Self Portrait

My first thematic. Its far from perfect.... but i am really happy with it. I am not a drawer, I generally am not good at it. I must say that I was surprised by the result though.

From personal experience though, I must say: drawing is so much easier than painting. If you focus on making your drawing look good and spend a lot of time on it, you will get good results. Painting on the other hand has so many different elements to it which makes it successful: colour, brush technique, paint/solvent ratios, shading.

Maybe the one isn't easier than the other, but from personal experience, I would say painting is much easier to mess up. 

Plus, my drawing is very idealized, i was too afraid to add detail. And the more you look at it, the more faults you see. Oh well, i'm happy with it. 

Natural Instillations

This is the product of a very productive long weekend. I have worked on everything that i have put off saying: "oh, I'll leave for the long weekend." Man, do i hate myself for doing that now. I want to try and finish all my work so that i can chill tomorrow and have a real break. 

Had a great afternoon at Gill's amazing house. Wowie... made the biggest fail pancakes... although it was not my fault. I think i am going to have get people at my house to redeem my pancake making skills. 

I finished the first of my thematic drawing in one weekend. So therefore my teacher is going to make me do many more, because we're suppose to be working on them for 6 months.... oops. I was way too eager beaver. 

MACRO

I realised the other day that 80% of my photos are macro shots. For people viewing this blog you should have noticed. Surprisingly I was quite surprised. I guess we get so caught up in what we do that we forget to step back and actually see what we're doing.

Anyway, i bought myself an amazing macro lens and these were some of the first shots i took with it just to try it out. There will be more coming and of better standard, promise. I'm also going to start posting more of my un-macro photos, just in case there are people out there who think i cant do anything else.

On the life side. I signed up for One Small Seed and got my own profile. To be honest I signed up because it would be SO cool if i could be featured in their magazine. Exposure man! that's what its about. Although I have no idea how i'm going to hold up two blogs. Just dont have time. Dont worry, i'll keep this one my main one.

Ode to Art

A true artist understands that art is a way of life. We are defined by it. Having the passion for art thrust upon you is not a blessing, it’s a curse. We must live life knowing that everything we do will never be satisfied unless it is fulfilled by art. We must study art accepting that we have the slimmest chances of material success, but knowing that there is nothing else that will satisfy our hunger for fulfillment.

we do not love art,

we do not like art,

we do not believe in art

We ARE art. 

Trio of Self

Day two of Long weekend: Went for a wonderful lunch at mystics with Ellen and Jess. Was superb catching up with my peeps. Decided to go for a run and take a new route. Too bad it was already 7 o'clock and this route didn't have any street lights. WOW! that was scary. I pretty much sprinted home and can therefore not stand up for more than 10 seconds without collapsing. 

The more I think about my future the more I start stressing about it. I've even resorted to putting myself under self hypnosis to facilitate relaxation. Its a vicious cycle of worry. I worry about myself stressing so much and so I avoid thinking about next year. Then i start getting nervous because I'm not making plans for my studies. AAH! I'm running in a circle that I can't escape from. 

I don't even know if I want to do a BA in Fine Art. I love art, it defines me, but do i want to go study it? I do not want to struggle making a living one day. And frankly I wonder if this degree is challenging enough for me. Not that i'm saying that it isn't a demanding degree, i know it is... it's just.
"just" is where it always ends and we are back at the same place where we started.

I think you dropped your strawberry:

Sorry forgot about this one :)

Winter Cleaning

Day one of Long weekend: went for an anjoyable night to the mall. Haven't been there in about a year, and now i remember why... I really dont like that place. Although it doesnt matter where you are, its who you with. Had great laughs, especially when I casually beat everybody at an arcade game 8 times in a row. And no, I do not secretly spend my weekends there. 

Future Plans: Going to see Elcat and Jones tomorrow for lunch at Mystic, uber excited!

Finally have a general idea of what and where i'm going to study next year. It's like a blue whale has been lifted off my shoulders. I dont think many people realise who havent recently been in our posisions how difficult it is. I almost stressed stomach ulcers wondering what i want to do with my life. Its some massive choices we have to make. How are we suppose to do this with hardly any life experience? 

Oh and these photos are just random photos that i'm trying to get out of the way so that i can get to the real deal! 

Keep it real people, be free and just always remind yourself that its about what you want to do, not what you have to. (within limits ofcourse, don't go failing matric because you didn't want to study.) 

Which reminds me: Theres a difference between wanting something for the sake of making life easier or wanting something for the fulfillment of your personal development. 

Food for Eating

I took these photos for a photography competition, the theme was "food for thought." The last 2 pics are of a grape vine, which is technically food... or at least i thought so. In case you were wondering... i didnt win :( but i cant win everything (modesty is for people who want recognition as a guilty pleasure). Although i do not like vanity and arrogance in people, but i will not deny that my photos are quite good, otherwise i wouldn't have won 2 photo competitions so far, but that's not my motivation. I do it for the LOVE and not recognition.

Long weekend this weekend! 5 days of restful chilledness. I am planning on seeing Ellen and Jess the weekend, can't wait to see my favourite peeps again. Also, going to try and climb Lion's Head on Monday with a couple of friends and randoms.... i really dont like randoms. When it comes to meeting new people i am social inept and retarded. Hope everybody has a great weekend!

For those partying it up this weekend, i am thoroughly jealous of you.

Obsessed Much?

Term 2 is busy getting hectic in the art department... i dont know whether or not i'm biting off more than i can chew. But this is my final year to prove myself. This is time to pull out all the stops. I have been working the last 3 years developing my artistic skill for this moment. I want it to be special, i need it to be amazing. Art has been my entire life, if i had to come up with something average it wouldnt do justice to my passion.

Oh, i took these photos last term for a our maths project. It was about matches (fun) I will take any opportunity to make an artwork or a photo shoot out of it. I'm cool that way.

Awaken

+LIFE+  is my new initiative to try and understand this tide of ever flowing time. This is the year in which I am suppose to make decisions that are going to effect my imminent future. It was then that i realized that i know nothing about life and what i want from it. All I know is that in 15-20 years time when i type: "michal kruger" into Google that a Wikipedia page will be devoted to explaining my amazing life should come up. (amongst other things)

Photographers have the privilege to start the seeing the world in a different light and start appreciating all its beauties. Perhaps through my photos i will be able to see my relation to this world? Its time to take a leap and start making the best of every moment! Here we go, I hope you enjoy the ride.

Watch It! (pun intended)

Sorry, i know that was hardly worth calling a joke. These photos represent my deep and significant feeling towards buying a new watch in the mall. That was sarcastic by the way. I bought a new watch the other day and my first thought was to take photos of it. Although i experimented with these cool editing techniques and making compositions out of line and blocks of shading. I rate it looks pretty good.

In all seriousness though... enjoy every moment because the clock doesn't stop ticking and you do NOT want to be caught regretting your past. Thats a shitty feeling if there ever was one.

Intervention!

Well yes... a long time it has been. But now we have been reunited! A lot has happened since i last posted, a lot indeed. For instance i won a camera in a photography competition. Single greatest moment in my life!. Here are some random pics that i took with. It's an amazing camera: Canon eos 1100D (for the geeky photographic people). These photos have no particular meaning, it was more practicing my new camera and getting used to it.

For those wondering, the top photos were from Christmas. We don't have random sparkly decorations in our house all the time and we don't eat ham all the time, although i wish we did :)

My internet is up and running like a well oiled machine, so if i ever stop blogging you can personally come up to me and punch me. I have no more excuses so ENJOY!