Beauty in the everyday..

I can hear the crickets, feel the cool wind, taste the air and see beauty in the blue, grey sky before me. I make pictures out of the clouds, but i am quick for the clouds change their shape so quickly. Everything is so beautiful before me, i wonder; how did it all come to be? How did nature progress into idustrialism? How did it come to be that wearing shoes with a heel on the end are classified as fashionable? Where did the word fashionable come from in the first place? I feel wonder and mystery when i look at the world before me, from the night sky to the stars shinning and sparkling in the sky that might be already dead by the time we see it on earth. It is amazing if you truely think about it.
Everytime i look at something old, i see it in a new light, more like new eyes. You must or you will loose apreciation of it because it becomes ruitine (as is everything else in this life.) I will always have the mentality of a child, so pure hearted; to see things in awe and appreciate them for what they are. To look at people just as they are, not for what they are wearing. See with age we get taught to look at things a certain way, in saying that i think a child is more mature then the average adult as we become slaves to society's way of thinking, not what we were born with. Society grasps us by delicious things that are tempting to crave and feed off of such as the media and such, captivating us and changeing our way of thinking deriving us away from our nature, but i am different and see things differently. Most people won't understand this, and do not understand me. I have spirit, i have life, i am just me and i feel beautiful and im learning to embrace my differences from the average teenager, i am learning to love me.

LOVE FOR CHILE

I finished school in 2008 and took a year off to relax and find myself. In that year i traveled to my beautiful country Chile. It had been six years since i last saw my 11 or something aunties and unlce's, big family huh? (imagine all their children and their children's children ha ha.) The experience really made me realise how much i take for granted living here in Australia. What i mean is everyday things that we use and don't appreciate, my family in Chile don't have. Poverty isn't a big thing for them, they are as happy as can be, making a living out of what they can and they inspire me. Some people are so money hungry and are never content with anything, i can't see myself reaching to that level.

Today as i was supposed to be doing an assignment for Justice blaaa, i kept getting distracted because i was face booking (yes i bet you knew it already) and just looking at photos of my trip to Chile. I remember the stray dogs on every corner of the streets, the park down the end of the road were all the boys from el barrio would go play soccer and all the kids play jump roap, the smell of fresh bread from the bakery every morning, the late nights drinking with the cousins and just joking around (my family are real crazy nut jokers, i'ma tell you that), the long talks with my cousin Nicole at night about everything and anything, the weird supernatural things that used to happen in our house (yes om goodness i witnessed some freaky stuff, whether there be a scientific reason or not i know what i saw and i wasn't the only one who saw it 'dunn dunn dunn') and just the every day general do nothing, have fun, tan outside of the house listening to the neighbours pump reggeaton. Life is so different over their compared to here. I remember the first night i stayed in Chile my sister and i actually heard gun shots and a lady screaming (you don't get that every night here in Australia do you?) Mega Culture shock.

Chile really is a beautiful country, the surrounding mountains and the fact the sometimes in the sky you can see The Andes at a distance, the sites and Santiago the capital, even the main cemetery were one of the presidents of Chile was buried "Allende". Everything was so beautiful, as much as I'd love to travel to different countries i must make it back to Chile to see my beloved family.

NOTE. If you live in pretty much the ghetto like i do, don't plan on taking nice clothes because even clubbing in Chile consists of Chuck Taylor's, jeans and hoody or tee.

HUMAN

Sometimes i feel like i need to take a break from this fast paced life of cycles and normality. Every week its as if the cycle begins once again, "the life of the working man". Every single human being is so wrapped up in propaganda, media and money that they forget or sadly don't even know how to take time to find that place of serenity in the roots of awareness, or even by being one with their soul. By taking time out from even industrialism and getting intouch with nature in complete awareness. When i am in that place i let all my senses flow and experience what it really is to be human; to hear, see, feel everything this earth has to offer. It is then that i feel like i am truely living. It is like i am breathing in mother nature and my body connects with the earth as one. I appreciate the natural beauty; the wind blowing the leaves of the trees and the grass, the colours of all the flowers, the light and feel good energy of the sky and sun on my back. I am one, I am whole, I am happy, I am free. When i take a break from this fast paced life, even by going for walks it allows me to appreciate what it truely means to be a human being, and to treat my senses to the natural surroundings. Just a thought.

NO LABELS

As of yet I have not given a preamble, but that’s me, I don’t like to do things in order; the way they should be. Generally I am a typical teenager who styles hair for an income, to the public eye anyway. People don’t really give ‘inner-ness’ a chance, do they? Based on looks is what will delineate you, they may not say it out loud, but people sure are thinking it. I observe. I ponder.
What if one day I dressed as a ‘punk’, would I be treated the same?
I have a friend, who studies the different stereotypes; who goes into the world dressed as someone different, to view the different reactions you may get from people. What is he getting at? What am I getting at?
The world in which we live puts different people into particular groups based on the exterior. By being thrown in those groups we also espouse a personality by ‘their account and opinions’ without us even knowing. It’s like a web tied around us with thick CLEAR strings hard to break free of. That’s the power of judgement; it grows into the minds of others and before you know it, it’s fatal. It blinds us from the truth.
Those ‘People, who categorise' are like marching ants; stepping patterns all inclined, if you step one foot out of line you will defiantly be noticed for all the wrong reasons. Why? Because it’s simply, ‘not the way things should be done, ‘not the way you should dress’ and ‘definitely not the way you should act’.
How splendid would it be to just be free of such thoughts? To walk down the street dressed not like everybody else but how you feel without being frowned upon.
I admire people who break away from normality. I am drawn to them, like a moth to a flame. They are the light that brightens up this dull world of familiarity, routine and cycles. Just because of the ‘crippled ant’ that walks out of line there can be a conversation other than ‘how much do you make’, ‘where do you work’, and ‘what club did you hit up on the weekend’. They cycle does not stop, everything is ruled, we just choose to follow.

How beautiful would it be to just break away from everything? From society, the media, judgement and people like you.

GEORGE GITTOES

Gittoes has acquired the title “war artist or war hero” of following nearly 30 years in the field, focusing his gaze on human victims of conflict and the “desperate determination” of individuals. Gittoes has a strong ability to encapsulate the complex emotions present in the cry for mercy in the midst of tormenting circumstances. He shows the world what the media does not want us to see; the pain and agony that people suffer in third world countries, while also travelling and painting the stories of places that have been greatly affected by tragedy. His confronting images, including dead bodies, diseased children, blindness and amputation take a different perspective to the media. Regular bombardment of disturbing images in the media has caused many people to feel “desensitised” to violence. It is harder, however, to become comfortable or familiar with Gittoes’ images, as his art appeals to human emotion and ideas of justice, rather than political theories.. With every bold confronting brush stroke one can tell a story from his artworks. They detain every ounce of human emotion than the picture itself as a whole. His paintings can be defined as explicit and raw as he paints the utmost truth It has become a hobby of mine researching the meaning behind every one of his artworks.

I first came across George Gittoes, former painter, drawer, photographer and film maker when I was studying art in my last year of schooling. I was intrigued with his artworks, immediately with the first glimpse I had a hunger for knowledge; with the confronting and harrowing images he produces. He gave me a source of knowledge in a way I could not get from anybody else. His paintings have been stored in my photographic memory with apocalyptic meanings from events that happen on a daily basis. Though his paintings are cold hard raw, they unravel the blind folds each and every one of us has on our perception of life and what we take for granted.