Keeping up appearances

It’s been just over 6 weeks since the break up of my most significant relationship to date, and I’d just like to pause for a moment to consider what I’ve done in that time… 

I have been very drunk, very often.

I have seen or spoken at length with several friends I hadn’t done either of these things with for a while.

I have launched my first ever Kickstarter campaign, had Skype meetings with Juany who runs Otra Cosa Network and made a lot of progress in organising my trip.

I’ve had two interviews for, and successfully been offered a new job.

I’ve given my notice at Raleigh.

I’ve been out dancing, I’ve gone to see shows, I’ve started listening to music again.

I’ve run, although admittedly not as much as perhaps I should have…

And all this time, I’ve felt just a tiny bit guilty. Because even though I’m sad, I’m not as sad as I expected to be, and I guess I’m realising just how liberating it can be to be on your own. 

So I suppose I’ve learnt that change can definitely be a good thing. I’ve learnt that getting comfortable, can actually be pretty uncomfortable, and that sometimes you need to take a step back before you realise that.

I really hope that he is also learning from this, and it is as beneficial to him as I already feel it might be for me.

Adios! (I have also been practising my Spanish…)

 

New machines

About two weeks ago the very lovely, but very old iMac that my brother Joe gave to me last year started to flicker horribly and then freeze altogether. It was at this point I began to wonder if maybe I should consider investing in something a little more modern for all my video editing and general creative needs. A fortnight later and I’m spending the day moving furniture around my room in the hope that I’ll be able to fit my new ‘super computer’ in somewhere. The first components should arrive today and hopefully next weekend we can actually build the thing! Expect many more videos in the near future!

Something else: a film about Peru

So I finally launched my  campaign last week. I’m off to Peru in June to help Otra Cosa Network by making a film (or possibly two films, depending how much footage I manage to take!) about their community projects.

It’s all very exciting but funding is definitely an issue. Otra Cosa Network is a small charity which relies on volunteers to run its projects – so the Kickstarter is hopefully going to help me get the film made without bankrupting myself in the process. I’ve never used crowd funding before but it seems that it can be really effective and it’s a nice way to involve others in your work as well.

Here’s a link to the campaign page. Check it out, pledge a bit, share about. Por favor.

Hasta entonces voy a trabajar muy duro mejorar mi español. Yo para esto he engañado y utilizado el traductor de Google lo que significa que probablemente es basura.

 

Yup, twice in a day.

Just wanted to show you this. It’s not exactly a masterpiece but it’s a start.

Long time no see.

I know, it’s been ages.

I suppose for a long time I didn’t do any creative work, not really.

Life has moved forward pretty quickly in the last year and I’ve realised now is the ideal moment for me to pick this up again and start getting work out there.

I am now studying MA Media Practice for Development & Social Change part time at the University of Sussex. The course has been great so far and I’m definitely learning a lot. This year I am focused on the theoretical units, overseen by the School of Global Studies. It’s been pretty challenging as the course modules are pretty academic and very different in style to anything I was used to at undergraduate level. I do like a challenge though, so I’m not complaining.

In three week’s time I finish the seminars in my current module and then I have no lectures at all until the autumn term. If I was studying full time I’d be doing my dissertation project (which could be written or practical) now, but since I’m not I’ve got a few months of relative freedom (at least on the four days a week when I’m not working in my paid job!) to do something exciting.

I’m really keen to get going with the creative media practice side of things. This is where my skills really lie and I want to make sure that when September comes around I’ve already got some film work made so that the modules don’t seem too overwhelming (as I believe they have been for some of the full time students this year).

So any work that I do and also things I see or go to that are interesting and inspiring, are going up here.

That’s it for now really!

Thames Bridges Bike Ride 2011

Two weeks tomorrow my brother Joseph and I will be cycling 33 miles each to raise money for the Stroke Association.

To donate money and sponsor us for this, please follow this link:

www.justgiving.com/isabelle-masters

Here’s some interesting facts from the Stroke Association that  might encourage donations-

•  An estimated 150,000 people have a stroke in the UK each year
• Stroke accounts for around 53,000 deaths each year in the UK
• Stroke is the third most common cause of death in England and Wales, after heart disease and cancer
• Stroke has a greater disability impact than any other chronic disease. Over 300,000 people are living with moderate to severe disabilities as a result of stroke
• Three times more women die from stroke than breast cancer
• 10,000 people under the of 30 will have a stroke each year
• For every £1 spent on cancer research in the UK , around 6p is spent on stroke research

So please give generously!

Thank you!

The Nursery E.P.

It’s all finished and it actually looks (and sounds, obviously) pretty cool.

Making more of an effort.

I keep forgetting that I should be keep this going and actually getting people to look at it. I’ve done some new art work for Josh’s E.P. which I’m pretty pleased with. This might not be quite what the final version looks like-

T-Shirts and Things.

Haven’t written for a long time, I suppose because I have been busy doing so many things. This post is not about all of those things though, it’s about a competition I have entered which is to design a T-Shirt for London based education charity Teach A Man To Fish. The aim is to not only create the design, but then to market it to the public and the winner will be the person who has created the best design AND successfully sold the most, with all the profits going to the charity. It’s harder than it sounds to get people interested, I thought I’d write about it on here as well and hope that more people will read it. The T-Shirts are available to buy at http://www.oo-nicetshirt.spreadshirt.co.uk and hoodies at http://www.zazzle.com/isabellelucymasters the design looks like this: 

It’s all over now baby blue.

It’s been pretty mad for the last month or so, but I feel as though now the work is finished I should check in. At least to show everybody what I’ve been doing. Life at the moment consists of ordering my possessions, throwing away the junk, and trying to work out what on earth I’m doing next. I’m in the midst of a million job applications, trying desperately to get something sorted for the autumn term.

Have a look at where the mushroom project ended up:

Along with the images were four jars of pickled mushrooms and this video

Yup.

I’m pretty pleased.