Tiffany Jane

Album art

2009-05-14T16:54:00.000-07:00

What artist doesnt work with music of some fashion playing in the background at least sometimes, if not most of the time (if not ALWAYS).

I've always thought and art and music go hand in hand splendidly. Art just says more to me when it has a sound track it seems.

Where else do art & music meet more closely than in the context of album artwork?

Inspired by Smashing Magazine's recent article 100 Obscure and Remarkable CD Covers I decided to go through my itunes and pick out a selection of album covers I find inspiring, interesting or plain old cool.

A handful are copies from their list

Arcade Fire

As Cities Burn

Burning Hearts

Baroness - The Red Album

Oh No! Oh My!

Anathallo

Living Sacrifice

Black Light Burns - Cruel Melody

I won't tell you who this is, because if you don't know, well, I'm not sure what to say to you.

;)

Matt Elliott - Howling Songs

Sorry for those that don't state the album/artist on it. I SHOULD note them under, but I'll get to that another time.

Lord of War

2009-04-29T10:21:00.000-07:00

written May 2007

I love watching movies.

It’s one of my favourite past times and time wasters. Usually its just enjoyable escapism (which may or may not be a bad thing i suppose) but periodically i watch a movie which leaves me overwhelmed in many ways. Speechless in a sense but in an opposite sense overloaded with emotion and thought.

Movies like Hotel Rwanda, Blood Diamond, The Constant Gardener, and one which i just watched Lord of War. Maybe its the driving fact that these movies are based in reality. Granted - not MY reality. My reality is far from that.But that is some people’s reality - it could just as easily been mine or yours had we been born anywhere else.

In these movies you see people being killed as though they are nothing - children being trained as warriors, carrying AK- 47s and given cocaine so they can kill without even realizing what they are doin.

That is their reality.

They are born into sitations where they see people dying everyday. Death is part of life. I’ve hardly encountered death in my life - maybe two or three people that were really a part of my life in any way have died…In Lord of War it shows the reality of how firearms are smuggled around the world
to give ppl the ability to kill each other.

A quote from the movie says, “It is said Evil prevails when good men do nothing -
the truth is, Evil Prevails”

After seeing these movies, sometimes i can’t help but think thats true. I feel helpless to help. What can one person do to change a world full of corrupt individuals, corrupt governments, of people born into a situation where its kill or be killed? But maybe that’s the problem. Maybe everyone who thinks of these things thinks, “But what can i do?” and so..no one does anything. Maybe all the good people use the concept that ‘evil prevails’ as a way to justify a blind eye. To shut it out and turn it off because it’s scary and uncomfortable. To file it away in back of our minds behind what time the new Lost episode comes on.

All that said — I still don’t what i could ever do. I literally sat there and cried after watching that movie — not because of a sappy storyline or due to really moving acting (honest, Nicolas Cage doesn’t stir me to tears) — but because this is real.

There was a scene in the movie with a warehouse full of machine guns. On the DVD the behind the scenes section lets us know that it was cheaper for them to purchase a few thousand real guns for that scene than fake ones.Another impressive scene in the film showed a line of a few hundred armored tanks. They were allowed to use them in the movie for the shot and a month afterwards they were sold illegally to forces in one of the many war zones in Africa.

Here in Barbados, in front my computer, or my TV…driving around where my biggest complaint is either
pot holes or KFC has run out of chicken again, I forget — we forget that thousands of people…

people

…just like me, just like you are dying. Some from hunger, or from Aids or being shot in refugee camps or dragged out of their homes while they sleep. Children are being raised up to kill without remorse. Human being’s lives are the price paid for our diamonds and oil. Its easy for me to comfort myself and say, ‘It’s a movie — it’s dramatization, the situation isn’t that bad really.” But wouldn’t that just be a way to pretend that these people’s reality does not exist?

To them — maybe they can’t believe that my reality exists. That people live and exist on this side of the world, and know, and make movies about their deaths, and sit and really at the end of the day most of us do nothing. Perhaps this is because we can’t or maybe we just don’t know how. Part of me knows though, that their reality deserves more than just a couple hours of my ‘entertainment’.

So i ask, what can I do? And really honestly, i still don’t know.

And all I can think to do is to come here and write down my thoughts and pray — because I know that the God that exists in my reality — exists in theirs, even if they may not know it.

That one thread ties us together. That one thread seeks to redeem both of our realities.

Creatively made

2009-04-29T10:17:00.000-07:00

I love art. I love creative expression. Almost all of us have a favorite song or two (or even twenty), and many of us can think of an artist or photographer who’s work we enjoy. We watch the occasional movie on the weekend and forward emails showing how inventive kids can get with their homework answers. I think you’d be hard pressed to find someone who didn’t have an appreciation for creativity in one form or another.

But I confess, sometimes the creative buzz leaves me feeling discouraged. I can get frustrated and yes, plain out jealous, when I see the amazing things that other people can do. Other people can draw or paint to photorealistic precision or with emotionally charged abstraction. There are those that can sing beautifully crafted lyrics and make music that other talented people dance to, bringing it to life in entirely new ways. And of course there are those people that come up with ideas so brilliant I can’t just marvel at the idea, but I mourn that I wasn’t the one to think it up.

I get discouraged and I start to think of creativity as something only some people have. Artists and musicians and writers, they are the creative people. The rest of us, are either pretending or just have to suck it up. “Your either born with it or not”, right?

The truth is, we are all made to create. In the bible they say that God created man in his own image. One of the principle characteristics of God is that he is a creator. We, like God, have a desire to make things. Creativity is not limited to art. We can all be creative in the things we enjoy. Creativity involves coming up with new ideas, and making steps to bring those ideas to reality. It’s a way of thinking and a lifestyle.

God desires that we help transform the world we live in, that we help bring God’s Kingdom to earth, by being creative.

This sounds wonderful and inspiring right? But this is a challenge. It’s easy to grumble. It’s easy to make mental lists of the problems around us. Think about how many of our conversation are focused on what’s wrong. A creative life is more than artistic expression on show. It’s a challenge to try and face each day, not as a day full of problems, but as opportunities for creative solutions. Creativity means not just complaining about it but thinking about possible solutions and what I can do to put them in place.

Quite often we are content to just consume. Our society is frequently termed as ‘consumerist’. We are known for spending more than we have, to get more than we need. Some of us spend too much, eat too much, watch too much television, listen to too much music (is that possible? Really? I don’t know ) Creativity should challenge us to spend less time just taking or getting from others and spend more time giving and creating. We all have the ability to think creatively and make new and exciting things happen, not only to help ourselves but to help those around us.

God — the creator, made us in his image, and put us in charge of all creation, to take care of it, to help it grow and expand. If we’ll take the time to try, I’m sure that God will continue to show us all the little ways we can choose to be creative just like he is and help bring his Kingdom on Earth.

The results of getting into the spirit of life, of God.

2009-04-29T10:16:00.000-07:00

In my life, I hope to see, not wealth, or fame but affection for others, a passion for life with a peaceful calmness. I don’t need to be trendy or to have it all, I want motivation to stick with things, a sense of compassion in my heart, and an enthusiasm that leads me to look for ways to help others. I hope to be loyal and committed, gentle in the way I behave, able to control myself.

This is success. This is a life worth living.

—

Tiffany Jenkins

(based on Galatians 5:22)

I'm here there and Everywhere

2009-04-29T00:13:00.000-07:00

It's becoming hard almost to keep track of the number of accounts and places I 'am' on the internet.

It's like having a million mailing adresses. A couple dozen places to call home.

This is my cyber-identity.

My Artwork on DeviantArt

My Flickr Account

My art & writing on tumblr

Graphic Design inspiration blog/tumblr

Life Inspiration blog/tumblr

Last.fm see what awesome music I listen to