Walking Through Epping Forest One Day

"If I am wise I do not try to take another into that strange placeless place of my thoughts, but I lead them into the forest and lose them amongst the trees, until they find the trees within themselves, and find themselves within the trees."

Clark E. Moustakas: Creativity and Conformity 1967

Wandering endlessly through Epping Forest one day with my good friend Joanne, I was delighted to catch a glimpse of a some shadowy shapes in the distance through the trees; steathily we crept forward and watched as a group of deer soundlessly glided by, we followed in their path stalking them via hoof prints in the soft woodland ground cathing up with them twice, before they darted of in spritely fashion each time we got anywhere near them.  After about four hours of walking I was on my last dregs of energy and aching all over my body after about 6 or   miles of clambering over logs and going up and down forest ravines, but as a seasoned rambler Jo was still inclined to push on as darkness was closing in, after much moaning and persuading on my part she relunctantly gave in, and after much zigzagging about we found our way of the forest and flagged down a passing taxi to take us to the nearest Tube station which was Epping Tube a further 2 or three miles away from where we were, a distance Jo had still wanted to walk in darkness through the forest!

Tired, broken and cold we made it back to mine, via several cans of beer purchased which I needed to over come the physical and mental trauma. But those deer made the whole day of walking worthwhile...........

St.Pauls and Finsbury Square "Occupy" protest

Like many others I've been visiting both protest camps whenever I've been able to over the past few weeks.  It's heartening to see all types of people come together with the single aim of instigating social change for the betterment of all rather than letting the top wealthiest 1% of the Uk (and the World) continue to manipulate the global economy to satisfy their own irresponsible greed to the detriment of the 99% of humanity. Not everyone can be there, but the protesters know that most people are there in spirit if not in being, and that the lucky ones who still have jobs, and affordable student courses to attend to have to maintain these processes of everyday living even as the capitalist economic structures, and political processes crumble and dismantle before our very eyes............most people don't like change, and we british historically, and in terms of our social nature tend to err on the side of conservatist caution; as is seen by the more vociferous protests on Wall Street in America.  But as history has shown again and again, it may take a while for the British people to shake themselves out of lethargy and our comfortable living standards of consumerist complancency, but once stirred, a most formidable collective fighting spirit can be aroused, and great combustible elemental passions previously neatly ordered and securely contained are released into an unstoppable force for the general good of humanity.........Cameron, Miliband, Bankers, Corporations, Big Business, Capitalists, Wealth Mongers, economic and social tyrants who continue to play haphazardly with the purse strings of our Nation.............................you have been warned!

Creativity, Community and Consciousness.

I completed the "Change Must Come: Art,Politics & Society course at City Lit University, it was a very helpful compliment and engaging companion to my own thoughts regarding the sociopolitical processes of art.  The tutor is writing his P.hD thesis on art squats (aren't we al!), and given my experiences of living in them asked if we could get together at some future point to discuss and collaborate.  I hope we do as it would only right to see some of the unique and outstanding creative things I've witnessed, and experienced (as well as some of the not so good) in a thesis or book.  It would certainly save me the future mental exertion of having to write about it myself in future.

Although I can cope with academia, it's  somewhat of an institutional effort for me, as I find myself having to suppress not just my revolutionary thought processes, but also certain aspects of my past life, in favour of the more conventional state of being, and purely rational analytical state of mind required for extended academic participation.  Further, the only P.hD area I could really stick with for three years full time would be Creativity Theory or the Sociology of Art, and Possibly Aesthetics at a stretch.   Anyway, despite the fact I don't have a spare £15,000 lying around to fund three years of research, as I doubt the establishment would consider funding me, the last acadamic I chatted with about even the remotest possibility of a P.hD looked at quite surprised that I would even be interested in returning to University,  and informed me that given my life experiences she really didn't think I needed one! 

So I've decided that in 2012 I'm going to take a more fluid approach to theorizing about my creative life experiences by enrolling on a 6 month Creative Writing course which should be enough at the very least to get a collection of short stories out of me before attempting the enevitable Book!

Practically, I'm in the continual organic process of thinking about, constructing, and developing The Creativity P.art.y, both online and off, and if anyone wishes to get involved of help out, please do so, you are more than welcome to jump into the relative unknown.  The Party badly need a treasurer, and secretary, which are just paper titles to keep the Government out of my business as I co-ordinate the next event.

I don't care for titles or hierarchies myself as I have seen on countless occasssions how they limit and suppress both individual and community creativity.   Only recently I offered to help out a friend of a  friend, an"artist" I had never met before with a "small community event".  After some days of his constant moaning about lthe ack of his "friends" helping out (I'd been shouldering most of the work for about a week, as I could see he was flagging in the ideas department) I gradually realised he was another of those rigid mind sets I ofetn come across, the "I'm in charge, and everyone should follow my orders type", naturally after a week we butted heads as he slowly became overwhelmed by my creative suggestions and ideas, and the shocking fact that I had an independent mind, and considerable experience of the collaborative events.  He eventually became more and more stressed by the pressure of the event which resulted in him having violent outbursts, smashing things up, and eventually I had to take over the orgainzing of the whole event otherwise it would not have happend at all.    I had a great time, it was  a stunning piece of work, and everyone loved it, except of course the "organizer" who once everyone had left threatened to kill me if I ever entered his space again.

Some people are so desparate to be in the spotlight, they have no idea what type of spotlight they are talking about, or what being in the spotlight might actually be like, thay have little understanding of what it truly means, or how, if they unprepared it would probably destroy them.  You can not be drinking large amounts of alcohol, or taking so recreational drugs if your arts aim is be in the spotlight......wake up, and get a grip on yourselves. Having some form of talent is one thing, being able to bring that creative talent to bear through a sound healthy mind and body to share with others is another thing altogether as recent events in the music industry have once again shown us.

Regarding those artists who want to be great at the expense of others who may try to support them, I pity you, for in trying to opporess others, your ultimately imprison yourself. As a woman standing outside othe Rose & Crown pub in Woodford Green having a cigarette with her friends said to me in passing last Saturday evening,  "You either got it, or you haven't" to which I replied "Well in that dress, you've certainly got it!"

I am by no means perfect, but amongst good geniuine creative open minds I'm not far off!  In comparison to some I have met and worked with in my  life, I consider myself open, friendly, genuine, sincere, and comapared to many enlightened. I can see with some people these notions are superficial elements that they project on the surface of their everyday self to convinve themselves of their own high status in life, or to further thier own selfish ends.  I have three elements which I try to make central to my life everyday, which of course doesn't always work, its an ongoing process, and they are......Creativity, Community, Consciousness.......without these elements we are nothing, but to me they are more than just words or alliterative labels, they are life, and they are the central tenets of my life. David X

The Next Event

Details can be found through W.O.M, and the Creativity Party website (http://www.creativityparty.org/ - login).

My Place.

Studio-Workshop at Night.

"Matter And Time"

I'm enrolling on an "Art and Politics" course (to consilidate and challenge my thoughts on the socio-political aspects of The Show).  My former creative writing tutor teaches at the same University.  I really should be on her autobiographical writing course, but I keep putting it off as I'm not yet convinced my life is at that stage where i feel the need to write it all down, I'm still very much in the creative throws of actually living it. I'll leave those insubstancial shallow autobiographies to the vaccuous celebrity circuit of pulp fiction.

However, no matter how much I try to hide within the world, and evade the envitable truth of the task ahead of me; somehow, by following my own organic creative life-path, and led by the persistent demanding needs of my evolving self-concept of creative freedom, I somehow seem to move inexplicably closer, step by inscrutiating step, to the task of peeling away my own black and white skin, cracking open my skull, and delving into the innards of my grey matter, to display the intimate nature of my soul to the multitude, as they casually sit, eating snacks, or passing the time reading away on buses, trains, sofas, and planes whilst reading about the ups and downs of my life.

No doubt some cliched climatic denouement will result in the future book being banned by the Government, burned by extremists, and myself assassinated at the hands of some desparately ineffectual right-wing extremist. I only have to remember Malcom X, Martin Luther King, or even Andy Warhol (he survived) to know that if I somehow got a book published.......I could end up in all sorts of undesirable positions. No wonder I'm in no hurry to write the thing.

I came close to a potential title some years ago when i found myself living within the protective enclave of a large Community centred Art squat, I was going to call it: The life and times of an underground art revolutionary."  But then I got side-tracked when the Home Office offered me a job working inside prisons watching for potential terrorist recruits, leading to my unfortunate role in a prison riot, my enforced resignation, and my eventual dissappearance into the art-underground.

Other things you may wish to know, I grew up in Dr. Banardos children home until the age of ten, was adopted, and after a short period. I ran away aged 16 and became homeless living on the streets of birmingham, in and out of night shelters and hostels etc.

I became self-employed at 19, at 26 I enrolled at University of Manchester. Came up with a ground breaking theory of Creativity at 31..........and well that was that, the writing was on the wall (literally!).........."nothing revolutionary ever comes out of a University" Frederich Nietzsche.......so I left to be revolutionary independent thinker on creativity and art-activist within the World, rather than within the cloistered world of academic insularity.

Well that seems to cover the some of the chapters, what else do you would anyone want to know?   I was a guest guest of honour at a City event with the Lord Mayor of Birmingham, I've experienced beautiful relationships, became a roadie and promoter, a sprinkling of sex, not too much drugs , and quantities of alcohol, denied the possible chance of Oxford, more University courses, strange stories of Psychology, ESP, Mensa, Ireland, Norway, a trip around the Meditteranean (Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Russia), tried poetry, fighting  fascists, love at first sight, environmental protests, throwing paint over the police, flying over the "Cuckoos' Nest", the Tony Blair saga, watching Banksy sitting in the corner, Jenny, Julie, Hannah, Sandra, Hayley, Susan, Eileen, Jane, Joanne, Lorraine,Debbie, Michelle, Emily, Emma, Elizabeth, Poppy, and Stephanie and that's about it.

These are women I have had intimate relationships with, not in the physical sense, but as members of the spirtual sisterhood who have played, and continue to play a significant part within the processes of my memories, and organic creative thoughts, my existential learning and social development as a human being, without them I would probably ceased to exist years ago, or been walled up inside some form of Governement Institution, (A special Top Secret one no doubt1). My experiences of men (including myself) have led me to become a male-feminist. However I can work, socialise, and creatively collaborate with members of the male sex, but they have to very special, unique examples of reasonably enlightened maleness, otherwise its an unfortunate waste of my "Time".......

That was, and luckily, is still my life......the third section of my autobiography is ongoing...........hence The Creativity Manifest-Show, it just seems like the right time, so therefore, it is the right time.........

Philosophical Self Quotes (Feb: 2011)

"Creativity doesn't require art, art requires creativity"

"Society needs art, politics needs creativity"

(My Blue Period at 491 Gallery)

The Creativity Party (Non-profit social-arts organistion)

I'm currently working on developing the first temporary website of the Creativity Party.  Any person who wishes to consider becoming a member of the first Creativity Cabinet of The Creativity P.art.y please email:

Info@creativityparty.org

You do not need any creative, artistic, activist or political specialist knowledge or applied experience, but if you do have any of experience in any of these areas we would love to hear from you.

Creative community input of social-art content such as ideas, photos, events, video content, films, links etc that people wish to send for possible inclusion on the site, or that you may wish to display, share, show, or discuss at one of forthcoming informal social-art events, please get in touch.

The more you look, the less you find.

I feel 2011 is going to be a unique year of creativity for me.  Which reminds me I must track down a copy of "Can You Feel It" by the jacksons.  Every artist needs a selection of tunes to work by in the studio, music helps me to relax and get into a relaxed state that allows my unconscious creativity to emerge. 
I discover old vinyl in charity shops and eclectic music outlets down the backstreets of East London. The more I search for a specific tune the harder it seems to be to find, and when I don't search seem to magically appear at the most opportune, or at the strangest of moments.  The process seems to suggest to me that the more I look, the less I find, and the less I look the more I find just by randomly wandering about.

This to me is the essence of creative-social-artistic exploration and discovery. Some effort must be made to search out meaning, yet search too hard and you lose the very essence of experiencing the full creativeness and unexpectedness of life.