040 - F is for Fashion not Cashion

040 - F is for Fashion not Cashion, originally uploaded by gingerpig2000.

As you will see over the next few blogs, Ania has been taking a more central role in my images, altghough often I have to struggle with her wish to have only socially acceptable 'perfect' images shown iregardless of the power of the image we have produced.

Scarves are generally wound people's necks in a small number of ways, but I thought it is time to reconsider how we do it, bring back some former methods and even use some elements designed for other purposes.

Here I have used belt buckles, bangles and even a hair clip, and I am even considering using a ring for lighter scarves. This is rather pleasing as, like amny other people, my mum had a box of buttons and old belt buckles, very few of which ever got re-used. Here we do not have such a stock, but Poland has small shops selling these little items everywhere - and the plastic belt buckles shown here are plastic, bought from such shops for little money, and being plastic are light enough not to pull down the material.

Similarly to button collections, how many old rings and bangles do you have at home - have you really got the most out of them?

023 the art - craft divide

023 the art - craft divide, originally uploaded by gingerpig2000.

There is always more way than one of achieving anything, and part of what I want to do is to show the very different ways that people believe we can or should live our lives. The reality is that, as a human, you have choices, you decide which is the most appropriate way of doing the things that you want to do.

The problem is that a large proportion of the kind of people who get to make the decisions and apply social pressure are the craft-type people, and so we have education and work environments that are alien to the basic precepts of another large chunk of the population.

I have seen people in different Flikr groups endlessly going on about how important craft is, rejecting or restricting therefore their own ability to create art - and thereby conditioning other people to fail as well. You haven't got the right camera? You are not a Photoshop expert? You want to take pictures of yourself, your family or your pets?

The list is endless, but I am fighting back, taking the battle to where it needs to go - right in the face of the craft controllers.

After all, the world really is a beautiful place, and our lives are limited. Let's find ways we can explore it.

Anyway, when i posted this on flikr I had quite a few insulting posts from someone who seemed to see that I had demonstrated what he was doing as being craft, and not art. When I checked out his photostream the images were well produced but lacking in anything that could be said to be original. He even deleted the comment I left on one of his images - so not only could he not deal with my concept, he could not deal with a slightly negative comment on his images. Such is life.