James Clegg was seeking people interested in talking about someone who has influenced them. Taking the form of a five minute presentation based upon a visual aid, such as a photograph or drawing, the presentation should emphasise the knowledge that person passed on to you and can be based upon a personal relation or a famous individual who has inspired you. Read more…
Graphic design is a discipline which focuses on visual communication and presentation. Various methods are used to create and combine symbols, images and/or words to create a tangible representation of ideas and messages. A graphic designer may utilise typography, visual arts and page layout techniques to achieve their task. Graphic design refers to both the process and the products which are generated. Text and pure design elements, such as shapes and colour, are used to unify the piece. Read more…
When my husband died, I thought my life was over. I certainly didn’t envisage that in less than three years I’d be having my own art exhibition! I didn’t even see myself as an artist at that time! I hadn’t picked up a paintbrush and painted since my A Levels, 22 years previously!
My journey back into art was via Art Journaling, which I learned from a lovely lady called Dyan Reavely (check out her videos on YouTube) in Harrogate. Art Journaling gave me the means to express my grief. It showed me that art didn’t have to be like what I learned at school but could be expressive and emotional. Read more…
In a World that is more and more focussed on perfection, where every flaw is concealed (or annihilated) until any inkling of authenticity or realism has been swept away, then the following question arises: “Won’t we be devaluing our essence? Won’t we be dangerously sliding towards a tragic idealism, which distances us further from Nature, and thus, from ourselves?”. Read more…
I think I was still a teenager when I saw a strange and wonderful film called “The Swimmer”. In it wealthy suburbanite Burt Lancaster makes his way home from a party not by the streets or pavements but by swimming through the pools in his neighbours’ backyards. The possibility of finding adventure in unusual routes through familiar territory has intrigued with me ever since.
Decades later I decided to try it for myself but with parks rather than pools (a better choice in Edinburgh). I wondered how many parks I could traverse between St Margaret’s Loch in Holyrood and Portobello Beach (I managed five: Holyrood, Meadowfield, Baronscourt [now alotments], Figgate, Rosefield). Read more…
The British Library holds a copy of the Buddhist text known commonly as the Diamond Sutra (a more accurate translation of the Sanskrit title might be, the Vajra Cutter Sutra). It is a short Mahayana sutra of the Perfection of Wisdom (prajna-paramita) genre, which teaches the practice of the avoidance of abiding in extremes of mental attachment. A copy found among the Dunhuang manuscripts in the early 20th century, is, in the words of the British Library “the earliest complete survival of a dated printed book.” Read more…
This is a rudimentary introduction to the field of graphic information design, which when well done can communicate complex knowledge clearly from one person to others. Georgias was the second most noted of the ancient Greek teachers known as the Sophists. In Gorgias’ formulation of knowledge, there is a gap between objects and the mind, and another gap between the mind’s knowledge and the language which would express it. Read more…
And I find it kinda funny
I find it kinda sad
The dreams in which I’m dying
Are the best I’ve ever had
Run by Abi Lewis and Susannah Leake, place+platform provides emerging creative talent a place in which to create and a platform to showcase their talents by hosting inventive and unique events to break down boundaries in the arts.
place+platform is a creative support hub for Edinburgh, aiming to do more than providing just a sterile place, but acting as a dynamic platform for creatives in the city. place+platform organises inventive and exciting cross-platform events to encourage a vast and varied experience of creative arts. Read more…