[Applause]
so I have what made this stone and it’s
just a simple white stone which has been
transformed to stand for something much
more an honest is remember written the
word survival along with some simple
illustrations of some fish stars and
water but why I carried this to Iceland
with me from Ireland that’s another
matter
in 2014 I opened an exhibition and this
was to be my return to the world of Arts
creation after a few years of a gap and
as part of that US exhibition I asked
the audience to participate by taking a
white stone pretty much exactly like
this one and expressing our creativity
had meant to them in their lives and the
response was really inspiring it had
everything from speaking without words –
magical freedom liberation survival and
you wait to see and I’ve actually had a
really huge impact on me as it caused me
to realize that my suspicions were
correct the creativity in creative
expression held a really dear space in
the hearts of those people who had
participated in the project but on the
other hand it also caused me to realize
that there was many stones that remain
blank no one had ventured close to
express themselves and this is something
that stayed with me for a few weeks and
months afterwards and at first I
reflected it back on myself and I
thought okay maybe the project was
stupid or maybe people didn’t have an
opinion on the matter and then I kind of
came to the conclusion that maybe people
were afraid to express themselves and
there were still maybe people were
afraid to be seen expressing themselves
for fear of judgement what other people
might think you know for me creativity
is it’s an incredible potential and it’s
a gift that we all have and it’s not
something which shall be reserved
specifically for artists it’s like this
muscle and the more we exercise that it
becomes stronger and more relevant in
our day-to-day lives it’s a valuable
method and tool for expression and in
some cases it can actually liberate the
mind itself and I’ve come to realize
over the years that it’s not so
important what you do with your
creativity but it’s the actual taking
part in the creative process where the
real value lies
creativity is not necessarily a taking
class or or going and learning some
artistic medium instead I’m actually
suggesting that you find your own flow
with something so instead of learning
how to play an instrument and taking a
class and guitar for example I’m
suggesting that you actually got just go
and find a guitar pick it up and strum
and see what happens when it comes to a
bedtime story and then you with your
child you can make up and use your
imagination and come up with this
beautiful imaginative tale which really
stimulates your child’s imagination
instead of grabbing that generic bedtime
story book that everybody has you can
actually just go to the fridge and pull
out all the ingredients and mix mash
them together and develop your own
tastes and styles that you’re cooking
you just get rid of the cookbook
altogether and if you take a class in
drawing a new figure you could instead
just let yourself free flow out into a
page and see how you see the body in
your own individual way and that could
be abstracted surreal or realist there
are no rules and this is exactly what
I’m talking about when I’m talking about
creativity I’m actually talking about
these pure moments of presence you know
they’re organic they’re rich they’re
intuitive they’re free-flowing you’re
thinking on your face you’re not afraid
to try something new and it’s not this
learning of a skill because that can be
picked up at any time so creativity is a
chess has this incredible potential to
take us out of ourselves and allow us to
look at everything from a different
perspective and given what’s going on in
the world around us at the moment I
think it’s actually more important than
ever if we look at things today we can
see that the individual has been
mass-marketed everything clothes food
technology cars lifestyle everything has
been commodified but yet we’re told were
free but I certainly question if we are
you know many of us as individuals we
have ideas but then we squash them we
don’t follow through with them we’d go
oh that’s stupid I can’t do that and
then instead we find yourself selling
our time in exchange for monetary
compensation and I often find myself
questioning whether we’re locked within
this chains of what this consumer eyes
model offers offers us as freedom
and you know we live in this world which
is filled with these boxes countless
nice safe compartmentalized little boxes
and sure we align ourselves to them sure
we identify with them they make us feel
safe and secure and part of the pack but
I’m really questioning whether they’re
actually holding us back you know the
mass populace they tend to to not break
free from the flock creatively they tend
to follow trends remain distracted and
nobody really dares to be different and
I think this is something that right now
as the boxes they’re crumbling at our
feet on a daily basis at the moment and
I really think our individual creativity
if this is our moment that it needs to
shine we need to we need to start
embracing it we need to I see us as
these vastly intelligent beings and I
actually do believe that it’s not too
late that we still have everything that
we need to fix things we have it in our
hands in our heads in a hurts and we
need to just draw on this and we need to
find the space where we can but it’s
like the stones project if all this is
just there waiting for us I’m finding
myself questioning now why aren’t we
doing it and why are we holding
ourselves back and exactly like the
stones project I’ve come to the
conclusion that it’s fair so it’s not
just one fear it’s actually many fears
it’s fears of expressing ourselves fears
of being seen fears of standing out from
the crowd
fears of not making ends meet fears of
succeeding fields and fears of failure
as well and it’s all these incredible
fears which are kind of keeping keeping
a step back so if we choose to embrace
our creativity and embrace our creative
path then it is make no mistake it is
stepping across a fear of every
proportion I’d like to see it like an
unlocking of the locks and creativity
has this ability of problem resolution
attached to it because generally when we
come up with a creative idea it’s not
something we’ve thought of before so we
need to develop it and we need to
nourish it and allow it to flourish and
in doing that and in they being part of
that process we discover something so
amazing even though it’s
masterpiece and even though it’s not
going to be what you thought it was
going to be but you what you find there
is that you’re capable of doing more
than you thought you were capable of
doing yesterday and the more you go into
this and on a daily basis the more you
push yourself out of your comfort zone
the more this increases and the more
this can change your life and enhance
your life in countless ways it’s really
it’s an absolutely incredible thing and
creativity is this you know it greets
you in every frame of mind that you’re
in and no matter if you’re happy sad
angry depressed you can tap it at any
stage and it can you can use it to help
you through and help you through a
process or discover something new about
yourself or so just to take you on an
example with me a few years ago I found
myself at a remote lake in the Midlands
of Ireland and I had headphones on I was
listening to my music and as I was
listening to my music I felt my body
just wanted to start to dance to the
rhythm and the lake was abandoned there
was nobody there but the most
interesting thing was I was paralyzed I
couldn’t my body wasn’t doing anything
and no matter how much I tried to tell
it to nothing was happening and this was
something that actually really
frightened me and I realized that
something was blocking me and that I
needed to unlock it in some way so I
took upon myself to take up something
creative every day for the next couple
of weeks and so just kind of investigate
to see what happened and as I did this I
did everything from drawing on a page to
going out in nature singing in the
shower writing some words to him I mean
absolutely everything cooking dressing a
little bit creatively I probably did
force myself back to the lake to dance
there was just so many things that I
tried and as I did this the blocks
dissolved my confidence increased and
the projects I took on a daily basis to
became more daring and personally
challenging and as I was pushing myself
out of my comfort zone I was realizing I
was expanding my horizons everyday and
this has a huge hugely important
impact on us and often though you hear
or many people have said to me certainly
over the years you know I can’t do that
I’m not creative I’m not an artist it’s
not for me but actually in truth
creativity belongs to us all it’s
something we all have and there are
certainly moments and times in life
where you know verbal expression is not
the most appropriate way to deal with
something and I can tell you that for
certain this is why I start to walk in
the path as an artist because for me my
creativity has come to my aid on so many
different occasions and it’s provided me
this space the safe space to deal with
situations people and events that I
couldn’t hope to deal with in any normal
manner you know in fact most of my most
of my childhood I actually spent like
this walking around the house or I was
in hours of dialogue with myself as many
different characters I used to drive my
family nuts and it was I was using my
creativity and my imagination as a way
to escape a way to to access another
reality because I didn’t want to be
where I was and I grew older and I
started to analyze a little bit and and
I saw what I was doing and with that I
kind of consciously shifted my approach
and so instead of now using my
creativity as a way to run and hide I
actually began to stand firm and express
myself and this is what led I guess to
me becoming an artist in the first place
and I’ve caught you know I’ve come to
realize I’ve been practicing as an
artist for a better decade now and I’ve
come to realize that it has this role
and responsibility that I have to
express myself honestly and openly and
often and that’s what I’m here to do but
it’s not only what I’m here to do as an
artist it’s what I’m here to do as a
person that’s what we’re all here to do
and you know creativity is it’s
something that’s within us and it’s
we’re all this unique sum of all of our
own experiences so what you guys have is
vastly different from everybody else
here and we’re all this unique sum of
experiences
and so we can all tap things and
approach things from different aspects
and that is incredibly important and I
really feel that given the world at the
moment and just life at the moment and
the way it is that our freedom of
expression is the actual only freedom
that we have and I see it as one of the
most valuable things that there is and
creativity you don’t have to do anything
big and Brandon extreme you can actually
do anything from you can be in your
garden you can be decorate your home in
a specific way how you communicate with
your family how you how you work with
the imagination of your children and
kind of cause it to to grow and nurture
as’ or in your community you can engage
yourself with social things that are
going on you can pass political
commentary or you can you can involve
yourself in in protest in a creative way
you can use it on a personal level to
release some psychological emotional
trauma or if there’s something you just
can’t process out in a normal way you
could you can put it into a painting you
don’t even have to think about it you
just let yourself flow and it’ll comment
and maybe it is a case of survival in
these days that we do really need to
think about how we’re approaching
creativity and our ideas and and how we
look as other people when they have
ideas and that maybe we should really
begin to nourish this and people because
this could be the make-or-break for all
of us and creativity has this ability to
to take us out of herself in our world
and let us see things from a different
angle and you might just be surprised to
find that we might find some solutions
there and as you wander along this path
using your creativity I guarantee you
you will find an aspect of yourself that
you might not know existed and it’s
going to be very happy to see you I’m
very happy that you’re finally coming to
let it speak and voice itself and be
present we don’t control how long we’re
here for or what happens to us but what
we do control is how we get to express
that out and how we get to how we get to
mark our time and space
here and creativity I see it as our
toolbox as a way we can we can dip into
us when we have an issue that we need to
resolve or there’s a problem or we need
to look at things from a new angle or
sometimes we just need to lighten the
load to make things a little fun for a
while
and definitely creativity is that too
toolbox for that but the most important
thing that I want you to remember is
that you guys are all potential works of
art creativity is a choice that we all
participate we choose to participate and
to engage creatively with the world or
not so on that choice is done to you
thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
so I have what made this stone and it’s
just a simple white stone which has been
transformed to stand for something much
more an honest is remember written the
word survival along with some simple
illustrations of some fish stars and
water but why I carried this to Iceland
with me from Ireland that’s another
matter
in 2014 I opened an exhibition and this
was to be my return to the world of Arts
creation after a few years of a gap and
as part of that US exhibition I asked
the audience to participate by taking a
white stone pretty much exactly like
this one and expressing our creativity
had meant to them in their lives and the
response was really inspiring it had
everything from speaking without words –
magical freedom liberation survival and
you wait to see and I’ve actually had a
really huge impact on me as it caused me
to realize that my suspicions were
correct the creativity in creative
expression held a really dear space in
the hearts of those people who had
participated in the project but on the
other hand it also caused me to realize
that there was many stones that remain
blank no one had ventured close to
express themselves and this is something
that stayed with me for a few weeks and
months afterwards and at first I
reflected it back on myself and I
thought okay maybe the project was
stupid or maybe people didn’t have an
opinion on the matter and then I kind of
came to the conclusion that maybe people
were afraid to express themselves and
there were still maybe people were
afraid to be seen expressing themselves
for fear of judgement what other people
might think you know for me creativity
is it’s an incredible potential and it’s
a gift that we all have and it’s not
something which shall be reserved
specifically for artists it’s like this
muscle and the more we exercise that it
becomes stronger and more relevant in
our day-to-day lives it’s a valuable
method and tool for expression and in
some cases it can actually liberate the
mind itself and I’ve come to realize
over the years that it’s not so
important what you do with your
creativity but it’s the actual taking
part in the creative process where the
real value lies
creativity is not necessarily a taking
class or or going and learning some
artistic medium instead I’m actually
suggesting that you find your own flow
with something so instead of learning
how to play an instrument and taking a
class and guitar for example I’m
suggesting that you actually got just go
and find a guitar pick it up and strum
and see what happens when it comes to a
bedtime story and then you with your
child you can make up and use your
imagination and come up with this
beautiful imaginative tale which really
stimulates your child’s imagination
instead of grabbing that generic bedtime
story book that everybody has you can
actually just go to the fridge and pull
out all the ingredients and mix mash
them together and develop your own
tastes and styles that you’re cooking
you just get rid of the cookbook
altogether and if you take a class in
drawing a new figure you could instead
just let yourself free flow out into a
page and see how you see the body in
your own individual way and that could
be abstracted surreal or realist there
are no rules and this is exactly what
I’m talking about when I’m talking about
creativity I’m actually talking about
these pure moments of presence you know
they’re organic they’re rich they’re
intuitive they’re free-flowing you’re
thinking on your face you’re not afraid
to try something new and it’s not this
learning of a skill because that can be
picked up at any time so creativity is a
chess has this incredible potential to
take us out of ourselves and allow us to
look at everything from a different
perspective and given what’s going on in
the world around us at the moment I
think it’s actually more important than
ever if we look at things today we can
see that the individual has been
mass-marketed everything clothes food
technology cars lifestyle everything has
been commodified but yet we’re told were
free but I certainly question if we are
you know many of us as individuals we
have ideas but then we squash them we
don’t follow through with them we’d go
oh that’s stupid I can’t do that and
then instead we find yourself selling
our time in exchange for monetary
compensation and I often find myself
questioning whether we’re locked within
this chains of what this consumer eyes
model offers offers us as freedom
and you know we live in this world which
is filled with these boxes countless
nice safe compartmentalized little boxes
and sure we align ourselves to them sure
we identify with them they make us feel
safe and secure and part of the pack but
I’m really questioning whether they’re
actually holding us back you know the
mass populace they tend to to not break
free from the flock creatively they tend
to follow trends remain distracted and
nobody really dares to be different and
I think this is something that right now
as the boxes they’re crumbling at our
feet on a daily basis at the moment and
I really think our individual creativity
if this is our moment that it needs to
shine we need to we need to start
embracing it we need to I see us as
these vastly intelligent beings and I
actually do believe that it’s not too
late that we still have everything that
we need to fix things we have it in our
hands in our heads in a hurts and we
need to just draw on this and we need to
find the space where we can but it’s
like the stones project if all this is
just there waiting for us I’m finding
myself questioning now why aren’t we
doing it and why are we holding
ourselves back and exactly like the
stones project I’ve come to the
conclusion that it’s fair so it’s not
just one fear it’s actually many fears
it’s fears of expressing ourselves fears
of being seen fears of standing out from
the crowd
fears of not making ends meet fears of
succeeding fields and fears of failure
as well and it’s all these incredible
fears which are kind of keeping keeping
a step back so if we choose to embrace
our creativity and embrace our creative
path then it is make no mistake it is
stepping across a fear of every
proportion I’d like to see it like an
unlocking of the locks and creativity
has this ability of problem resolution
attached to it because generally when we
come up with a creative idea it’s not
something we’ve thought of before so we
need to develop it and we need to
nourish it and allow it to flourish and
in doing that and in they being part of
that process we discover something so
amazing even though it’s
masterpiece and even though it’s not
going to be what you thought it was
going to be but you what you find there
is that you’re capable of doing more
than you thought you were capable of
doing yesterday and the more you go into
this and on a daily basis the more you
push yourself out of your comfort zone
the more this increases and the more
this can change your life and enhance
your life in countless ways it’s really
it’s an absolutely incredible thing and
creativity is this you know it greets
you in every frame of mind that you’re
in and no matter if you’re happy sad
angry depressed you can tap it at any
stage and it can you can use it to help
you through and help you through a
process or discover something new about
yourself or so just to take you on an
example with me a few years ago I found
myself at a remote lake in the Midlands
of Ireland and I had headphones on I was
listening to my music and as I was
listening to my music I felt my body
just wanted to start to dance to the
rhythm and the lake was abandoned there
was nobody there but the most
interesting thing was I was paralyzed I
couldn’t my body wasn’t doing anything
and no matter how much I tried to tell
it to nothing was happening and this was
something that actually really
frightened me and I realized that
something was blocking me and that I
needed to unlock it in some way so I
took upon myself to take up something
creative every day for the next couple
of weeks and so just kind of investigate
to see what happened and as I did this I
did everything from drawing on a page to
going out in nature singing in the
shower writing some words to him I mean
absolutely everything cooking dressing a
little bit creatively I probably did
force myself back to the lake to dance
there was just so many things that I
tried and as I did this the blocks
dissolved my confidence increased and
the projects I took on a daily basis to
became more daring and personally
challenging and as I was pushing myself
out of my comfort zone I was realizing I
was expanding my horizons everyday and
this has a huge hugely important
impact on us and often though you hear
or many people have said to me certainly
over the years you know I can’t do that
I’m not creative I’m not an artist it’s
not for me but actually in truth
creativity belongs to us all it’s
something we all have and there are
certainly moments and times in life
where you know verbal expression is not
the most appropriate way to deal with
something and I can tell you that for
certain this is why I start to walk in
the path as an artist because for me my
creativity has come to my aid on so many
different occasions and it’s provided me
this space the safe space to deal with
situations people and events that I
couldn’t hope to deal with in any normal
manner you know in fact most of my most
of my childhood I actually spent like
this walking around the house or I was
in hours of dialogue with myself as many
different characters I used to drive my
family nuts and it was I was using my
creativity and my imagination as a way
to escape a way to to access another
reality because I didn’t want to be
where I was and I grew older and I
started to analyze a little bit and and
I saw what I was doing and with that I
kind of consciously shifted my approach
and so instead of now using my
creativity as a way to run and hide I
actually began to stand firm and express
myself and this is what led I guess to
me becoming an artist in the first place
and I’ve caught you know I’ve come to
realize I’ve been practicing as an
artist for a better decade now and I’ve
come to realize that it has this role
and responsibility that I have to
express myself honestly and openly and
often and that’s what I’m here to do but
it’s not only what I’m here to do as an
artist it’s what I’m here to do as a
person that’s what we’re all here to do
and you know creativity is it’s
something that’s within us and it’s
we’re all this unique sum of all of our
own experiences so what you guys have is
vastly different from everybody else
here and we’re all this unique sum of
experiences
and so we can all tap things and
approach things from different aspects
and that is incredibly important and I
really feel that given the world at the
moment and just life at the moment and
the way it is that our freedom of
expression is the actual only freedom
that we have and I see it as one of the
most valuable things that there is and
creativity you don’t have to do anything
big and Brandon extreme you can actually
do anything from you can be in your
garden you can be decorate your home in
a specific way how you communicate with
your family how you how you work with
the imagination of your children and
kind of cause it to to grow and nurture
as’ or in your community you can engage
yourself with social things that are
going on you can pass political
commentary or you can you can involve
yourself in in protest in a creative way
you can use it on a personal level to
release some psychological emotional
trauma or if there’s something you just
can’t process out in a normal way you
could you can put it into a painting you
don’t even have to think about it you
just let yourself flow and it’ll comment
and maybe it is a case of survival in
these days that we do really need to
think about how we’re approaching
creativity and our ideas and and how we
look as other people when they have
ideas and that maybe we should really
begin to nourish this and people because
this could be the make-or-break for all
of us and creativity has this ability to
to take us out of herself in our world
and let us see things from a different
angle and you might just be surprised to
find that we might find some solutions
there and as you wander along this path
using your creativity I guarantee you
you will find an aspect of yourself that
you might not know existed and it’s
going to be very happy to see you I’m
very happy that you’re finally coming to
let it speak and voice itself and be
present we don’t control how long we’re
here for or what happens to us but what
we do control is how we get to express
that out and how we get to how we get to
mark our time and space
here and creativity I see it as our
toolbox as a way we can we can dip into
us when we have an issue that we need to
resolve or there’s a problem or we need
to look at things from a new angle or
sometimes we just need to lighten the
load to make things a little fun for a
while
and definitely creativity is that too
toolbox for that but the most important
thing that I want you to remember is
that you guys are all potential works of
art creativity is a choice that we all
participate we choose to participate and
to engage creatively with the world or
not so on that choice is done to you
thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
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