This here pic is the first (successful) test done for the SoFoBoMo challenge. As it was done before the beginning of the challenge it's not included in the final tally of pictures, but I like it a lot so it's on the front cover.

So I've convinced a photographer friend of mine to join me in this month long challenge to kickstart both of us back into regular creativity. Having just finished renovating the house. Emptying the house. And having a complete 'change in lifestyle recently' aka aquiring a gentleman friend, the regular painting has fallen onto the backburner. This challenge is needed! Nothing like an incentive, a goal, to get going again.

I was supposed to be travelling now. Camping my way up through the desert of western NSW before heading into Byron Bay and surrounds. Maybe permanently. But those plans have changed and for the moment I'm still in the Central Highlands of Victoria. In winter. And I hate the cold. At least I'm getting a compensation holiday to Adelaide next week, with a swing through the Flinders Rangers (very excited, never been), Broken Hill (Pro Hart anyone?) and the top corner of Victoria including Mildura and Swan Hill. All good, and in a sweet and fabulous way, the holiday still fits in with the photo challenge. I should digress about now and explain the challenge. It sounds really cool to me and I'm quite excited. From the site (methinks they explain it quite well enough already) :

"SoFoBoMo is short for Solo Photo Book Month - a group event where a bunch of photographers all make solo photo books start to finish, in 31 days, at more or less the same time. It's modeled loosely on NaNoWriMo, where participating writers all write novels in a month, and NaSoAlMo, where musicians write and record solo albums in a month....

....For SoFoBoMo, the goal is to make the photos, write any needed text, layout the book, and produce a PDF image of the book, all in 31 days. Rather than confining it to a single calendar month, we use a 'fuzzy month', where you can pick any contiguous 31 day period inside a two month window - this makes it a bit more flexible and encourages broader participation."


I know, I know, I'm not 'a photographer'. But I am 'a creative'. So I say this fits. Plus, as I said, it will kickstart regular creativity AND it can be done while travelling. Much easier than oil painting while travelling. MUCH easier. In fact, I designed my theme so it could be done on the road....

Found Creatures.
Not just straight photography for me, no. Each image will be a unique creation in itself. The theme is animals of the imagination, and each animal will be created in 2D from scraps of nature (bark, leaves, rocks etc) for as long as it takes to record them, and then the site will be returned to it's former state.

And I'll be shooting it all with my iPhone (plus CameraBag).

I'm looking into geotagging the images and I might take shots of the locations (hmm, Pano, yum yum) and include these in the uploads as well. I'll see how well this all fits as I go along. So now I hope you can see how a drive to Adelaide, the Flinders Rangers, Broken Hill and Mildura will fit. Loads of different landscapes equals loads of variation in the flora and geology equals loads of materials to play with!

Hooray.

This is where my Found Creatures SoFoBoMo '09 book will live:
http://www.sofobomo.org/2009/books/wherefishsing/

Here on this blog is where the images will be uploaded as they are taken, before being compiled into the final book. Enjoy!

Might, radiance, prosperity, victory, wealth, plenty, augustness, readiness, creative action, intelligence, adornment, stability, obedience and taste. These are 14 qualities identified as the primary effects and signs of creative force from Ancient Egypt, taken from Joseph Campbell's Oriental Mythology. These refer to qualities the original world creating force was believed to have. These were qualities the revered god/s had. Qualities to aspire to.

I thought I'd contrast these with the qualities I see that Western mainstream society values highly in a person now. Here goes, in a roughly equivalent order. Power, youth, f-ability, competitiveness, monetary wealth, accumulation of possessions, extroversion, social intelligence, easy categorization and a finetuned fashion sense. Putting it like that makes it look as though there has only been a slight shift.

And just for fun, I thought I'd throw in the beliefs, values and characteristics of this new millennium's creative people (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Creative). This new group of people value achievement, independence, non-conformity, internal locus of control, ambiguity, risk-taking and opportunity. Nothing about power, possessions or looks. Quite a change huh?

Here's a bit more on values:
Authenticity - actions must be consistent with words and beliefs
Engaged action and whole process learning; seeing the world as interwoven and connected
Idealism and activism
Globalism and ecology
The importance of women

And defining characteristics:
* love of nature and deep caring about its destruction
* strong awareness of the planet-wide issues (i.e. global warming, poverty, overpopulation, etc.) and a desire to see more action on them
* willingness to pay higher taxes or spend more money for goods if that money went to improving the environment
* heavy emphasis on the importance of developing and maintaining relationships
* heavy emphasis on the importance of helping others and developing their unique gifts
* volunteer with one or more good causes
* intense interest in spiritual and psychological development
* see spirituality as an importance aspect of life but worry about religious fundamentalism
* desire more equity for women in business, life and politics
* concern for the violence and abuse against women and children
* want politics and government to spend more money on education, community programs and the support of a more ecologically sustainable future
* are unhappy with the left and right in politics
* optimism towards the future
* want to be involved in creating a new and better way of life
* are concerned with big business and the means they use to generate profits, including destroying the environment and exploiting poorer countries
* unlikely to overspend or be in heavy debt
* dislike modern cultures emphasis on making it and success, on consuming and making money
* like people, places and things that are different or exotic


And just for fun, a quiz!!

http://quizfarm.com/quizzes/new/eddxii/what-is-your-world-view/


You Scored as Cultural Creative

Cultural Creatives are probably the newest group to enter this realm. You are a modern thinker who tends to shy away from organized religion but still feels as if there is something greater than ourselves. You are very spiritual, even if you are not religious. Life has a meaning outside of the rational.

Cultural Creative

94%

Materialist

88%

Existentialist

75%

Postmodernist

75%

Idealist

69%

Modernist

56%

Fundamentalist

19%

Romanticist

13%

This is how we escape.
So said Sting, and this inspired my friend Seaboy on his latest album. In turn it's inspired me while working on the painting for the cover for the CD. The songs were all captured from dreams while he was on a long (dream) holiday driving around Australia in a kombi.

Enjoy.



I was asked to come up with a seaboy character, maybe on a surfboard or in a boat, escaping from the storms of everyday life. You'll see that the resulting character IS the boat, and ends up with guitars for wings.

And just when I was wondering how to explain to people how becoming a painter and letting my unconscious direct my paintings relates to, and is important, in the real world, an answer arrives in my inbox. Thankyou.

"We each must become like fishermen, and go out onto the dark ocean of mind, and let your nets down into that sea."

"And what you're after is not some behemoth that will tear through your nets, foul them, and drag you and your little boat into the abyss. Nor are what we looking for a bunch of sardines, that can slip through your net and disappear, ideas like 'have you ever noticed that your little finger exactly fits your nostril' and stuff like that."

"What we are looking for are middle-sized ideas that are not so small that they are trivial, and not so large that they are incomprehensible, but middle-sized ideas that we can wrestle into our boat and take back to the folks on shore, and have fish dinner."

"And everyone of us, this is what we should be looking for. It's not for your elucidation, it's not part of your self-directed psychotherapy; you are an explorer, and you represent our species."

"And the greatest good you can do is to bring back a new idea, because our world is endangered by the absence of good ideas. Our world is in crisis because of the absence of consciousness."

"And so, to whatever degree, any one of us can bring back a small piece of the picture, and contribute it to the building of the new paradigm. Then we participate in the redemption of the human spirit."

- Terence McKenna

Reproduced from a wonderful weekly newsletter I receive, available from Free Will Astrology (no I don't actually believe in astrology, but I do love this guy's take on life and getting a weekly reminder of wider possibilities).