A year ago was the beginning of when I started to thoroughly think a lot of things through to be able to define my outlook on life properly. Due to a project idea someone had wanted my collaboration with which
had a load of exciting potential to be artistically and culturally
provocative, my head was full of alternative thoughts, The exciting, crazier ideas were meant to develop a film project to appeal to a more edgy community. I was getting further from conventional with a kind of permanent over excited hyperactive state of mind and frustration with ordinary living, aware I was being too surreal in my creativity and wanted
to suppress that too irreverent thinking to be less out
there but I was relishing it at the time, it was putting lots of new information and ideas into my head.. As it happened, the person who came up with the idea had no motivation for this so it came to nothing: great pity as I thought it was a marvellous idea but it's maybe best left alone. As I said in a previous post I was quite demoralised with other things so this was a great focus for my attention and distracted me from any lethargy I felt, though when you're needing inspired it's hard to put what there is of your energy towards getting someone else directed to something that's stirred your own imagination.
Last year there was someone who instigated me to realign my focus - I was concerned he'd think of me as a dilettante with crazy ideas, which I can be but it's predominantly not me, I'm too focused - or so I'd like to think :) He showed me there were still motivated people like I was used to
growing up and not just feckers - most people are content plodding on
and don't have a structure or direction. So I started working on my business brain to develop a route to get where I wanted to be instead of making and taking opportunities as they arose or I had time and imagination to develop them. I've achieved focus on styling and have theories about the psychology of fashion which make sense to me.
I've looked back and realised the effect situations have had on life. Through these situations changing my perspective I've experienced confusion and seen how making the best of bad circumstances changes your focus: you go with new ideas and plans because they have potential at the time. But I didn't want to be too surreal and lose any ability to relate to people on a normal level, which can be easy to do if you open your mind up and get frustrated by closed minds. I wanted to be predominantly business like rather than arty farty dilletante.
As I had a very professional class background, my parents living a non arty consumer lifestyle and living in middle class Bearsden where the expectation was after school you'd go to uni to study English, medicine, psychology or something similar. My upbringing alongside my imagination made it quite
difficult to resolve conflict between the two states if mind, and
without courses or structure to develop a career plan I had to make it
up as I went along, which has been great fun but the lack of trajectory has been frustrating, but in hindsight I wouldn't change it given the experiences I've had and the people I've met. I've had to rely on my creative talents because I missed so much school - when you're channeled one way but you instinctively want to go another and you're not in the optimum environment to make it successful it's frustrating.
Now my business brain has centred it all and brought focus to the sometimes frenetic creativity. Too much mental stimulation can sometimes cause confusion, not knowing where to start or
what to do with the ideas. I've made sense of it now . I can take my
creativity seriously and now want to be professional and in some ways a
conventional professional. I thrive on productive stress and hate stress I get with unproductive frustration.
Combining my desire for cultural and societal development I'm thinking how to conceive a progressive independent business, by taking our current conventional structure and figure out how to work independently beyond and around it to succeed independently. That's where I'm at now and finding out there are a lot more like minded people than I'd previously thought, and that there are larger support networks for these micro businesses. I reckon this whole process has been about trying to put ideas into a workable framework, having to figure it out as you go along because the concept of microbusinesses in this currently scale is fairly new after so many people deciding to do their own thing after the economic crash. I think a lot of us are having to find our feet and our direction. I feel much more confident about my capabilities and my clear route forward which is fantastic :)
Monday, 30 May 2016
Wednesday, 18 May 2016
Checkmate Fashion Show
Eris confronts the reality in a power struggle for everyman. The queen beats her opposition and releases the energy in people to achieve the potency of their own lives. The premise is the battle between the creative and corporate consumerism which the creatives ultimately win and take control of their future.
Exciting Scottish designers are showcasing their talent in an exciting performance fashion show. There will be a retail area so you can buy directly from designers on the night.
Buy your tickets from Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/checkmate-tickets-25693394635
Monday, 16 May 2016
Creative Therapy
Being creative can make someone a happier person by enabling them to express their ideas instead of facilitating someone else's. It has a beneficial impact on ego and self belief by enabling a level of productivity and accomplishment through a tangible body of work other people can appreciate.
By developing precision skills and creating something of value while taking pleasure in the creative process itself, developing a portfolio which pleases the maker and is admired by other people you get a fundamental self satisfaction which boosts the ego and can go beyond that to enhancing self belief in abilities and talent.
Creative thinkers enjoy challenges, analysing and coming up with an interpretation of something. By thinking outside the box your life can work much better for you.
Thinking ambitiously and creatively enables new opportunities, although in our commercial business focused world it can be difficult to make progress as quickly as you might like. There's too much empirical control for a real free market so we end up with a bottleneck and unfulfilled achievers. The example I can site best is the Scottish creative industry where it's fragmented, unorganised and very few people can slip through the bottleneck to move away from the part time jobs and make a good living doing something interesting which would really benefit the economy. Sourcing designers for fashion shows disappoints me as I find many talented people who have gone through university and have brilliant conceptual ideas working in the fashion industry only as a sales assistant or visual merchandiser, not being able to fulfill their creativity but falling in line with an old fashioned structure, following someone else's lead, not developing ideas and new concepts. We need investment to enable big projects to allow greater economic growth beyond retail.
This is a high cost country, so we need high cost companies investing but in addition to big ideas we need solid business plans. As stated in this article, historically too often tricks are missed; as it states "offering a way out of our decaying industrial past, a pathway from an old world to a new" we need to keep progressing to find new ways of doing things as the old world fades and "Scotland could break free of its old economy shackles" if only we consistently had faith in our abilities. Sometimes I really wonder why the government doesn't try to attract new high end industry, though I understand the established method of control. It would be anarchy if people were being entrepreneurial and making good money and getting leisure time en masse and actually having power to run their own lives rather than staying safely in their routines and behaving quietly.. Truly, anarchy is not rebellious bad behaviour, it's progress beyond the established control; thinking for yourself and growing your life the way you want, not in the construct deemed desirable for all.
It's high time to reject the current wearing you out at work lifestyles, ie work your ass off for a meagre reward and get pissed, the quick route to finding your own headspace and feeling slightly rebellious again. The twisted psychology of the system has a negative effect on everyone and consumerism is exploitation of the ego. We now have lots of means of self expression, it's time to move it up a level to the next stage of consciousness beyond ego-driven self expression through image.
Modern life can't give people the opportunities to live their lives their own way eg choosing suitable and enjoyable jobs with sensible hours as then then they wouldn't be controlled and would have time to think. Controlling people doesn't utilise capabilities to best effect and makes for a lot of dissatisfaction.
You've got to work out how to renegotiate your way through this greed world to stay independent: to me that means being as self sufficient as possible and making authority irrelevant. Being creative in its many forms can help you see what your talents are and utilise these to become this self sufficient person who doesn't rely on approval to have self belief. Investing in your independent thoughts is investing in the control of your future.
By developing precision skills and creating something of value while taking pleasure in the creative process itself, developing a portfolio which pleases the maker and is admired by other people you get a fundamental self satisfaction which boosts the ego and can go beyond that to enhancing self belief in abilities and talent.
Creative thinkers enjoy challenges, analysing and coming up with an interpretation of something. By thinking outside the box your life can work much better for you.
Thinking ambitiously and creatively enables new opportunities, although in our commercial business focused world it can be difficult to make progress as quickly as you might like. There's too much empirical control for a real free market so we end up with a bottleneck and unfulfilled achievers. The example I can site best is the Scottish creative industry where it's fragmented, unorganised and very few people can slip through the bottleneck to move away from the part time jobs and make a good living doing something interesting which would really benefit the economy. Sourcing designers for fashion shows disappoints me as I find many talented people who have gone through university and have brilliant conceptual ideas working in the fashion industry only as a sales assistant or visual merchandiser, not being able to fulfill their creativity but falling in line with an old fashioned structure, following someone else's lead, not developing ideas and new concepts. We need investment to enable big projects to allow greater economic growth beyond retail.
This is a high cost country, so we need high cost companies investing but in addition to big ideas we need solid business plans. As stated in this article, historically too often tricks are missed; as it states "offering a way out of our decaying industrial past, a pathway from an old world to a new" we need to keep progressing to find new ways of doing things as the old world fades and "Scotland could break free of its old economy shackles" if only we consistently had faith in our abilities. Sometimes I really wonder why the government doesn't try to attract new high end industry, though I understand the established method of control. It would be anarchy if people were being entrepreneurial and making good money and getting leisure time en masse and actually having power to run their own lives rather than staying safely in their routines and behaving quietly.. Truly, anarchy is not rebellious bad behaviour, it's progress beyond the established control; thinking for yourself and growing your life the way you want, not in the construct deemed desirable for all.
It's high time to reject the current wearing you out at work lifestyles, ie work your ass off for a meagre reward and get pissed, the quick route to finding your own headspace and feeling slightly rebellious again. The twisted psychology of the system has a negative effect on everyone and consumerism is exploitation of the ego. We now have lots of means of self expression, it's time to move it up a level to the next stage of consciousness beyond ego-driven self expression through image.
Modern life can't give people the opportunities to live their lives their own way eg choosing suitable and enjoyable jobs with sensible hours as then then they wouldn't be controlled and would have time to think. Controlling people doesn't utilise capabilities to best effect and makes for a lot of dissatisfaction.
You've got to work out how to renegotiate your way through this greed world to stay independent: to me that means being as self sufficient as possible and making authority irrelevant. Being creative in its many forms can help you see what your talents are and utilise these to become this self sufficient person who doesn't rely on approval to have self belief. Investing in your independent thoughts is investing in the control of your future.
New Phase
So, as this new phase of life goes on I've got a fantastic level of energy I've not had for years. A year ago I felt I was surrounded by derogatory and defeatist people.and stuck in a frustrating rut, a cage environment I
couldn't work my way out of. I was very demoralised and had to think myself out of the
situation. In addition to that, due to being on prophylactic antibiotics for decades my gut bacteria balance has been pretty bad and has eventually developed into Candida overgrowth which has caused me to be terribly itchy all over and I think caused fatigue. That's at long last being treated effectively and just over a week after starting a low dose long term course of capsules, in addition to me changing my diet to make it much more acidic, my energy levels came back, as in MY energy levels - don't stop till I drop - and I feel so much better it's wonderful.
Now I feel at long last my life is making sense, everything's coming together - I've got fantastic clarity of thought, all my various creative talents have their place and are complimenting one another, my health feels great and I've got smart, kind, forward thinking open minded friends..I've clarified what I want from and how romantic relationships fit in my life; what my expectations are and what expectations I feel content fulfilling. It's been an interesting process where some people show you what you really want by the experience of being with them being what you don't want. There was someone who motivated me by me perceiving him to be a reflection of how I wanted to be seen myself which helped me see focus on a way forward out of the de prefix place.
Health has always taken a battering, I feel I've lived my life back to front with the health problems at the beginning rather than the end of my life but although it's been hugely challenging many times I wouldn't change it because of the perspective and philosophy I've gained and developed through having to cope with difficult circumstances most youngsters don't usually have to deal with. Operated on the day I was born, only discharged at 4 months old, then I eventually went to Great Ormond Street hospital when I was 15 for some pretty heavy going surgery (not got a good waterworks system), and once recovered from that I was able to start living my life and didn't hesitate in getting on with it. There was more surgery in late 1999 with complications afterwards - adhesions and blood clots in my lungs. My wee body's been through an awful lot, as a result I massively value my health and independence though when I was in my teens and twenties establishing it on my terms was a challenge: because I'd been so cosseted being weak and namby pampied was the last thing I wanted as I grew up.
Throughout my life I've been creative: drawing, writing stories once I could write, making a load of different things like doll's furniture from cardboard boxes, tapestry, designing clothes and costumes, and designing and making silver jewellery, theatre set design, visual merchandising, running live events, fashion styling and costume design. My creative ability has always been great company by stopping me from being bored and I've been able to use my imagination a helluva lot. I was always full of energy - running about, cycling, dancing, playing football. I've always felt I'm in a race against time and hate being on the bottom rung of the ladder for more than five minutes, I've been so used to playing catch up and jumping stages of education I can manage to fill in the blanks fairly easily.
That was the good side, the bad side was being in and out is school so much and not having the self confidence which comes with being in an established friendship group. I was called ugly when I was in primary seven and it was only when I was in my late thirties after constant self scrutiny and evaluation that I realised I was fine, pretty even! I remember when i was 17 a magazine on my bedroom floor which had 'The Prettiest Girl In The World " written on the front cover, and my adorable boyfriend saw it and said "that's you.". I just thought yeah, if you say so... and didn't take it that it was a compliment I was justified to receive. Back in primary7 I was a Madonna fan and the song Over And Over inspired me to do better things with my life and show these other kids trying to bring me down that I'd be far and away better than them.
All my experiences have enabled me to think for myself well and truly outside the box. I've got a great understanding of my mind and body. I hugely dislike injustice and wish there were far better opportunities for everyone. I always disliked authority and I guess after visualising a better life I'm disappointed with how frustrating and controlled and mundane living is a lot of the time.
I've got an ability to compartmentalise some feelings to such an extent I'm not aware of them, such as if I'm depressed I will not feel unhappy unless I'm very very sorry for myself - I need to keep functioning, and depression will manifest in loss of appetite or sleeping a lot. I've developed great distraction techniques somehow. I have a high level of self awareness and such a free flowing imagination, and I think I've got great communication between my concsious and subconscious minds. Maybe so much time spent using my imagination as a child to keep myself entertained developed more effective and clear communication in my mind, and possibly all the meds I've been given in hospital such as anaesthetics and opiate painkillers have opened my mind and developed new neuro transmitters as well.
I've been making a silk purse out of a sow's ear my whole life. Most important thing is I've never given in and always strived to keep going.and I hope to inspire others through this blog.
Now I feel at long last my life is making sense, everything's coming together - I've got fantastic clarity of thought, all my various creative talents have their place and are complimenting one another, my health feels great and I've got smart, kind, forward thinking open minded friends..I've clarified what I want from and how romantic relationships fit in my life; what my expectations are and what expectations I feel content fulfilling. It's been an interesting process where some people show you what you really want by the experience of being with them being what you don't want. There was someone who motivated me by me perceiving him to be a reflection of how I wanted to be seen myself which helped me see focus on a way forward out of the de prefix place.
Health has always taken a battering, I feel I've lived my life back to front with the health problems at the beginning rather than the end of my life but although it's been hugely challenging many times I wouldn't change it because of the perspective and philosophy I've gained and developed through having to cope with difficult circumstances most youngsters don't usually have to deal with. Operated on the day I was born, only discharged at 4 months old, then I eventually went to Great Ormond Street hospital when I was 15 for some pretty heavy going surgery (not got a good waterworks system), and once recovered from that I was able to start living my life and didn't hesitate in getting on with it. There was more surgery in late 1999 with complications afterwards - adhesions and blood clots in my lungs. My wee body's been through an awful lot, as a result I massively value my health and independence though when I was in my teens and twenties establishing it on my terms was a challenge: because I'd been so cosseted being weak and namby pampied was the last thing I wanted as I grew up.
Throughout my life I've been creative: drawing, writing stories once I could write, making a load of different things like doll's furniture from cardboard boxes, tapestry, designing clothes and costumes, and designing and making silver jewellery, theatre set design, visual merchandising, running live events, fashion styling and costume design. My creative ability has always been great company by stopping me from being bored and I've been able to use my imagination a helluva lot. I was always full of energy - running about, cycling, dancing, playing football. I've always felt I'm in a race against time and hate being on the bottom rung of the ladder for more than five minutes, I've been so used to playing catch up and jumping stages of education I can manage to fill in the blanks fairly easily.
That was the good side, the bad side was being in and out is school so much and not having the self confidence which comes with being in an established friendship group. I was called ugly when I was in primary seven and it was only when I was in my late thirties after constant self scrutiny and evaluation that I realised I was fine, pretty even! I remember when i was 17 a magazine on my bedroom floor which had 'The Prettiest Girl In The World " written on the front cover, and my adorable boyfriend saw it and said "that's you.". I just thought yeah, if you say so... and didn't take it that it was a compliment I was justified to receive. Back in primary7 I was a Madonna fan and the song Over And Over inspired me to do better things with my life and show these other kids trying to bring me down that I'd be far and away better than them.
All my experiences have enabled me to think for myself well and truly outside the box. I've got a great understanding of my mind and body. I hugely dislike injustice and wish there were far better opportunities for everyone. I always disliked authority and I guess after visualising a better life I'm disappointed with how frustrating and controlled and mundane living is a lot of the time.
I've got an ability to compartmentalise some feelings to such an extent I'm not aware of them, such as if I'm depressed I will not feel unhappy unless I'm very very sorry for myself - I need to keep functioning, and depression will manifest in loss of appetite or sleeping a lot. I've developed great distraction techniques somehow. I have a high level of self awareness and such a free flowing imagination, and I think I've got great communication between my concsious and subconscious minds. Maybe so much time spent using my imagination as a child to keep myself entertained developed more effective and clear communication in my mind, and possibly all the meds I've been given in hospital such as anaesthetics and opiate painkillers have opened my mind and developed new neuro transmitters as well.
I've been making a silk purse out of a sow's ear my whole life. Most important thing is I've never given in and always strived to keep going.and I hope to inspire others through this blog.
Tuesday, 26 April 2016
BHS: From RIP to reinvented
Having been reading up on the demise of BHS this week, I wish I'd been able to buy it for £1, as Phillip Green did last year in the BHS takeover by Dominic Chappell. I appreciate The Guardian's view on BHS as it described and summed up the financial dealings behind the scenes as being "bang up to date, typifying the
ugly realities of the modern British way of doing business even if the retail aspect of the BHS story strikes a dated note." I have a huge dislike, like many people, of how big businesses operate to make the greedy rich even richer at the expense of the vast majority of people.
If I'd had the chance to buy it for £1 I'd have worked my vision and made it a truly British retailer. Imagine each branch with a brand identity as well as an individualism reflecting its local community. Stores stocking the company's own ranges of clothing, homeware etc as well as local designers work from clothing to jewellery to furniture. This would offer a platform to support business start ups, giving the established store a brand new innovative approach and a lot of unique stock, and really provide young companies with opportunities for development and growth. It's online store could work wonders, selling items made in Aberdeen to customers in Bristol, the way online selling should be done. That's how thinking outside the box should be done, as people are getting bored with the monotonous look of the high street and looking for individual style available online and creating their own identity, and that's the truer version of self expression.
Mary Portas has also written a piece about the issue, again from The Guardian :) saying she'd "add some small startups that are all young British makers or designers, housing them within a market place model and then you start a business with a point of view." I'm pleased I see myself thinking along the right lines it seems. Thinking like this needs to speed up and gain momentum now, not trickle slowly and be picked up by the next generation; collaboration needs to get a move on now and opportunities to take the means to accumulate more wealth for the super greedy need to be recognised and used by people who have the vision and imagination for an up to date version of retail and economy to begin.
If I'd had the chance to buy it for £1 I'd have worked my vision and made it a truly British retailer. Imagine each branch with a brand identity as well as an individualism reflecting its local community. Stores stocking the company's own ranges of clothing, homeware etc as well as local designers work from clothing to jewellery to furniture. This would offer a platform to support business start ups, giving the established store a brand new innovative approach and a lot of unique stock, and really provide young companies with opportunities for development and growth. It's online store could work wonders, selling items made in Aberdeen to customers in Bristol, the way online selling should be done. That's how thinking outside the box should be done, as people are getting bored with the monotonous look of the high street and looking for individual style available online and creating their own identity, and that's the truer version of self expression.
Mary Portas has also written a piece about the issue, again from The Guardian :) saying she'd "add some small startups that are all young British makers or designers, housing them within a market place model and then you start a business with a point of view." I'm pleased I see myself thinking along the right lines it seems. Thinking like this needs to speed up and gain momentum now, not trickle slowly and be picked up by the next generation; collaboration needs to get a move on now and opportunities to take the means to accumulate more wealth for the super greedy need to be recognised and used by people who have the vision and imagination for an up to date version of retail and economy to begin.
LIFEstyle
It's gonna get more interesting around here :D
Instead of focusing on style only I'm going to talk about what I think and feel could be improved in the creative world (and pondering life in general). I have a lot of thoughts constantly zooming around my head so instead of being just about styling this is going to consider the creative industry, creative business development and a bit of philosophy. Looking forward to conversing with yas :)
Instead of focusing on style only I'm going to talk about what I think and feel could be improved in the creative world (and pondering life in general). I have a lot of thoughts constantly zooming around my head so instead of being just about styling this is going to consider the creative industry, creative business development and a bit of philosophy. Looking forward to conversing with yas :)
Business
It's a really poor show now that the concept of being an entrepreneur means having the ability and gall to exploit others.
I'm seeing more often that businesses use the outdated business model of requiring (demanding?) cash up front from up & coming businesses. When the fledgling business is an artist or designer who has already made a financial commitment to produce their works surely it would be far more sensible to give them at least a period of grace before requiring cash deposits/rent to stock their goods? Instead it seems they've got to work twice as hard to continue producing and to meet extra financial overheads, and to do extra marketing which you might have thought would have been part of their rental package.
Time to have a rethink about modern business operations I think! it's all about the handover of cash and getting nothing in return, that's not business, that's greed.
To clarify, what I'm particularly thinking of is shop units in malls who charge high rents. If the rents were used to pay for good marketing then that would be ok (say a team of photographer, stylist etc) to produce good commercial images, that would be an indirect payment from designer to team to provide good images to enhance their brand.
Also, I'm thinking of shop units on Edinburgh's Royal Mile which are just turned into yet more tacky tourist outlets to make a quick quid. How about they were turned into shops to show the real face of Scotland - it's innate talent for contemporary design with some traditional references, it's productivity and that's it's genuinely inspiring. Rent free for a period to let the new business establish which is far better than having a unit lie empty. How much more attractive and inspiring would that be for travellers from all round the world to see than another Wee Jock ginger cap? Even if a loan system was in place rather than paying up front would make establishing a business more beneficial. Start-ups I'm thinking of are more likely to not succeed because of heavy outlays at the point of launch, and time taken up with covering costs instead of concentrating on the productivity. I believe the commitment to the business is demonstrated by years of college and financing the production of garments, music, jewellery etc so an initial financial outlay to secure premises should be waived for a grace period at lease.
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