problems, is that finding the way to deal with any problem is normally born out of experience. Now to refer to something I spoke about many 'draws' ago as well is how, 'nothing is a waste of time if we use the experience wisely', so then when life throws everything but the kitchen sink at us it's by calling on our own experiences, the experiences of those around us and the experiences that we are just being subjected to that we understand just how exactly we can cope and re enter a new prolonged period of contentment.    

Day 69

'Bird of Pray', Pencil,Pen and Marker on Paper

Taking inspiration today from another literary device, the homophone, a word that sounds the same but is spelt differently or in some cases spelt the same but has a different meaning. The drawing then is a visual representation of how two different meanings can be construed or evoked when a homophonic word is used as part of a statement. It also references a conversation I had earlier today which made me realise that religion is something that is intensely serious yet highly ludicrous at the same time. I'm not a religious person in any sense of the word but can understand the allure to some people but it's just something that's not really for me. I don't have any problem with those that believe in a higher power either, well for the most part, as I feel that people can choose to believe what they want and if believing in a God or an omnipotent being is what makes them happy... then that's what they should do. There are only two real issues that I have with religion both of which are born out of this notion of  faith and whilst I understand faith to be a powerful and wonderful thing, when combined with religion it's something that can be easily abused. As I said previously I have no problem with accepting what other people believe, however what religious faith does is cause that person to presume that everyone else should believe the exact same thing that they do and this is problem number one that I have with organised religion. Whilst I have the ability to understand that someone has the right to believe what ever the hell they want, however ridiculous it may seem to me, it is not a notion that's reciprocal. This often leads to being smothered with ideologies that all seem to hinge on highlighting how terrible a person we are, essentially attempting to coerce us into becoming a believer by preying on our own personal insecurities and fears. Problem number two isn't too far removed from the previous problem in that again it revolves around the notion of religious faith, the issue being how it causes so much intolerance. Whilst at the heart of most religions I'm aware of there seems to be a concept of loving 'thy fellow man' it would seem that this is only the case if they believe what you believe. All religions seem to have the stance that what they say and do is what's right, anything else is an abomination and as such is to be treated as being different, to be viewed as wrong. To me then it seems like faith is capable of uniting the people but when coupled with religion it only lends to dividing the masses.

Day 68

'In Historics', Pen and Marker on Paper

Following on from yesterday decided to toy about with the use of malapropisms, that being the substitution of a word for another word similar in sound but one that causes the resulting phrase to be nonsensical, yet hilarious... especially when you hear someone else do it. There's not really much else to say other than I think this will be something I want to do a little more over the next short while in order to take a break from the more lengthy studies I'd done over the past few weeks, this should go some way as to helping me to adjust to the much tighter time-scale I've had recently... also hopefully kick start my brain which seems to be running a little slow of late in terms of coming up with ideas for new studies and drawings.

Day 67

'Still Stationary', Pen and Marker on Paper

Back to something a little more light hearted as I think I've been a little negative of late and as the old adage goes some change will do you good. I'm returning back to this notion of wordplay utilising puns, homophones, malapropisms and a multitude of different literary terms to create those drawings with that so bad it's good style of humour that I've utilised in some of my earlier work. The sentiment of today's drawing although primarily a joke is still fairly poignant when given it its intended meaning, it is reference to something that we all do when we have a passionate interest in something. When we realise we have a talent or skill that we get great enjoyment out of we tend to want to 'push the envelope', to take our performance in that particular area as far as possible and when we get there continue to improve. As I see it there are two interlinked problems that we face when we are trying to become better at something, the first being ourselves and the second being the limitations generated by ourselves during our progress. We normally tend to be our own harshest critic and as a result are always finding fault in everything we do the result being to cause us to push that little harder, to adjust those things that we identify as doing wrong and to constantly re-evaluate our performance. Think of the process of improvement as scale with you at it's centre keeping it in equilibrium, behind you is where you have been in front is where you are heading to. Now as we begin to move forward and get better what happens as a result of our tendency to be very critical is that we can always identify ways in which we can improve and areas that we need to develop more. What this means is that the scale I asked you to imagine is ever expanding with us seemingly staying central between the amount of experience we have gained and the amount we have yet to attain and pass on. The result of this is that in a way we are stationary in that no matter how far we push ourselves there is always something more to achieve, so seemingly we never get exactly to where we want to be. This is by no means a bad thong though as what it does is ensure that we keep developing, that we keep learning and we remain passionate about those things that we truly love doing.

Day 66

'Organisational Ills', Pen and Marker on Paper

Of Late I have really been suffering from not being able to keep up to date with the text aspect of the blog, mainly as I still haven't got to grips with the new shift patterns I'm on at work. As I alluded to before my organisational skills were not great before I began this project and it seem that I'm suffering from a case of 'organisational ills' at the moment. The main problem is that if I fall slightly behind one day just from being exhausted than I have twice as much writing to do the next day, as a result I end up working late into the night to catch up which in turn leaves me further exhausted and unable to get up early the next day to attempt to get myself back on track. It's something that I really need to attempt to get on top of in the next few days as if I don't I'll only fall more behind and I think the best way to do this is by planning out the week a bit better and building some sort of routine, the result of which will be adjusting and adapting much more quickly to my new time scale.

Day 65

 'Coping Mechanism', Pencil on Paper

Some recent events have caused me to think more about something I touched on before, that being how we deal with problems and situations that we find difficult, namely the coping mechanism that we put in place. We all have our own way of dealing with those situations that we find hard to cope with for whatever reason whether it be that we attempt to put on a brave face and laugh through it, we may shoulder the blame even when it's not our fault as the feeling of repenting is cathartic, we may shift the blame onto someone else when we are responsible for fear that people will view us differently, It may even be the case that we ignore the issue burying the problem deep down hoping that it will solve itself. For any of the multitude of concepts that we can dream up to cope with a situation it is only by acknowledging and confronting the issue that we can be absolved of it. If we do not confront the issue it instead festers from within, slowly infecting our psyche with doubts, insecurities, stresses and a despondency that begins to intrude on other aspects of our lives and the lives of those around us as a result of the noticeable shift in our disposition. It is important as with solving any basic problem that you have the right tools for the job, which in this case are mostly born out of experience. At that moment when you realise that you are indeed in a position that you no longer wish to be in, you normally confide in those people around you to help justify our actions, we ask advice and consul of those that have went through a similar fate or we seek professional advice in an attempt to come out the other side still intact. In short we are capable of creating and solving problems fairly quickly it is just unfortunate that sometimes we can choose the wrong way to begin to deal with it, meaning that it can take a lot longer than it should to come to a resolution.      

Day 64

'All my Spark has Gone', Pen on Paper

After being out last night and returning home at some point early this morning It was fair to say that I was a little worse for wear for most of the morning, actually for pretty much all of today I was just about hanging together. It was definitely a case of 'all my spark being gone' the unfortunate thing about it all was that a good friend of mine from back home was making his way to Belfast in order to head out again. The impact of this was, to quote an old friend, that I needed to 'put my hand up my arse and pull myself together' understandably not the most pleasant of images but is hopefully blunt enough to get across just how difficult a feat that would actually be. It still amazes me how even though every time we have a drink, well copious amounts of the stuff anyway, that there is always that possibility that when we wake up the next day that we will have a hangover of epic proportions but we do so anyway. It's the kind of hangover where our brain feels like it's reverberating like a humming birds wings in the confined space that is our cranium, the kind where the mere thought of sustenance passing our lips is enough to cause us to dry wretch so violently we almost lose a lung, the kind of hangover that completely shatters our ability to carry out the simplest of tasks as our motor skills are now seemingly non existent... in short those times where the only way that it will stop hurting is when you curl into the foetal position and slip into a self induced coma until your body forgives you enough to stop tormenting you. Today was definitely one of those days and even with the thought that tomorrow I could go through it all again I did in fact pull myself together long enough to eat some food, crack open a beer and start the whole process all over again... I guess there really are some things that you'll just never learn, not even the hard way.

Day 63

'Some Place Else', Pen on Paper

Knew I was going to be subjected to a  fairly tight time-scale today as I was heading out straight after work to celebrate a friends birthday so I would have had no real time during or after work to fit the drawing in. I had to then attempt to carve a window of time that I could spend in one place, mostly uninterrupted and with some sort of subject matter in order to make sure to get a drawing done. That specific place just so happened to be actually called.... 'Place' the Architecture and Built Environment Centre for Northern Ireland and it's where one of my house-mates happens to work. The environment and space that surrounds me daily has been a common subject matter in much of the drawings that I've done thus far, although it has usually been the space that I have a more direct interaction with rather than that of someone else. This would be one of the the few places I would be for a fixed length of time today so it just seemed to make sense on a few different levels to incorporate it in the drawing process. After finishing today's drawing it also brought to mind a previous project I worked on when I first started studying fine Art at the Art College in Belfast. It involved looking at other people in a space, the things they brought to it and how they occupied that space on a daily basis, which mostly came about as a result of the limited space that was available to everyone. It was interesting to me to see how people negotiated with the space available and made their own identifying marks to label their area and it was something that I figured would lend itself to more exploration... the only issue with it was that someone else also had almost exactly the same idea. So in the first few weeks the work I was doing altered drastically as I attempted to distance myself from the idea, in saying this though there was a logic to the process and the direction it pushed me in was much more interesting than the initial concept. I went from drawing the people and the space, to defining the space in layers to create layered drawings on translucent paper, from this I moved to begin drawing the objects in the space in the same way de-constructing them and rebuilding them in layers, this then led to using the objects in the space to draw images of the objects in the space to eventually building objects that would create their own drawings in the space.In fact the notion of creating objects that draw by themselves has continued to be a major factor in my art practice and something that I continually revisit. Perhaps from what I've just written it is possibly to incur then that sometimes a choice made out of some element of necessity can lead to something more interesting, something more poignant and something that will continue to affect us in the future.

Day 62

'Baseball', Pen and Marker on Paper

I remember hearing once that a curve-ball in Baseball was technically against the laws of physics/gravity and not just once either it's something that I heard repeatedly and from various sources, although as far as I can understand this is not true. It's strange how we pick up little bits of information from everyday conversations and experiences and without verifying them we for the most part believe them to be fact. It's then something that we recall at a later time normally as a way of generating a conversation, seeming more knowledgeable about something than we actually are and sometimes it's merely that the fact we are recalling is mildly amusing enough to have a good old laugh at. I find that I tend to absorb this ultimately trivial information at an alarming rate as well like my brain is one gigantic, porous amorphous blob enveloping all it comes in contact with. I sometimes worry that the more useless and insignificant things that I cram into my brain, that the more it causes the important things that I've learned to be hidden or smothered by the vacuous tripe that now occupies the space that it previously inhabited. Throughout our lives we learn a lot of things, we process an almost unfathomable amount of information and unless it's information that we use on a daily basis we also forget quite a lot of it as well. The mind is a wonderfully complex and confounding thing capable of aiding us in either achieving brilliance or suffering at the hands of our own stupidity. However one thing is for certain our penchant for curiosity means that we will be constantly overloading our minds with as mush stimuli and new information as we can possible consume... otherwise who's going to be able to regale you with such gems as the Roman Emperor Caligula was said to have once tried to make his horse Incitatus a consul, the highest elected office of the Roman Republic, when I read that for the first time I almost laughed myself hoarse, apologies but I couldn't resist.

Day 61

'Cutting all ties', Pen and Watercolour on Paper

Had the opportunity to attend a conference today about creative industries and innovation and I have to say that there were a lot of important and compelling ideas and notions being discussed. A lot of those ideas alluded to the level of  segregation that exists on what I see as being three levels. Firstly the local community, being those that are affected directly, secondly the creative industries, being those that are involved in doing, Thirdly the local government, being those that make the decisions. Theses three areas, although ultimately linked and in need of a more symbiotic relationship to thrive, tend to exist very separately. In the talk there were a lot of examples of how certain advocates and groups were attempting to create initiatives that aimed to mediate between these factions and allow for greater integration and a more collaborative approach to inhabiting and using public space. This Idea of integration was further discussed in regards to something that is becoming much more prevalent, that being the cross pollination within the various disciplines with in the creative industries. It would appear that the overall idea of integration  is one that provides a new more innovative way to approach a problem as rather than the decision making process falling on one entity, the room for discussion between disciplines and those involved allows for a more unified approach, one that can be more unique... in some cases even one that can be more radical and exciting. 

In my mind the main obstacle with becoming more integrated is history, what I mean by this is that within any segregated relationship there exists a long standing notion of animosity as all sides see each other as separate, different and unable to understand their own personal views. To put this into context I want to refer to something I once heard in an address to a group of new architecture students, when the speaker talked to them about the possibilities for their future he spoke of opportunity, success and the idea of legacy. The particular point he mentioned that I want to bring to the forefront was that Belfast as a city could stake its main claim to fame on the 'Titanic' a ship that sank on its maiden voyage. Belfast's main draw for tourism, the one thing above all else that Belfast is renowned for, the thing that it prides itself on was in fact an epic and tragic failure. I thought at the time this was a very poignant point one that came to mind again today as it would seem that when we think back about our heritage and our history the most prevalent aspects that we recall are those of a negative nature. It is then reflected in what I mentioned earlier with regards to the issues of history in any relationship where segregation has been a factor. Due to our inclination to hold on to antiquated views and our inability to overlook past transgressions we can become unwilling to move forward. It is important then that we develop the ability to 'cut all ties' with the negative aspects of history, I don't mean that we should completely forget about the past instead I'm merely inferring that we learn from it and move on.  The reason being that if we are unable to get over those initial barriers that can be caused by this previous negativity or animosity then we run the risk of being cemented in a creative or social impasse, severely limiting our ability to innovate.

Day 60

'Coffee', Pen and Marker on Paper

Another day, another draw and another new month so I thought I'd start this month the same way I normally start my day... with a little coffee. It's funny how when we wake up in the morning our eyes full of sleep, our hair looking like it tried to escape our head and almost every part of our body drained of any traces of enthusiasm or vigour, that we all have our own little rituals that aim to give us that metaphorical kick up the arse we all need. We set our alarms slightly earlier than we need to so that we can repeatedly hit the snooze button and catch an extra few short bursts of nutritious sleep. We have the heating cranked to the max for the exact time that we need to get up so that when we throw ourselves dazed and reckless from our bed the surrounding environment has acclimatised itself to out specific requirements. We stumble out of rooms tripping over the discarded garments from the night before, aiming towards the shower in order to prop ourselves against its walls, our arms outstretched, head slumped over as if our neck can barely hold up its weight in a stance that resembles an incredible drunk man struggling to take a piss in a urinal. The shower goes some way as to freshening the body but stimulation of the mind is needed, enter coffee, that sweet... sweet feeling of getting that caffeine buzz on in the morning is a great thing. Once we've officially kick started our minds and jumped started our bodies we then rely on any number of things to keep us in the mind set that we need to get through the day. However these are inconsequential if all the other little steps in the process that lead to our complete awakening don't go off without a hitch. The slightest deviation from our routine can cause us numerous frustrations like being late, forgetting something important or generally it can just really piss us off. It's important then that we get the day off to a good start as when we don't it has a major affect on the rest of our day and if were not careful those around us too. Getting off to a bad start can be difficult to recover from, luckily though  there's always tomorrow so we do have another opportunity to get things next time... or make a complete balls of them all over again.