creative identity and innovative thinking: July 2015

Friday 31 July 2015

Identity and Authorship

Here are three art works that I admire, and have inspired my final project:

The Calligrapher's Garden

By Hassan Massoudy

Is a collection of elegant Arabic calligraphy illustrations, picking up a key word from different Arabic, Turkish, Spanish and Japanese proverbs. The book has different colors of the four seasons; Greens, Blues, Yellows and Oranges and the calligraphy reflects the different seasons in its shapes.

My favorite of them all has to be: ‘If I am made of earth, this is my country entirely and all humans are my brothers’

Now Massoudy had different illustrations of this one, I am not sure why? But maybe it was one of his favorites as well, or maybe because it had more than one key word that is worth illustrating. (Earth, Human, Brothers)

In the book, the color or season picked out for this one was more in the fall reddish colors. In my opinion it can also relate to human blood. The strokes are quit thick and solid, showing solidarity in between humans, they are also over lapping showing the connection between humans and the oneness.

The First Grail

By Margaret Keane

In her own words Margaret Keane said "The eyes I draw on my children are an expression of my own deepest feelings. Eyes are windows of the soul."

Her personal life and story totally reflects in her paintings, the fact that for years her husband took credit for her work, she was sad and confused but let it happen in order to make a better life for her self and daughter.

Not only the sad big teary eyes give her emotions away, but also the settings in where the girl is standing, the light at the end of the tunnel is actually behind her and not ahead, and the tunnel is cold, dark and grey. The clothing of the girl seems to be dirty like she has been going through a lot.

The Desperate Man

By Gustave Courbet

Courbet has to be one of my favourite artists and favourite paintings. One of the masters of realism Courbet detailed painting of the desperate man, which is a self portrait, makes me want to reach that level with my art, in terms of the level of realism.

I have read that this one was one of his early work before he had yet mastered his realistic painting style. I really like how illustrated the smooth lines and perfect form of the Romantic school of painting.

This is what i have come up with combining elements from the three inspiring works above:

The Eye Of A Human

By Fahad Hawandaji

I focused on the human inspired by Margaret Keane's Big Eyes, and in my art and portrait drawings, I would like to reach the level of realism of Courbet. In the Eye ball the word Human is written in Arabic bringing in the calligraphy from Massoudy's garden.

Past, Present and Future

My favorite object has to be the Lion. Throughout my life I have had a lion present. When I was a child I had a stuffed animal lion toy, and as I grew up the lion was still there but took different shapes and forms, I can say that he evolved as well as I was, from a stuffed animal to a small statue, and then to a larger one, on the mantel, a fire place and or on the floor looking at me.

Lion was always so elegant, graceful, and very strong, the earth tone colors were also very comforting. He did have many friends at a young age; I specially remember dolphin and squirrel.

As I grew up he took different forms, the most constant form that I still have is a white stone statue that have been sitting gracefully on my coffee table for quite a while now (see first photo) I have always admired the craftsmanship, how very well thought and detailed he is.

Our relationship was never defined or labeled. It has always been one of respect and admiration. I have always felt a connection with Lion, maybe because I am a Leo, born in August? And maybe because my name, Fahad means panther in Arabic, So we had the wild cat in common.

His eyes always gave me the feeling of calmness, always half closed or asleep almost.

Since he has also been there with me in my life journey we are going to finally have a one on one conversation and I will ask him a few questions.

Dear Lion, what do you think my weak points are?

Fahad, my dear you have always been a good friend, sibling and son. You have always been a source of laughter, trust and thought of others before your self on many occasions. Why are you asking about your weak points first? Look on the bright side and the positive points of you before the negatives. Should I list them for you?

· Kind
· Happy
· Polite
· Social
· Creative
· Strong
· Positive
· Friendly
· Love life
· Determined
· Ambitious
· Always smiling

You do have some weak points; you sometimes have fear of public speaking, but you have been getting over that recently, maybe its because youre getting more confident and mature.

The worst thing about being strong all the time and not showing your weakness is that no one will ask you if you are ok. It’s ok to express you sadness sometimes, although we know you have pride just like I do.

Your kindness is sometimes a bit too much and people will take advantage of you. You have been through lots and I have been watching you from down here. You have done well Fahad, but I feel that you have gotten too comfortable too soon, you have settled down in a comfort zone and soon you will get board of the routine and will have the urge and seek a new adventure. It happened before and will happen again, it’s who you are.

How about the future? I am a bit scared of this step I am going to take in a month.

Fahad, Do it! Don’t be scared of stepping out of your comfort zone and into the unknown, you have done it before when you were younger, imagine doing it now with your life and work experience, you have gained a lot. You will be fine an even if you find it hard at first you will find your path again like you have before. You’ll bounce back up and feel pride again.

And here is the artwork i produced of Lion after our conversation. I went back to the playfulness of art and went back in time to when i was a child and made art out of pasta and coloured it. To have more fun in my art and enjoy it :)

Thursday 30 July 2015

Wanda Sayer

'Say wha?!' Wanda is a truth-teller, opened up she reveals herself, unafraid. Some have remarked on her striking lack of remorse. 'If it's done, it's done; if it's spent, it's spent'.
Her business is as facilitator and collaboration-instigator. She maintains sufficient boundaries so as not to give out more than her inner reserves will permit.
What brought us together? We found that we shared an outlook, a respect for being able to laugh at life, a deep seriousness worn lightly. An ideal evening out begins with a meet-up in party dress but with running shoes. From that came a choreographed piece about women owning the space that they are in.
Wanda reminds me to own those labels, reflected in our piece, 'Ms. know-it-all'.

The personification of the object piece, above, resulted in a piece of work giving material form to the discussion about past, present and future:

weighted, freighted, isolated;

standing still to let go:

dancing with the energy of the world

The exercise made explicit the ongoing dialogue I have with objects through my practice. It confirmed the benefit of deepening self-knowledge in order to communicate ideas and values clearly.

Wednesday 29 July 2015

SEEDS

My object it is a flower

Key words about first day :
Discovery
Stay with yourself
Break the flow
Enjob (enjoy + job)
Clarity
Identity

Title : big meeting with yourself

Important : The nature gives me infinite inspiration

Advices :
More flexible + More creativity
Change your rotine-Change your brain
Travel in a Constant Evolution

Question :
What is success for you?

Piece that materialises my discussions about past present and future :

1. here is my mind and my heart frequency