It has slowly become apparent to me over recent months that meeting your heroes/heroines is a completely impossible task ... which is not to say that you cannot be in the same room as your heroes, you can shake their hand, look them in the eye and even talk to them, maybe even walk along the road with them ... but there is one problem ... and it's a big one ... They will not recognise themself as a hero or heroine. When you say 'it's such an honour to meet you' they will (assuming they're used to being thought of as a heroine) politely accept your (probably greatly tempered) adoration with a gracious smile.
... But you will, unfortunately, detect the almost, very nearly, imperceptible blanching of their skin as they internally recoil in reaction to the identity dissonance that you've inflicted on them. Nobody feels like a celebrity and nobody feels like a hero. You can, by all means, meet those who you have projected hero status onto but do not expect it to feel all warm and cosy. Fear not, meeting *your* heroes will still be thoroughly wonderful and life enhancing but allowing them to be themself and minimising any swooning at their feet is probably about the best way to repay them for the inspiration that they have unknowingly bestowed on you over the years.
Wednesday, 24 March 2010
My Finding Ada Heroine: Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock MBE
I have Twitter and @Belladax to thank for introducing me to the inspiring Maggie Aderin-Pocock. @Belladax tweeted the following words a few weeks ago: "Who is this lady on desert island discs?she's awesome! What a great ability to explain science-y things #R4". This tweet activated the my 'being helpful to people I don't know' gene and I scampered off to find out who it was and tweeted back Maggie's name and a link to the relevant BBC webpage: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00r33mq
Some days later I finally got round to listening to the show myself and Maggie had the same impact on me that she'd had on @Belladax ... a space scientist who has a special relationship with the moon, built her own telescope as a teenager and was inspired to study space by watching the Clangers as a kid??! ... I was in instant awe!
Everything I've seen about Maggie since has backed up that initial impression and I love that she's so passionate about inspiring the next generation to follow in her footsteps, while finding their own path. Maggie's Telegraph article from a year ago is a pretty good introduction to the wonderful Maggie Aderin-Pocock: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/4985076/Lets-inspire-the-next-generation-of-scientists.html
You can watch Maggie in action on this compelling video about the importance of role models and getting kids to aspire to follow their dreams:
I vote that we make Clangers required viewing for every youngster (and, imho, make Moomins required reading) and help Maggie in her mission to inspire the next generation of scientists (and explorers, bodgers, inventors, artists and creative thinkers)
Some days later I finally got round to listening to the show myself and Maggie had the same impact on me that she'd had on @Belladax ... a space scientist who has a special relationship with the moon, built her own telescope as a teenager and was inspired to study space by watching the Clangers as a kid??! ... I was in instant awe!
Everything I've seen about Maggie since has backed up that initial impression and I love that she's so passionate about inspiring the next generation to follow in her footsteps, while finding their own path. Maggie's Telegraph article from a year ago is a pretty good introduction to the wonderful Maggie Aderin-Pocock: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/4985076/Lets-inspire-the-next-generation-of-scientists.html
You can watch Maggie in action on this compelling video about the importance of role models and getting kids to aspire to follow their dreams:
I vote that we make Clangers required viewing for every youngster (and, imho, make Moomins required reading) and help Maggie in her mission to inspire the next generation of scientists (and explorers, bodgers, inventors, artists and creative thinkers)
Saturday, 20 March 2010
A tiny part of something great
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Thursday, 4 March 2010
Wing-Girl Required, apply within
I'm organising an event which will encourage folks to go for their dreams rather than wait until they feel ready. The working title for the event is 'Wait Not For Your Wings'. It will be an event for me as much as for anyone else - a reminder to go for it, just run off the edge and let the wind catch me.
If I try and do it alone I'm worried that it might never happen ... so I'm looking for a wing-girl, someone to bounce ideas off and who might help with some of the organising and who will keep things (i.e. *me*) on track.
The heart and soul of this event is contained within this one tweet: http://twitter.com/iamcreative/status/9823689783. I already have permission to run a screening of The Lemonade Movie and James Whitaker is up for showing his beautiful 'After Redundancy' portraits.
Likely date: late April, early May
Likely venue: York or Leeds
Likely remuneration: £Zero (but I will do my darndest to cover your expenses)
The next few months should be a thoroughly enjoyable adventure ... who's with me?
p.s. if you are not a girl but would still like to help me make the event happen then let me know, I'm very open-minded ;-)
Monday, 8 February 2010
Time to make my own manifesto
Lately I've come to the realisation that I have no firm idea of what is important to me; what I will stand for and what I will fall for - my aim is to do some digging and find out so that I can make my own manifesto like the fantastic one from Aardvark on Sea (thanks to @betsybeth for buying it for me!):
The Right Brain Terrain manifesto by Frederic Terral is equally inspiring: "Just create to create. Create stuff to remind yourself you're still alive"
Update:
I still haven't nailed down my manifesto but I'm getting there (slowly). In the meantime I'm collecting inspiring manifestos that I stumble across on my journey and I'll list them here.
Olivia Sprinkel's 'Creativist Manifesto' on ChangeThis.com calls for more Being/Doing and less Consuming. It's a weighty manifesto at 17 pages long but well worth the read. I'm currently at page 6 and my favourite line so far is "Be wide-eyed"
I found this guide to writing your own manifesto via Hugh MacLeod's article on making art every day ... fantastic stuff :)
Update:
Over a year later and I still haven't written my own manifesto ... erm, what's up with that?!
I did come close with this proclamation though. And this list of 5 manifestos on the 99 Percent blog is very inspiring so you never know, I might get round to doing my own one of these days.
The Right Brain Terrain manifesto by Frederic Terral is equally inspiring: "Just create to create. Create stuff to remind yourself you're still alive"
Update:
I still haven't nailed down my manifesto but I'm getting there (slowly). In the meantime I'm collecting inspiring manifestos that I stumble across on my journey and I'll list them here.
Olivia Sprinkel's 'Creativist Manifesto' on ChangeThis.com calls for more Being/Doing and less Consuming. It's a weighty manifesto at 17 pages long but well worth the read. I'm currently at page 6 and my favourite line so far is "Be wide-eyed"
I found this guide to writing your own manifesto via Hugh MacLeod's article on making art every day ... fantastic stuff :)
Update:
Over a year later and I still haven't written my own manifesto ... erm, what's up with that?!
I did come close with this proclamation though. And this list of 5 manifestos on the 99 Percent blog is very inspiring so you never know, I might get round to doing my own one of these days.
Thursday, 1 October 2009
Let Creativity Begin Retreat: Exciting guest photographer
'he listened' - photo by Naomi Calvert
As soon as I saw this photo, which Naomi Calvert (@_nai_) took while she was at the Do Lectures, I knew I was in the presence of a pretty special photographer. When I saw the rest of the photos she took during those magical days at Fforest and read her blog I thought how great it would be if I could somehow find a way to get Naomi to teach me photography. Organising my first creativity retreat has provided the perfect opportunity to do just that ... I've invited Naomi to be a guest tutor at the retreat and she's agreed! I'm so excited and can't wait to find out how Naomi gets such amazing quality of light and a sense of honesty in her photos.
Tuesday, 22 September 2009
Good Cause Auctions, now with added doodling delightfulness
So here's my latest scheme to raise money for good causes (I should point out up front that one of those good causes happens to be me!):
Auction 1:
My Do Lectures notebook packed full of scribbled snippets of wordly wisdom gleaned from each of the Do Lectures speakers PLUS whoever wins the auction will get a Do Lectures inspired doodle from me every month between now and the next Do Lectures in 2010.
25% of whatever I raise will be donated to the Do Lectures to give them a headstart on their fundraising for the 2010 lectures. Another 25% will go to Ben Bowen to support his fantastic DoTour adventure. The other 50% will go to me and I will spend put it in a safe place and put it towards my 2010 Do Lectures ticket.
Auction 2:
My Howies 2009 Summer Catalogue which features 7 of my doodles hand-drawn over some beautifully inspiring photography by James Bowden ... by the time I mail the catalogue out it will almost definitely have more doodles in it :-) PLUS whoever wins will get a Howies inspired doodle from me every month for a year.
50% of whatever I raise will be donated to James' Bourgeois Bicycle Caravan adventure. The other 50% will go to, you guessed it, me.
So how this will work* is you drop me a message via the comments here, or on twitter, or on Facebook, or via email or by running up to me in the street and let me know which auction you want to bid on and what your best bid is. I'll keep this blogpost updated with the highest bid and I'll close the bidding on Sunday evening (27th September) at around 9pm.
*All the usual rules apply ... basically I make the final decision about who the winning bidder is and I won't close the bidding until all bidders are finished ... this isn't ebay ;-)
Auction 1:
My Do Lectures notebook packed full of scribbled snippets of wordly wisdom gleaned from each of the Do Lectures speakers PLUS whoever wins the auction will get a Do Lectures inspired doodle from me every month between now and the next Do Lectures in 2010.
25% of whatever I raise will be donated to the Do Lectures to give them a headstart on their fundraising for the 2010 lectures. Another 25% will go to Ben Bowen to support his fantastic DoTour adventure. The other 50% will go to me and I will spend put it in a safe place and put it towards my 2010 Do Lectures ticket.
Auction 2:
My Howies 2009 Summer Catalogue which features 7 of my doodles hand-drawn over some beautifully inspiring photography by James Bowden ... by the time I mail the catalogue out it will almost definitely have more doodles in it :-) PLUS whoever wins will get a Howies inspired doodle from me every month for a year.
50% of whatever I raise will be donated to James' Bourgeois Bicycle Caravan adventure. The other 50% will go to, you guessed it, me.
So how this will work* is you drop me a message via the comments here, or on twitter, or on Facebook, or via email or by running up to me in the street and let me know which auction you want to bid on and what your best bid is. I'll keep this blogpost updated with the highest bid and I'll close the bidding on Sunday evening (27th September) at around 9pm.
*All the usual rules apply ... basically I make the final decision about who the winning bidder is and I won't close the bidding until all bidders are finished ... this isn't ebay ;-)
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