First things first, I would like to wish a Merry Christmas to all those who celebrate it and happy holidays to everyone else! I hope you all have a very safe, exciting and love filled holiday season and all my best wishes to make 2010 a successful one.

Next! My deviations have received a total of over 2100 views! Yes! 2100 views! This is just a huge shock for me, just a while ago it was around the 1000 mark, now it has doubled and all I'm doing is using a $350 point and shoot Samsung camera I got a month ago and taking pictures of stuff. This is my first camera by the way.

Well maybe what I'm exclaiming and getting so shocked about is something pretty normal and ordinary around here, but I actually have no art experience at all.

I like to always be improving in one way or another, always. However, I never had tried anything in the creative arts field - and I was doing so well that I simply assumed I couldn't be a creative person, I couldn't have an imagination, I couldn't artistically think of things. So the fact that I've gotten so many people just to view these pictures I've taken really has given me a lot of confidence in my creative ability and in consequence bolstered my imagination. I'm actually having dreams now! Vivid ones too, I actually get sensations of touch, sound and smell in my dreams now too. This added creativity has more than its artistic benefits too, scientifically it is very important too.

As good as this all sounds, it is still a consequence. It was a consequence of things not going so well. So as much as I can argue that all this has added to me; I can also argue that is merely me experience psychological episodes of some sort - it is a just as likely explanation which is why I am still trying to stay as conservative as possible.

I'm perfectly aware of my situation which allows me to keep it in control most the time, however it's tiring. I relax sometimes and that's why I start behaving a lot less ordered which isn't what I used to be like when at Zen.

So it's a double edged sword in a way... Or it could be a symptom or a new found gift depending on which way you look at it. Without a doubt I'm still very much the same, but really is a shock to myself.

On my recent trip to Sydney, I paid a visit to some very nice friends of mine for dinner. The conversation somehow led to a discussion of large cities and how people who are brought up in a large city are more likely to be more career driven as the world around.
I instantly and instinctively disagreed and said that more isolated places can provide more stimulation, you have in everyday life amazing things happening around you to explore, think about and research - I thought inspiration.

Then the words 'Nature versus Nurture' came up to close the conversation.

This instantly made me think, and is very relevant I bring it up now. I normally would not have thought all this 'Inspiration and stimulation' rubbish before, I would have thoroughly agreed my friend whom I was speaking with at the time.

I was nurtured very well, big city kind of life, circled by computers and their order, very business orientated, which was great. It gave me the kind of attitude that's needed to survive in the large cities of the world very well even though I wasn't in the largest of cities.
Then my world was given the shock of its life - this is where I think my 'nature' was like: Hey , I exist, I always have but now this is my show - lets play.
(The people who were around me at this time would be able to mark this on a the time line where my behaviour took an extreme turn and I was basically confused 24/7 the events that lead to the shock were confusing enough.)
So here I was, a totally different person and completely lost the person that I was. I was not used to this new person at all and on top of that dealing with severe amounts of stress, absolute chaos it was.

The chaos eventually settled just enough for me to get out of hospital at least! That's when I tried something creative and viola, here we have that extra imagination that never hardly existed before. I'm not trying to say OHH I'M A NATURAL ARTIST, heck I'm bloody terrible compared to almost everyone I've seen on here - but for all of it to appear so suddenly and after the world I lived in was shocked and I'm most vulnerable, it makes the most sense that this is most likely part of my 'Nature' that I've never discovered before.

Now, I wouldn't say I'm completely settled. I'm still shocked and it's kind of like learning how to ride a bike again, but the more and more I understand the closer I get to being in that state where I am in control of my 'Nurture' and new found 'Nature'.


If you can't tell, this was originally just going to be a Merry Christmas + Awesome 2100 views journal entry, but as I started talking about creativity my mind wandered and found answers to things I've been seeking regarding the same subject. This wasn't unexpected for me as my mind has been racing to answer these questions every minute of the day, but what comes out always is.

Thinking back on what I wrote above, I'm sure some of you creative people who exist on here might be able to relate - I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did thinking about it and typing it.

My teeth really f***** hurt now because of these stupid rubber bands on my braces, I didn't notice them when focusing on typing and I'm really tired so I'm going to post this without proof reading!

Cheers - stay safe and have a beautiful holiday season,
Aqeel

Today I'll feature two of my pieces, one of which is my most latest and has proven to be most popular deviation by far - thank you everyone for the kind words, it's good to see that I'm improving.

I am also featuring a beautiful picture by *LiveLifeLearn, absolutely stunning.

Last but not least, I'm featuring a piece by `chadamus. Who turned a picture that I uploaded as a stock because I couldn't think of anything to do with it into something quite spectacular!