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_MA 15: Spend Time With a Very Young Child

This is a picture of myself, and my now 5 month old nephew. He is my best friend and my favourite person in the whole wide world. He is just the sweetest gem-child on Earth. Spending time with him is a ton of fun but also very stressful. He’s kinda impatient, so when he wants something, he wants it now!

The most beautiful thing that I’ve realised since he’s been around, is the incredible power of love. I really struggle to do things for other people, and to serve them with a joyful heart, but when it comes to him, it’s just so easy and effortless. I find it beautifully bizarre, how great my love is for someone who can do absolutely nothing for me right now, yet I delight in him so much. It is a small picture of God’s love for His children. He is infinitely perfect, and we as humans have nothing to offer Him, yet He delights in us so much, and sent His son to die for those who might trust in Him. He delights in us because we are his children. Beautiful. 

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_MA 14: Reorganise Your Living Space

So I decide to re-organise my workspace. I used to have just a ton of stuff on my desk and a lot of pictures on my wall. I went through a rough patch recently, where I just was really struggling to get my work done. I began to resent my space because it started to remind me of all the work that I hadn’t gotten around to. I decided to take all the pictures down, and keep the decor to a minimum, just putting up a simple list of all the work that I needed to get through.

This was real helpful in terms of being able to get all of my creative work done. It felt like the clearing of the space and the clearing of my mind was somehow linked. Although there are still a a lot of days where I struggle, I feel like I’ve been able to get a lot more done since I cleared the space. 

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_MA 13: Start A Collection

So I started an album/ collection on my phone of all of the foods that I’ve eaten since I’ve become a vegan. It’s just been really cool to go back and see all of the foods that I’ve made, and when inspiration is running dry, to go back and draw reference to the foods that I’ve made, eaten and enjoyed. 

This has been a great creative exercise because knowing that I’m going to photograph my food makes me put more effort into making it look pretty and playing with the colours, shapes and composition on my plate! 

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_MA 12: Go to a Music Festival. Stay Sober.

This Mini Adventure was pretty fun! I’m not really one for music festivals, But I absolutely love Basha Uhuru Freedom Festival because they always have the most awesome acts preforming, There’s a diverse group of people (that wear the most amazing sneakers) that attend the festival, it isn’t far, and I don’t have to camp out in  a tent for an entire weekend. This time round I went with my friend, Kevin, and we had the best time ever. 

Staying sober at the event was genuinely the easiest thing to do because I don’t drink, because alcohol is gross. 

In terms of creativity, this time round I learnt to just go with the flow. To enjoy the music even if I don’t know the act on stage, to embrace the strangers dancing around me, and to smile and have fun. 

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_MA 11: Spend Time In A Place Where You Are A Minority

Well...this is every single day of my life in class at OWI. That is all. 

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_MA 10: Be a Vegan/ Vegetarian For A Week

So pictured above is a Vegan spin on burgers (lentil patties) and fries (green beans) that I MADE for lunch the other day. The one on the left has a pepper-jelly and sweet beet+horse radish mustard base, with rocket and sun dried tomatoes. The one on the right has a hummus base with cucumber, parsley and carrots. 

I did the vegan thing for a week, and it’s been so amazing that I kind of just didn’t stop doing it. It’s been almost 2 months now.

In terms of my creativity, out of all the creative passport tasks so far, I feel as though this has been the most creatively-growing task. It really just forced me to think out of the box in terms of what I eat on a daily, to look for all sorts of recipes, prepare new types of foods, and play with flavours and composition when i put my food on a plate. totally loved this task!

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_MA 9: Try Spending No Money For 3 Days In A Row

Well, I’m a serious “budget-er” (if that’s even a word), so this mini-adventure wasn’t much of a challenge. I only spend money when I need to, on stuff that is within  budget. So 3 - 4 days often go by where I don’t spend any money. I feel this is great because it forces you to be creative in a variety of ways. For example, say you need a break from working and you really want to go out; you can take a leisurely walk around your neighbourhood without spending any money, or to sit in your favourite spot in your yard and listen to your favourite music. There are several ways to have fun, without spending any money! 

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_MA 8: Listen To a New Music Album You Wouldn’t Normally Listen To:

So I listened to American Rapper, Milo’s, latest record titled “Who Told You To Think??!!?!?!?!” probably more than 5 times. It was amazing. It’s rap music, and I love rap music; but I don’t listen to Milo. My friend, Seth, kept posting and recommending the album on Instagram a bunch of times, but I didn’t think to listen to it. A week ago I was speaking to another friend of mine and he told me how he’s currently lowkey obsessed with the record, and that I should give it a listen. Needless to say, I too was hooked and obsessed with the beautiful artistry that is this album. It’s deep, raw, honest and experimental. These are qualities that I think make a work of art a success, and It was a reminder to think about, and craft my own visual artworks with intent, in order to communicate with, and evoke emotion in people.  

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_MA 7: Attend At Least 2 OWI Events

So a couple months ago I went to Illustration Superstation, which was pretty rad. This is the third year in a row that I’ve gone, and it never ceases to amaze me how stressful it is to draw on the spot, with an actual pen or paintbrush, unable to push cmd+d if I make a mistake. It definitely challenges my creativity in the sense that I have to draw without using a reference really, and I have to do it in front of other people. 

This past weekend I went to the iMPAC Film Festival. What a blast. I’m pretty sad that I was only able to attend on one of the four days, and I wasn’t able to watch that many films. The day took an unexpected turn; instead of it becoming about really being immersed in, and taking the art seriously, it was more of a reunion with old friends who have already graduated from Open Window. My favourite thing (and probably the most creative thing I did at iMPAC) was the Amuse Design Playground. My friends and I spent at least an hour in total, messing around, creating compositions and taking photos. 

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_MA 6: Eat Something Culturally New

April was an awesome month. I went to a cool poetry concert, I graduated, and I had the privilege of being invited to a Burmese cultural festival!

 Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, is a country in Southeast Asia. The Burmese diaspora here in Pretoria have a cultural festival once a year at Laerskool Pretoria Oos, filled with food and fun. I’m not a fussy eater, so I have no trouble trying new and interesting food. They had a ton of variety, and I experienced some new and very different tastes. For the most part, I thoroughly enjoyed it. There were only one or two flavours that I was a bit uncertain about. I would DEFINITELY recommend Burmese cuisine to anyone looking to try something new, especially if you like bold, spicy and punchy flavours!

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_MA 5: Read the biography of someone you don’t admire

The title of this is kind of misleading because I didn’t exactly do that. Instead, I watched a documentary on someone who I didn’t even know existed. Here goes. So a few weeks ago I went to the screening of the Netflix series, Abstract. Side Note: Abstract is basically THE best series ever in the world and everyone should see it. So the series follows a handful of creatives (each episode follows a different creative) as they talk about their life, career and creative process. The episode I watched followed Nike shoe designer, Tinker Hatfield AKA the best dude in the world. I was struck by a lot of things about Hatfield and his process, but the thing i found most precious was his ability to explore narrative through something like a shoe. Towards the end of the episode he talks about the design of the Air Jordan 20s and how they are a ‘symbol’ of Jordan’s career. His approach to the design of the shoe and the way he managed to tell a story through it was truly mind blowing. I really love Tinker Hatfield because he brought it home. I personally am in love with narratives, because life is made up of them. They are something that I would like to stand out in my work. My main mission is to tell stories through art, which is what Tinker Hatfield does. So that’s inspiring and encouraging.

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_MA 4: Bake something you find intimidating or complex

I baked cupcakes!!!!!!! Sheesh, so this was quite a crazy experience. My church had a baking contest last week, and i decided to enter. So my initial plan was to make white chocolate and lavender ice-cream (I know that’s not a baked good, but to be perfectly honest with you, I don’t enjoy baking, because I feel like when stuff is in the oven I have no control). Come Friday (the day of the contest) I had left it too late, and would not have enough time to make homemade ice cream. So I decided cupcakes. Only problem is I don’t like baking. So I went to Clicks and bought this adorable cupcake-baker-thing that looks like a toaster/ sandwich maker. You just pop your batter in to the little moulds, close the device, and “bake”. I also needed to decide on the flavour of my cupcakes. I was still really hung up on the idea of white chocolate and lavender. Problem is I couldn’t find a cupcake recipe for that. So I had to improvise. It was also my first time making cream cheese icing. A lot went wrong while I was “baking” and I had to improvise my way through the entire process. Nonetheless, it was a success! The cupcakes tasted super yum, and I won the “best looking dessert” award for the baking contest! In terms of application to my artwork, I realise that it doesn’t hurt to reappropriate a recipe/ concept/ idea and improvise when things seem as though they aren’t working. 

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_MA 3: See a film you have no interest in seeing

Okayyy, so this one kinda doesn’t count, but i’m putting it up anway. A week ago I went to go watch a screening of Kubrick’s 1980 film, The Shinning. The reason why it doesn’t count is because it was a compulsory screening, so I had no choice, and also, I watched The Shinning once when i was like 4 (but I only remember the scene with the lady in the bathtub because that sort of stuff scars you for life). I really had no interest in seeing the film because I know that it’s scary, and I don’t like scary films. My experience? Not too shabby. The film wasn’t as scary as i thought it would be. I found the story interesting, and the discussion that we had afterwards about how it was made, and all the cool techniques that were used caused me to gain a lot more insight, and respect for the cast and crew of the film. Although I hate to admit that by the time it ended and I got to my car, ready to leave and go home, I’d kind of forgotten about it. I can’t really say that I learnt anything here to apply to my own personal artwork. I don’t know...maybe to create something a bit more scary, because my work is so not scary... 

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_MA 2: Attend an art exhibition

To be perfectly honest with you, I’ve attended like a bijillion art exhibitions in the last two months!  This is how it all began: My good friend Albert and I decided to go and have a day out at the Keyes Art Mile in Rosebank a few weeks back. Had a seriously fun time. We visited all of the galleries within the area checking out all of the exhibitions. One of my favourites has to be the one pictured above. This is part of Mikhael Subotzky’s WYE video installation. The piece was so super experiential. We walked into the gallery and it was super dark, and there was beach sand everywhere. I mean EVERYWHERE. It was the best. The piece is Subotzky’s exploration of the white male psyche. What I found so cool about this installation is all the different media it was made up of. Video, Photography (stills from the video) as well as some mixed media pieces based off of the stills from the videos. It was such a cool experience, and it showed me how I could even stretch a single concept over a variety of media, having fun and experimenting throughout the whole experience!

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_MA 1: Go for a walk in the city CBD

Before I begin, I’d like you to know that “MA” in the title, stands for “Micro Adventure”. So a couple of weeks ago i visited Johannesburg not once, not twice, but THREE times! Braamfontein to be specific. I wouldn’t necessarily say that it’s the CBD. But it’s slap bam in the middle of the city and there’s a lot of business that goes down there. The first of the three times was particularly interesting. I’d decided to do a spontaneous trip to the city (bear in mind, I live in Pretoria). I was wearing a t-shirt and flip-flops. When I got to Braamfontein it was super overcast. Nonetheless, I parked my little car, and went on a solo little mission to the nearby art galleries. As i stepped out of one of the galleries, the rain came pouring down. I quickly grabbed my umbrella and continued to walk about the area, popping in and out of the little shops on Juta street. What made this experience super cool is the fact that I was so not dressed according to the weather. Yes, I was freezing cold, and my feet soaking wet but it kind of added to the spontaneity of the situation. As I waited for the storm to calm, I had the opportunity to interact with all of the super cool characters manning some of the stores in the area and was so encouraged by their openness and friendliness. Maybe i should just roll with it more often, and be more spontaneous in the work that I create. Also, here’s to more spontaneous, successful trips to the city!