Mudboard Blog

Welcome to the official Mudboard Blog. Firstly, I (we) thought I would take this opportunity to say hello, and to say a great big thank you to the Mudboard community for their soulful, eclectic and creative works, feedback and reviews.

Secondly, I wanted to share the reasons for this blog. At Mudboard we have thought long and hard about the reasons for having a blog: should it be to update everyone about what’s going on at Mudboard? Should it be an informative type of bulletin board to tell you folks what’s going on in the world? Should it be about art or celebrity or promotion or the people on Mudboard itself?

In the end it has to be about everything around creativity…a creative cloud if you will. I mean, Mudboard is a technologically based ‘platform’ (that word sounds so formal – let’s call it an easy to access global exhibition space – ha, I feel a tag line being formed), but it should only be the tool – not the raison d’être – for creativity. The reason for Mudboard’s existence is centred around making people feel alive through creativity – whether you share it, recommend it, review it, buy it or sell it. As Sir Ken Richards put it “creativity is an aesthetic, a moment in our lives that makes us feel human, feel alive”.

There are many things today that make us feel anaesthetised. There’s so much to do (apparently) that we spend most of our time maintaining ‘cool tools’ and doing daily duties to keep up with everyone and everything. Maybe it’s time people communicated with their inner self, took stock of what it is to be human, and to start feeling alive. I recently picked up a pencil and started to sketch; something which I had not done for many years. The results were surprising – not on par with Degas, Dali, or Da Vinci – but surprising in how much I enjoyed taking time to create something, and then sharing it with others. It woke something up inside me, a dormant soul awaiting arousal – something that GaGa and et al could not. I love creativity; music is my most powerful mood enhancer and mood transformer; film moves me from the mundane to another time, place and person; writing gives me the imagination to form new visual and emotive worlds, and picture captures an instant in time, something that can be cherished and marvelled at. All forms have the ability to make us feel alive. And that’s what this blog should be; about creativity, about helping people fine tune their creativity; about opening up the massive world of art, film, writing and image; to have discussions; for the community to share experiences of creative events; and even to be controversial, away from the mainstream.

More importantly, it has to be something that you can contribute to – to comment on, to guest on the blog, to provide information and insight to people that read the blog and use Mudboard, or even those not using Mudboard.

So, to get the ball rolling comment here, or send a mail to help@mudboard, if you would like post a guest blog – to inform or teach the community any aspect of creativity. Or tell us what you’d like to see in this blog, or on Mudboard.

until next time – Nicholas

Mudboard has undergone a major design transformation recently, and to complement the changes, this blog will also be subject to some design changes in the coming days.

As you can see this blog has not been oveworked (about 3 posts in a year…zzz..zzz), but it’s the intention to use this blog more frequently, which wouldn’t be that difficult, as a way of interacting with the creative community…not just about Mudboard. Keep your eyes peeled, subscribe to the feeds and we’ll be back soon…

A regular contributor on Mudboard recently posted a great photo – Berlin Wall. The essence of the photo is a print on a wall depicting one of the infamous quotes regarding the ‘troubled’ times in Germany. The quote by Walter Ulbricht was “niemand hat die absicht eine mauer zu erricten” or “nobody intends to put up a wall”, two months after which the Berlin wall started being constructed. This led to some discussion and history lessons about the situation in Germany back then. What got me thinking though, was that such a simple image had such an incredible, if not happy, history to it – history that influenced the world. So, I started looking up other photos or images that had either incredible history behind them or indeed had changed a course of history, or had a major influence on people’s lives.

Here are a selection of 10 that I have chosen:

So there you have a little piece of history. The question is have you photographed something that has changed history or something that may have significant influence on the future? Maybe it’s a piece of crafted literature, or a short film, or even a cartoon or comic that could influence the people who read it. If so, share them on Mudboard, and I’ll post the best one’s in this blog.

Signing out for now…

Nicholas

It was a cold and dark night, the rain was beating upon the windows, the wind howled, unforgiving. I sat inside, transfixed to the mindless dross that the television was emitting. I was unhappy; bored; and sad. I needed to create. I prised myself from the cocoon that was security, turned off the dross and started to create. I created; words; images; song; movie, till the shackles were blown. The wind calmed and the rain subsided. Now, somewhere to put my creation. I powered up my computer and searched, high and low, pixel by pixel, domain by domain, until I found a place. But my creation – my soul – was soon lost in this black hole of haphazard content. When it was found it was abused – I was abused. The storm returned, this time more vehemently. And I? Back to the security of numbness and dross, unless I could find the place. By luck and a fair wind, I found somewhere, somewhere new. Not enduring much hope I visited this place. Suddenly a ray of sun illuminated through the chink of the night’s armour and the storm evaporated to calm. I submitted my creation to this new place; could it possibly be the right place? Others were creating, watching, reviewing, enjoying. My creation was found and people liked it; constructively they reviewed it; some were even inspired by it. I had found the place. I could smell the freshness of dawn and feel the warmth of the new day. I had found happiness. I had found Mudboard.

What do I have in common, as I sit here, with the multitude of creative, artistic and talented individuals around the globe? What is it I seek that successful actors, sports people, musicians and writers have sought through the annals of time? It’s a simple thing. It is real yet intangible. It cannot be taught, yet can be learned. It can differentiate two equally talented people to success or failure. Its presence is up-lifting, its absence lethargic and black. Those who have discovered it have progressed to a magnitude of wonderful things. Those who have not levitate to entropic uncertainty and ultimately do not realise their ambitions. It can leave us as easily as it attaches itself to us. We can improve our chances of finding and keeping it, yet our delicate emotional tendencies can easily lose grip of it.

It comes in and from many forms, each specific to our individual needs. It can put non-believing monsters to rest; ‘it’s too late’; ‘dreams are for dreamers’; or ‘you’re not talented enough to do that’. It can move somebody to fulfil their dream. It is Inspiration.

I had an inspirational moment, a moment that led to me write this blog; a moment that ultimately drove me to come up with the concept of mudboard.com . It wasn’t a moment of high drama, big budget explosions, literary prizes, world influencing songs or Oscar-winning performances. No, my inspirational moment came from something so innocuous, so microcosmic in the totality of life, but yet so unexpectedly.

The setting is a train ride from inner city Melbourne in Australia to one of the outer suburbs – it was about 11pm. I can picture them now, a father and young daughter returning home from a football game – both quietly, in thought and whispers, reminiscing on the night’s game. Both were supporters of the losing team, a team that had been humiliated by the opposition. But both father and daughter were able to take it at face value. The father was proud to have his young daughter by his side; the daughter played up to her father in a cheeky manner. This alone was an endearing moment, yet not inspirational. The carriage was half full. There was polite chit-chat all around, each couple or threesome in their own cocoon of conversation. And then, suddenly, the spine tingling sound of strummed steel strings emanated from a lone source, a source that on the surface looked dirty, poor, cold, yet happy. There was a metamorphosis from a ‘train’ to a ‘theatre’ as feet started tapping to the melody. The tired looking conversationalists were now encompassed in melodious silence; abundant smiles appeared, people somewhat moved by this unforseen event. Ironically, the busker could not sing an in-tune note, but it mattered not – his appearance was also irrelevant. It was the enchanting instrumental sound, and more piquantly the inspiration of performance that moved me, and probably some of the others, in the carriage that night.

Welcome to the Official Mudboard Blog

New Mudboard – New Blog

You could create a little piece of History

Mudboard provides the platform – you show the world what you can do.

We can all create – we just need one thing