I’ve found a number of software applications recently that have increased my productivity enormously. I was checking out some of the Apps available for the iPhone when I came across a mind mapping App. It reminded me of mind mapping which I hadn’t thought about for ages, and I wondered if mind mapping software for the computer would be useful.  At first it seemed a silly idea, why not just mind map on a piece of paper.  But I’m incredibly messy – my handwriting can be almost illegible, even to me, if I don’t take care in writing and I can never find the kit in one place – paper, colored pens or pencils – and so I never get round to it.

After a quick search I discovered several contenders and narrowed the selection to a program called NovaMind.  I downloaded the 30-day fully-enabled trial version and used it every day, pretty much all day long, all 30 days.  It’s a fantastic way to take notes, to think through things, brainstorm ideas, and to plan for projects.  It’s a visual presentation and involves using color and symbols, along with phrases or key words.  The NovaMind program is intuitive to use, is very versatile and works smoothly.

Example 1 of Mind Map Created Using NovaMind Software

A search for mind mapping on the Internet quickly gives the main ideas about how it’s done.  The map begins in the center with the heading of the topic being considered, and from that point everything else branches out. It’s a visual representation of ideas and facts and it illustrates their relationships and relative importance. It’s phenomenal just how quickly it’s possible to review something in depth with a mind map.

Mind mapping experts suggest that key words are used rather than phrases, because the brain responds quickly to a key word and it makes it easier to remember.  It might be more effective, but I very much like having full phrases.  Not sentences, but enough words that I don’t have to guess my original meaning when I wrote the map.

Another liberating thing about a mind map is that you can go back later and add to it very easily, without disturbing anything already there.  The magic of having mind mapping software is that it always stays neat and legible, and it isn’t necessary to redraw it if it gets out of proportion or is too big for the paper you started it on, because the software handles all of that for you.  It’s also possible to link to web pages and other files and to specific branches in other mind map files.  I use it for everything now, both work-related and personal.

Example 2 of Mind Map Created Using NovaMind Software

A mind map is also visually easy to remember, and makes for a great tool for memorizing information.  The key to memorization is to review the topic frequently, especially for a short period right after studying it for the first time, and then periodically afterward until it’s successfully stored in long-term memory. It doesn’t take long, but the periodic reminder is key in moving the information from short-term to long-term memory. Once this has been done, the memories are securely stored in our long-term memory and no further review of the material is necessary, regardless of how much time passes.

Example 3 of Mind Map Created Using NovaMind Software

Mind maps make the review a quick and simple matter. The visual layout and color helps because apparently the fastest way to put something in long-term memory is by mentally photographing it.  If we can successfully take a mental snapshot in all its detail, then that’s it, we’ll remember it long-term.  If not, then we need to create associations within our mind to help integrate the new information into our memories.  Color, symbols, pictures, drawings, spatial arrangement, links – all present in mind maps – help to create these associations.

Some years back I read a book about mind mapping and made a few small maps on paper.  I found them intriguing and potentially helpful, but I didn’t use them often. Now I create new mind maps just about every day, and go back and refer to them almost as often.  Without the software I simply wouldn’t do it nearly as much or as effectively.

Example of Summary Mind Map Created Using NovaMind

I’ve even created mind maps of mind maps, linking the branches of the summary mind map directly to the more detailed mind map file. This allows me to keep track of what subtopics I have on a given topic, otherwise I wouldn’t even remember what information I have in the computer. Organization isn’t my strong point, even in the computer, and if it were all done on pieces of paper, or in a book, I’d be totally buried. To my surprise and relief, having the software has enabled me to tackle all sorts of projects efficiently and effectively.

Mind mapping is a tool that seems so basic as to be, well, for the simple-minded.  It’s a deceptively simple concept and, at first, might seem like overkill, but any help we can get with problem-solving, organization, and having a great place for just thinking up creative ideas, is a boost up.

If you haven’t toyed with mind mapping, you might just want to give it a try and see if you like it.  If you have, do you use it regularly?  what about it do you find it useful? what’s your favorite way to mind map? do you use mind mapping software? do you have any special tips you could share?  I’d love to hear from you, if you’d like to leave comments about mind mapping or whatever means that you’ve found beneficial for making sense of ideas and facts.

This seems to be the time when ebook readers and very small portable computers are starting to really catch on, not to mention all the ways it’s possible to read content on smart phones.

I recently read an article, The End of Book Publishing As We Know It, on Michael Hyatt’s blog.  In  the article there’s a video showing a slim, portable, color-format reading device Time Inc has developed for magazine content.  It allows for audio, video and normal text print content to be accessed very easily all in one place at the touch of a finger.

Time (no pun intended) will tell just how much these new devices and combinations of media will affect the conventional publishing industry, but it is already true that the publishing industry is experiencing tremendous changes.

There are many new opportunities available for the individual in this evolving technical environment.  Software applications at relatively low prices have made it possible for individuals to learn how to accomplish things that used to only be possible for experts with very costly equipment.  One such area is the ability to print a book using, for example, Adobe InDesign or even one of the applications made freely available by online book printers such as Blurb.

The tricky part that comes with having direct access to performing these highly specialised tasks is that in order to create quality products there’s a great deal for an individual to learn.  It’s crucial to assess which facets will be important to forwarding one’s own work.  There are a variety of reasons for limiting just how much you intend trying to learn to do:

1. learning a little of everything results in doing most things in a mediocre manner because there just isn’t enough time to truly develop more than two or three things fully and deeply
2. time spent on one thing means less time spent on another which could be more important in achieving your goal
3. you might end up spending much more time than you intended doing something you really don’t enjoy very much

So it’s really important to pick and choose what to learn, finding the balance that allows you to move forward with your goals, but doesn’t drain too much from your primary ambition and passion.

My primary passion is stories.  I think I could do without many things, but not stories, and stories with pictures, well, I just think that’s the ultimate.  I love movies, but have no interest in being directly involved in the film industry.  So I’ve been concentrating on understanding what it is about the visual elements that go into art that make it successfully communicative, and what elements are important to a story to make it really interesting and exciting.

I’m still experimenting with just how my passion will express itself in my art.  To try to get closer to this, I’ve been delving more deeply into color theory, composition, technique, and all types of art from fine art to illustration, cartoons, animation — everything I can set eyes on.  I’ve experimented with digital painting, and more watercolor and egg tempera painting techniques.

I have also been studying writing, visual storytelling and story-boarding, and am writing a couple of fiction stories to see where they go. For the more practical side of how to communicate the art, and possibly stories, during the last year I have completed courses in all of the Adobe Creative Suite applications.  My year’s subscription with Total Training will end on January 1st and so this spurred me to complete the InDesign and Illustrator courses during these last few weeks.  I have also studied web design, print design, composition, layout, and a little about typography.

So that’s it for the heavy-duty studying for me, thank goodness!  Now I need to develop my artwork so that it expresses my passion – and I’m not quite sure what that is yet in terms of style or subject.  I think it might be bound up in expectation, and if I can let that loose, my style should just be there. When I write I have no expectation and my writing style seems to be there just simple and unsophisticated, for better or worse.  I haven’t yet reached that with the art.

So here’s to the New Year, bringing new discoveries and challenges.  If you have any comments on what you think it’s important to learn in today’s environment, and/or if you have any advice on reaching your own style, I’d love to hear them.

Wheat almost ready to harvest

It has been a long time since the last post here on DweezelJazz Art blog.  There have been a combination of things that made this so.  What started it was that we lost our Internet connection for six weeks.  Our Internet Service Provider, who will remain nameless here, upgraded their service, but unfortunately they lost our connection altogether and never found it again!  So we switched providers.  In France it takes a long time for a new provider to set up the line. But we’ve been back online for a few weeks now and everything is working very nicely.

Green Summer Countryside

We’ve had a very unusual summer here – it has rained so much that everything has stayed green and it looks like the high Alps in summertime.  It’s absolutely beautiful.  The air has been cleaned every few days by another downpour and lots of wind, but we’ve also had a lot of bright, shiny sunshine.  It has been idyllic.

Corn Field

We’ve watched and heard the sparrows nesting in the eaves of our house.  The swallows and house martins, also living around here, are cleaning up all of the mosquitoes in the area – we haven’t been bitten once at home!  The swallows are fantastic to watch as they swoop gracefully back and forth, nearly colliding with the walls when they get close to the house.  The roosters and chickens in the large open field next to us have been announcing themselves loudly and are a real joy to watch as they bound and run across the tall grass, always busy.

Jet D'Eau Geneva Switzerland

It has also been an eventful summer, as a result of something that happened way back in February.  I went to the dentist to have a fixed orthodontic retainer glued back on. (Visits to the dentist have taken me frequently into Geneva and so I’ve witnessed summer in town too, as you can see in the photos.)  This simple goal turned out to be far more involved than I at first thought.  The dentist took one look at me, asked me all about any symptoms I experienced and then he announced that he thought he might be able to largely remove those symptoms:  migraines, nausea, dizziness, blurred vision, extreme fatigue, difficulty breathing, lung discomfort, neck and back muscle cramps, lack of sleep, and so on.

And, to my utmost amazement, in addition to the removal of these symptoms, I found that I no longer had reactions to being around perfumes, cleaning products and other toxic chemicals I have hitherto found increasingly difficult to endure.  I didn’t rush out to put these things in my environment, but it was fabulous not to feel like someone had laid out kryptonite around me every time I went out somewhere.

Place du Bourg de Four, Old Town Geneva, Switzerland

I’ve lived with these difficulties all my life and had come to accept them as part of life, at least my life.  So it has been with amazement that I’ve discovered that these myriad symptoms are indeed entirely due to jaw misalignment.  I’ve learned a tremendous amount about this in the last months;  it hasn’t been easy and has taken a huge amount of thinking and observing on my part, all the while trying to learn fast enough so as not to fall back into the abyss of pain-ridden exhaustion.  Life rarely offers a magic bullet.  My situation isn’t totally resolved and I’m still trying to find out if there’s a long-term solution to correct the jaw alignment.

Parc des Bastions, Geneva, Switzerland

The great thing is that along the way, there have been times during the last months that I’ve been the most pain-free I’ve ever been – in fact, I didn’t know what it was like to be that pain-free – didn’t know what it was like to have energy, and long, deep nights of sleep.  Fantastic!  So I took advantage of it!

Looking up at back of Old Town Geneva from opposite the Parc des Bastions

In June I finished the Total Training Online Course on Adobe Dreamweaver, and within a couple of weeks I designed a completely new look for DweezelJazz Art site, with new galleries and descriptive content for the paintings.

Then I worked on a number of drawings for paintings in egg tempera, inked them…

Inked drawings ready to glue onto the tempered glass.

and then glued them onto tempered glass.

Drawings ready to be underpainted, and then prepped for painting with egg tempera.

As I was doing this, and also preparing some drawings for painting in watercolor, Tony came up with a brilliant idea: what about creating a book of paintings?  Well, I have wanted to do something of that kind for a long time, dreaming about it.  I decided to bite the bullet.  I chose the subject, in fact, if I survive the first book, I plan to do a series of them: each book dedicated to a town and area in the Pays de Gex, France / Geneva, Switzerland area.

I started with a plan to fill a 60-page book, large format.  So I created a storyboard for the entire book, including image sizes and placement.

Storyboard for the first book.

Then I started drawing and drawing and drawing.

A drawing for the book.

I’m including scenes in towns and in the countryside around them, so that the book will give the feel of the place as a whole.

This is what I call a "cow bus".

Quite often at the beginning of summer, you can see tractors hauling a trailer full of cows out to the fields, and again in fall taking them back to the warmth of the barns.  It almost seems like the cows are being transported to school or something, so I call it a ‘cow bus’.

I’ve completed 64 drawings and have 18 left to do.  Then, all I have to do is paint them! I’ll paint them probably using a combination of ink and watercolor.  And of course add text to accompany the paintings.

Sunflower

So, if you’ve managed to read this entire post and have reached this far: thank you!  Thank you for reading this blog, and if you’ve been a reader for some time, thank you for continuing to read DweezelJazz Art blog.  I don’t post as often as I used to because I’ve had to prioritize the precious commodity of time, but I do plan to continue posting and have some photos of pretty places and countryside ready for future posts.  I’m very happy if you find it interesting and fun.  Life is full of beautiful things, to cherish and enjoy, and I try to share a little of that here.

This sunflower, for example,  just wouldn’t pose correctly for the photo – I reckon it was a bit drunk out there in the fresh air – couldn’t focus on having it’s photo taken!  But it is beautiful, nonetheless.

My niece, Elspeth Addicott, is going to Uganda this summer to spend six months teaching saxophone, flute, clarinet, and

Elspeth and her sister busking

oboe at a music school. She is just finishing her degree at the Royal Welsh College of Music and will be able to share the knowledge she gained during her four years there. She’s exceptionally talented at communicating and getting along well with all types of people, of all ages. I’m always very impressed by her skills.

British Airways has set up a competition in which they’ll give away free tickets to outstanding applicants. They include comments and ratings left by the general public in their assessment of the applicant.

I’m writing this post to ask if you could take just a few moments before the application end date,  March 29th, to go to Elspeth’s page on the British Airways site to rate and leave a comment on her application. In her own words: “BA are offering free flights to winners of their competition, which seeing as mine would be £500-£600, would be really really useful!”

Thank you,
cheers,
Nat

Dan Gilbert, Harvard professor, gives explanation for slow response to danger of climate change and environmental damage.

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Pollution and smog, along with increasingly strong cleaning agents, represent a growing health risk to the general population.

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A car air filter is very effective to reduce the amount of pollution we inhale while traveling in a car.

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Some chemically toxic situations are unavoidable: industrial scale oil spills, large fires, such as the 9/11 World Trade Center tragedy; but knowledge of the dangers enables us to make better informed decisions and choices.

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The importance of being well-informed about products we buy and use. The power of consumer choice.

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Advice I found useful from David Allen’s book: “Getting Things Done”. Some things in our lives are beyond our control, but understanding what is within our control and taking steps to optimize our efforts helps us to reach our goals.

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