Do Not Rest

One of the best and most inspirational talks at Semi Permanent is now available online.

The smartly dressed Nat Cheshire managed to move the entire crowd to rally behind his cause for art and Auckland City. And for those of us that travelled from other cities, we wanted to pack him up in a little bundle and set him loose on our own cities!

Take the next half an hour and be reinvigorated, refreshed and rebooted. Your brain will explode with the possibilities of your art and your talent.


Do Not Rest - Nat Cheshire

Image Nation Prequel

I seem to be enjoying a lot of creative input these last few days! Today I had the pleasure of listening to photographer Phillip Simpson who will also be speaking at AIPA's Image Nation this year. He has had experience in photography in both the UK and here in NZ and his main points were based around the differences and how to make the NZ creative industry work for you.

Here are some pointers:

 In London, they tend to pick the right guy for a specific job,

In New Zealand they pick their mates. 

Become good at networking

Be strategic about who you want to work for and

come up with ways to capture their attention

Balance the need to make a living with

passion that keeps you motivated

Be aware of when coincidences are happening

so that you can grab them and run with them

I think I need to become a conference junkie and attend this Image Nation if all the sessions are going to be this interesting!

Semi Permanent Part 2

The second day at Semi Permanent was nothing short of magical. The poets and the artists took Day 2 to a whole new level never before reached in the history of Semi Permanent in Auckland.

Completing this little mini series, here are the top 12 tips I took away from Day 2:

1. Go into that scary challenge and try your hardest to just learn
2. It is your collective responsibility to exploit the opportunities that modernism has laid out for you
3. Imagination is hope, hope is all you need
4. Remember, you live in a small place in a time when smallness is no longer a constraint
5. The work you make here must not just be good here, it must be good everywhere
6. In the absence of knowledge there is hope
7. In this fast paced world, if it is real time it isn't relevant
8. Try and bring people to your part of the world instead of always thinking of getting away
9. Always produce or perform with one foot in the audience
10. Say yes and figure the rest out later
11. Go the extra mile
12. You are here for such a short time so you need to make the most of every opportunity

I am so so very impressed with Semi Permanent and the caliber of speakers. I would recommend it to any creative and I hope to see you there next year in August!!

Semi Permanent Part 1

I finally made it to Semi Permanent this year!

Semi Permanent is a design and arts conference that has been inspiring artists in New Zealand for the last 10 years and certainly did not disappoint.

If you couldn't make it, do not despair!! I have taken some handy notes and would love to share them with you!

Here are the top 20 pieces of inspiration I took away from Day 1:

1. Avoid the beaten path

2. Make things that are worthy for the investment of people's time

3. Embrace the ridiculous

4. Creativity favours intuition over experience

5. Creativity is transferable. Hang out with creative people

6. Inject inspired focus into any work that you want to get better at

7. The idea 'Do one thing and do it well' is detrimental to creativity

8. Learn forever and play

9. Your ability to learn does not decline with age

10. Always keep a lifelong aspiration to become better

11. Dare to fail

12. Intrude on your fantasy. Step out and actually live your dream.

13. Failure is not the opposite of success

14. Creativity is being able to stick with a problem long enough without settling for mediocrity

15. Don't incorrectly gauge your success by the awards you may or may not get

16. Stupid ideas that you talk about could become content

17. Remember the hands that have made your things

18. What looks like talent is usually just hard work

19. Invest your personal experiences into your work. It will make it stronger.

20. Invest time into the details

I'M SO INSPIRED!!! The word 'creative' was mentioned so often that I'm starting to think I am one! And I'm definitely going back for seconds tomorrow...