My love for the outdoors stem from a young age, the feeling of being completely emerged in nature was more rewarding than any number of play station games or gifted toys at that age and it seems as if nothing has changed swap the games and toys with a night of clubbing and I would still choose the freedom of hiking An Carn. I never felt that we had any restrictions growing up except being home before the street lights came on; a healthy doss of freedom to wonder and discover new places, to make decisions for myself and see the consequences, thats my definition of a balanced upbringing.
I notice myself going for a run when college work gets to much to handle, a short walk or something as simple as taking the time to stand in the back yard and watch the sunset on the mountains that form the valley. Disconnecting for a day to climb Sawel, explore An carn or trekking the Mournes its my release, a way to press the restart button and begin again. I prefer to enjoy these moments without having any reason to do them but just have the want.
Growing up I never had one dream job instead I had many jobs that caught my eye, an air hostess, a pilot, an architect, a fashion designer, a motivational speaker (yes you read right, I wanted to be this at 7 years old) the list goes on. There was one piece of job advice my dad gave to my brother and I when we were no age, “find something that you love to do, doesn’t matter what it is and find a way to get paid doing it, as long as you are happy” because of this I never worried, I kept on the subjects that made me happy along with a few that I wished never existed, I had to put a huge amount of work into my academic studies to get even close to success.
There was one subject that I always veered towards, art. I remember designing houses on recycled paper with birds eye views of how they would look on the inside, I doodled over every blank space in my homework dairy and changed the layout and art work on my bedroom wall more times than you could imagine. I considered being a F1 designer working on formula 1 cars but I realised I needed to know more about engineering than design, I wanted to be a fashion designer but felt that the fashion world didn’t make me spark, I thought about product design for a long time but fell out of love with it and stumbled across photography through my foundation art and design course after A-level. I appreciated good photography but I didn’t have a huge amount of confidence in myself or any equipment to learn, when I went to college I found fields within design that really caught my interest such as typography and graphics, I bought myself a canon EOS 600D and taught myself the tricks of the trade. I studying in america for third year, it opened my eyes up to a whole new word, I was in the heart of the wide west, an hour north and I was hiking in some of colorado’s fourteeners, an hour west and I was in the desert and hour east and I was skiing, the possibilities for activities were endless. Here I began to merge my interests of being outdoors and my love of photography; the outdoors inspired me to take pictures and my photos inspired me to go outside.
When I returned home there was nothing I wanted more that to emerge myself in the beautiful surrounds that so many of my international friends wanted to visit, we constantly look at far off countries being better than home instead we have simply become so used to them that they don’t seem special any more; ‘far off fields seem greener.’ I began exploring the places that I used to enjoy when I was hiking or orienteering with the scouts, between work and college I got the perfect balance of outdoor activities and adventures just like all those years ago.
In my final semester of college now and my last stretch towards the finish line it almost seems surreal to be here but this is my chance to show case all my interests and fields of art that I want to pursue, photography, typography, graphics and editorial design. Combined with my huge interest in caring for our environment, maintaining our heritage, story telling and the Sperrins, a place that I am proud to live. I brought my focus towards creating a printed magazine that focuses on this beautiful landscape and the people that help to shape it.
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