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I love the delicate quality of light in this photograph taken in York 2008. It was part of a site-specific art installation by Keiko Mukaide in St. Mary’s Church. If you enjoy my photos, please check out my Facebook photography page and click the [Like] button, John Ager’s Art & Photography.

It’s been a few day since I posted, so I thought I’d share some photos I took today on a beautiful spring afternoon. This is my favourite from the whole photoshoot, but you can see the whole set here! You can use any of these images in accordance with the Creative Commons licence on each photo page, and they can also be licensed through Getty Images.

This guest post comes from Sue Thomas, Professor of New Media at De Montfort University in Leicester.

In today’s networked world, many skills which we may already have but not recognise as special are coming to the fore. The Institute for the Future in Palo Alto, California, have identified a skill set which they call ‘amplified’. It features qualities such as ‘Cooperation Radar’  - the ability to sense, almost intuitively, who would make the best collaborators on a particular task, and ‘High Ping Quotient’ – responsiveness to other people’s requests for engagement; propensity to reach out to others in a network. You can read all ten of them here. The language may be very Californian, but the skills are ones we would all recognise. And social media is helping us to do them even better.

In 2009 I ran a project called ‘Amplified Leicester’ which brought together 30 very different Leicester people and helped them develop their ‘amplified skills’. That project is now over but this year we’ve been hosting a series of talks and panels at Phoenix Square where we look at ‘amplified’ approaches and discuss how they can be used in specific contexts. So far we’ve looked at politics, police, and crafts (see embedded video), and this month we’re considering faith (or not) in an panel discussion convened by George Ballentyne of the Council of Faiths and called Amplified Communities of Faith or Belief.

George’s guests are a very varied group – Sughra Ahmed of the Islamic Foundation, Richard Hopper of Leicester Secular Society, and Matthew Hughes of Samworth Enterprise Academy, a Church of England school. It takes place at 7.00 pm Wednesday 23 March 2011 at Phoenix Square. Do come along to hear what they have to say and join us in the Screen Lounge afterwards to continue the discussion. It’s free and open to all. Book online here and join the Amplified Leicester community here. We look forward to seeing you! The Twitter hashtag is #ampleic for all Amplified Leicester related tweets.

Note: In the video, David says “anti-feminist” at one point when he clearly means “anti-sexist”, he’s not being allowed to live it down! (John)

The start of International Women’s Week was marked by the University of Leicester Feminist Group, who gathered on a bridge in Abbey Park on a damp Saturday afternoon. It was part of Women for Women’s Join Me on the Bridge campaign, in which men and women stand together on bridges all over the world in order to show support for women in war-torn areas. They met up at the University and walked to Abbey Park with banners publicising the cause, they read out a statement on the bridge, and urged people to sign a petition to Foreign Secretary William Hague calling for the involvement of women in the Afghanistan peace negotiations in order to assure they have ‘an equal voice in determining their future, and the future of their country’.

Women for Women International provides women survivors of war, civil strife and other conflicts with the tools and resources to move from crisis and poverty to stability and self-sufficiency, thereby promoting viable civil societies. Their aim is to change the world one woman at a time. This year marks the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day on 8 March 2011.

100 years ago brave women stood up and changed the world for so many of us. Today, there are equally brave women standing up for equality in Afghanistan. Now is our chance to get behind them and help bring peace and greater security to these women. Women in Afghanistan must be fully included in the peace negotiations. Peace without women doesn’t stand a chance, and the time to build peace is now – before the troops start withdrawing in June 2011. We’re not asking for any new policies or laws. They already exist. We have UN Resolution 1325, and we have the Millennium Development Goals. It’s time to act, and we’re calling for everyone who wants to make a stand against the brutalities inflicted on women in Afghanistan (and in areas of conflict around the world) to join us on a bridge on the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day. Kate Nustedt, Executive Director of Women for Women UK.

…this is Part 2 of a post by Adam Howie. Click here for Part 1.

Staring into the abyss

So, let’s say the idea has come, the muses have whispered their sweet musings into my mind’s eye and I have an idea, but now comes the greatest enemy of creation (well second, apathy/inertia is probably the biggest), the blank page. The void, the abyss if you will, where nothing yet exists on the page (ignoring the scientific view of the microorganisms, or the atomic structure, of the mind warping reality of the quantum world within… ahem…I digress). The blank page is always daunting I think, especially if the idea is still forming. I also do art live in stage during events and sometimes inspiration does not strike at all leading up to the event (or worse I don’t know what to expect) and as it begins all I have are paints and a blank canvas. At one of my art courses I was taught, if you have a blank canvas and no idea how to start throw down some colour, or something, to start the process and remove the blank canvas. It’s strange but sometime just putting down a background of colour or texture is enough to ignite the inspiration. Effectively it removes the nothing and replaces it with something… kinda. Once started the process fuels itself but sometimes the fuel runs out and I am slowly learning that a good habit is to sometimes stop and leave a piece for a while and then return to it later with fresh ideas.

Walk away, just walk away…

One of the biggest things that I struggle with is when to stop. When is enough, enough? With my digital works I have a bit of a security blanket as I have the undo function. With paints/inks/etc it’s a lot harder, a mistake or doing too much could result in total failure (or at least a less effective piece). I am trying to learn when, in the words of my cooking sensei Alton Brown to “walk away, just walk away” and accept that enough has been done. For me the creative process doesn’t end, I tend not to “finish” a piece; I just have to leave it. Either because there Is nothing more I can do, or want to do, but that piece will stay with me and it will be used either to inspire another piece or when I have more skill and understanding I can perhaps revisit it and recreate it inspired by the old one and bringing new life to in a new piece.

So yeah, that’s a very quick look at creative inspiration and me, it’s something that I think will change, and evolve as I do. It comes and goes like the tides, and at times it feels like it’s so very far away.

Well I should do some plugging since I am here…

If you would like to see any of my work you can. See my work at my website: www.illusionaryconstructs.com or visit my personal blog: www.realityofdreams.org.uk which has links to most of the places that I haunt on the web, including where my work is for sale, such as, Redbubble: www.redbubble.com/people/lurchkimded

Thanks to John for the space on his blog and the opportunity to write this, hope it made sense and was an enjoyable read for you. Catch ya all on the flip side, laters.

…or how I wish I learned to stop worrying and just draw already!

I suppose since this is a guest post I should say hi before I delve in… Hi!

What? OK, a bit more of an introduction then, my name is Adam Howie, although I often go by the nickname Kimded online, and I am, for better or worse, an artist. John has been kind enough to give me some space on his blog to blether about my art and my inspiration/motivation behind it. In many ways this is not a “how to be inspired” or “how to be creative” post, there are way better courses, blogs, and the like out there for that, this is just a guy trying to explain what goes on in his head. Hopefully this will be at the very least interesting, and perhaps helpful to some. This of course means that I’ve been trying to figure out how best to do write this, and since I am a preacher’s son, it shall be a three point blog post.

But before I begin… well it’s a bit late for that but anyway, probably good to set out what I think about being creative and its place in our lives. I firmly believe that humanity is a creative species; we have an innate drive to create and appreciate created things. This desire takes many forms, painting, music, architecture, engineering, science, relationships, and so much more.  An odd list to be sure but in each of these there is found, when it is at its highest zenith, creativity, and creation. So I see art as only being a part of the larger act of creativity we can do, but it’s the one I shall be focusing on here. So yeah, a brief exploration of creative inspiration and me…

Finding Me… I mean, Inspiration

So, where do I find inspiration? Well the short answer is that, for me, inspiration is everywhere. Some of my art work is inspired by scripture verses, songs, lyrics, scientific theories, and quotes. A lot of it comes from various places and stews and simmers in my mind and then one thing with suddenly cause the various thoughts and ideas to coalesce into a distinct idea.

For me there is also a kind of tangential inspiration, those things that fuel these creative nexuses but not directly. Mainly this comes from looking at other people’s artworks and allowing their style, their use of colour, technique, and even what they have used to represent the ideas they are trying to convey to influence me and create new links in my mind. Also music is a great fuel for the creative fires for me; I almost always have music on when I am painting. I suppose in some ways it’s a noise that keeps my brain from running off to wildly or jumping around too much, as it has want to do. Even writing this I find myself jumping between writing, surfing, tweeting, and other things… just the way what counts as my mind works I guess.

I have been going to various art courses since deciding (perhaps foolishly) to try and make a living being an artist, these courses have been great for fuelling the background to inspiration as well as giving ideas for jump starting the creative process. One thing that I have found key is always having a pen or pencil and a sketchbook with me. If I get an idea almost no matter when or where (within reason of course) I try and do a quick sketch or even just jot down some notes. Of course I still need to do this more and develop the habit of sketching things I see for reference of later inspiration.

Click here for Part 2

It was good on the first Sunday of 2011 to be able to sing one of my favourite hymns: Lord, for the years… by Timothy Dudley-Smith. All of the words are inspiring and challenging, but I especially like the words of the last verse as it brings together past, present and future.

Lord, for the years your love has kept and guided,
urged and inspired us, cheered us on our way,
sought us and saved us, pardoned and provided:
Lord for the years, we bring our thanks today.

Lord, for that word, the word of life which fires us,
speaks to our hearts and sets our souls ablaze,
teaches and trains, rebukes us and inspires us:
Lord of the word, receive your people’s praise.

Lord, for our land in this our generation,
spirits oppressed by pleasure, wealth and care:
for young and old, for commonwealth and nation,
Lord of our land, be pleased to hear our prayer.

Lord, for our world where we disown and doubt you,
loveless in strength, and comfortless in pain,
hungry and helpless, lost indeed without you:
Lord of the world, we pray that Christ may reign.

Lord for ourselves; in living power remake us-
self on the cross, and Christ upon the throne,
past put behind us, for the future take us:
Lord of our lives, to live for Christ alone.