Arts Extravaganza

So I promised a not-so-wordy post...

... and so you'll get a not-so-wordy post. This is in honour of our school's third annual Art's Fest. Basically, it celebrates our painters, sculpters, photographers, dancers, actors, musicians, writers, and... well, my friend Mona Lisa is in her own category, but we celebrate her too x) I did not win the writing competition, but I lost to Star, so it didn't bruise my ego.  We have this mutual thing going that we can't lose to anyone but each other. In fact, the only reason we both forced out entries this year (bad prompt, bad timing, lack of inspiration =  forced), is because we had an inkling that a Certain Other Person was entering, and we wanted to prove who's on top. And Star, her story was beautiful. If she puts it on SW, I'll post a link, but if you do happen to go and check it out, please don't mention this blog, 'cause she don't know about it, and I don't want anyone to know about it ^^

Anyway... okay, I really want to talk about stuff, but I won't. Now, although I mentioned this being in honour of our school's Art's Fest, I'm not actually posting anything from there. This is just a free promotion of the works of my lovely friends, and some of mine, though there's not much of it. Here goes...

First up, remember a certain crayon-melting event I mentioned awhile back? Well, here it is, the first ever crayon-melting project of Star and I...

Yes, there's a little smudge there, but it was our first one, okay? Star and I did the colour explosion together, and the clouds I made myself (:

So this leads to our Art's Fest fun-entry (we did this last minute, in a few hours)...

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Running commentary: So, I did the lettering for the 'Dreams' canvas, and picked the colour scheme because Star REFUSES to accept she has talent, and you can clearly see my colour-ist side x) But she did the majority of the melting, so kudos to her skill, huh? The kite was made by her and her father, once again, I did the lettering. And I did the REVOLUTIONS canvas, but we found all the newspaper words together. I'm pretty proud of the shading I did with soft pastel - the black fading to centre thing... Unfortunately, at the Art's Fest, they didn't set it up like we wanted it to be set up, so it just looked silly, but who cares? We entered for fun, no way on Earth would I compete with Mona Lisa. I wish I could show you what she made, but a) I didn't take photos, and b) I think I'd have to ask permission first ^^

Now, on a more sombre note, for our tutor's mother's funeral, Star wanted to make flowers (did I mention they're family friends?). She felt it would be more special, but of course, she refuses to believe in her own artistic talent, so I painted them, and the leaves... here goes:

 

 Is it not beeeeyooootiful? She made it, with her own two hands! BRILLIANT, no?

Oh look... it's my incredibly adorable China-doll beautiful niece... hm... wonder how she got there....

And now I'm going to promote some more awesome friend work. LINCHSTER. My best best best friend ever. You can go shower her with compliments with mention to this blog, 'cause she's the only RL friend who knows about it x) She's a techie kind, a pro on Photoshop, and she has many works posted on her deviantART - link is on the side, under L'impressionat Files... (I updated it, if it didn't work before)... so here's some of my favourites of hers (it's hard to pick):

SO SO SO DIFFICULT TO STOP THIS LINCHY EXPLOSION!

Just a few more...

Okay, I swear if I keep going, when you go over there you will have nothing to see. But do go, she's made of awesome :)

[Right now it's midnight, I think I'ma go to bed and finish this off tomorrow... this takes time and effort, you know, and I love sleep.]

[I'm backkk.]

Hm, so what else? Oh okay, so I think I'll finish with some photography from yours truly. Just saying, I do not claim to be a Professional Photographer, so you needn't... critique it. And I usually take photos of nature and cute babies, 'cause it's hard for them to turn out ugly.
These are some from my Summer holiday, part one, Sri Lanka (I didn't get many good shots in Malaysia, 'cause it was night...):

 AHA! Here's one I didn't take. Look - it's me! Behind one of those cheeky cousins... always getting in the way... *cough cough*

D'aww. Elephants.

My little sister. In the days when she was not an insufferable brat.

I miss the mountains. You know, I think this is the worst thing I've done in a while. I'm feeling so homesick now. Is it not a beautiful land? Well, the fact that my family is there only increases it's beauty. Let's say these photos are a few of like, jizbillion. And that's Sri Lanka alone - I didn't even include the Saudi pics in this one o.O

Look at my precious snowball Dx How he's growing up! (Yeah, I didn't take this one... I wish I'd been there to take it.)
So I leave you with remembrances of autumn - my favourite season...

... to our first rose for Spring :)

 [Btw, I realise it helps if you click on one, and it opens this slideshow-y thing, so you can see les photos bigger]
I feel compelled to put one of those copyright things, but I don't know how to, so here: THESE PHOTOS ARE MINE. LAILA N MYSIS, UNJUMBLED. DO NOT STEAL. Please.

ATM:

Writing: Nothing... except my SAC story.

Reading: Peeps. Scott Westerfeld. Lovin' eet. I love how he weaves facts and random bits of knowledge into the story, in a fun way. Almost makes me want to go back to bio. 

Listening to: A Kelly Clarkson Playlist x)

Feeling: HOMESICK. Big time, homies.

No song lyrics today, I'm going to link you to this article (not my words, so no accusations of being wordy x) Plus, it's always optional, right?) which I found really awesome. In Pursuit of Unhappiness. Not as bleak as it sounds, I swear. And and and, two blog posts, this one by Danny, which I found very intriguing (and yes, okay, on the bleak side), and this one by Meli which is simply beautiful, and more on the empowering optimistic side.

That is all.

Peace in,

Laila

Beauty & the Beholder

So I can be pretty hypocritical...

You saw it on Eid... there I was, whinging about not being the fairest of them all, blah di blah, and then I spend a lot of time telling people that they're beautiful, everyone is, somehow, etc. But I've been thinking about this lately, and I've got it all reasoned out, so it's time I defend my cause. Tell me how I go.

So there's that saying, that cliche, that 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder'. I believe in that. Wholeheartedly. It may be a cliche, but just because something is overused, doesn't make it untrue. Like the words 'I love you' - I mean, how many times is that said? Gazillions and bajillions of times... and yes, sometimes it's just a superficial passing statement, and other times it's true and deep, and honestly, it all just depends on the individual. You can't always say, 'hey, so-and-so said the same thing, it's so overused, I don't believe you'. It can be true, it may not be, but as I said - it depends on the individual, you can't just compare it to everything else and make your judgement.

Uh... very off topic.

So  yes, I believe that beauty is a perception. It's a point-of-view thing, and it can be severely distorted. How do I prove this?

I'm going to give you the example I gave Arianna. Let's talk about Snog, Marry, Avoid. Have you heard of that show? I watch it, just as a passing thing when I'm taking a short study break. Basically, it's a series that takes place in Britain, and their aim is to rid the girls of Britain of 'fakery', by giving them 'make-unders' as opposed to 'make-overs'. I like this concept, so yeah, I watch it. What I noticed though, with almost every chica brought in, their most prized fakery lies in the use of fake tan. Quite simply, these girls cannot stand their fair skin, they find it colourless and hideous, so they have this crazy obsession with slapping on l'orange. 

Now let's go to Sri Lanka. One of the most prominent beauty campaigns I see advertised when I'm over there is known as: Fair and Lovely. You read that right: FAIR and lovely. Because, you know, being 'dark' cannot possibly be attractive. That's what they think - really. My cousins dislike their beautiful golden-toned brown skin, and some of them use this pathetically useless product in the hopes they turn whiter. When my cousins, my sister and I walked down the street in town, a whole group of boys trailed behind us serenading us. I kid you not. Why? Because my older sister has Arab white skin. I mean, you only have to look at Bollywood and stuff - a whole lot of the actresses seem to be famous just 'cause they're white. They're not attractive in any other way, and I can't be a judge on their acting 'cause I don't watch that many Bollywood movies, but some that I have seen don't actually have much talent at all.

So in Britain, they wanna be dark, in Sri Lanka they wanna be white, each thinking the other to be beautiful - who's right?

Now let's look at the stereotypical Western image of the 'thin' girl. I don't know if it's completely 'Western', but it's certainly popular. Almost all girls try to be super thin... um I don't know why, but I mean, that's what we're told is attractive, right? I can't say I disagree, I would like to be super-slim, I just.. honestly can't think of a good reason right now... LoL. Um. Yes.

But then, in Jessica Simpson's 'The Price of Beauty' documentary, when she went to a tribe in Uganda, there the men found the fat women more attractive. I'm not exaggerating here - not 'chubby', or 'curvy', or 'round'. They like fat. It's a sign of real social status, something to be really proud of. 

So I mean, we like thin, they like fat, once again, who's right about what's really beautiful?

Quite obviously, both are right and both are wrong. 

This is what I mean about beauty being a perception. Everyone finds beauty in different things. Dark skin, light skin, fat and thin, tall and short... people prefer different things. That's just us being human, right? We like to categorize and define everything, no matter how abstract or wide open it's supposed to be. Though you may not be the epitome of beauty in the eyes of the person you want, you are undoubtedly beautiful to someone else, somewhere.

So what about me? I'm forever telling people they're beautiful, regardless of if I've seen them or not. My version of beauty goes down deeper though, 'cause I'm going for another cliche that personality, character, your actions and your mind -  makes beauty too. I can't speak for everyone on this, but I can speak for me, and for many people I know.

I call this the Measure of Attractiveness on the Scale of Villainy to Heroism.

(I made that up, just now o.O)

Okay, so since I was young, whenever I watched a movie, particularly with my cousins and stuff, I've always had this hate for the Bad Guy. Or Girl. Even my Himdawg and her sister, it's the same. We just get so passionate in watching movies, we hurl abuse and threats at these fictional characters just 'cause they're playing the villain. And one thing that was recently brought to my attention was that we always found them ugly. 

 I kid you not. My sister pointed this out to me, and I tried to subvert her theory, but to my shame (well, I'm not so sure if it's 'shame' anymore), I was proven incredibly wrong. We were watching a movie - my sister, me, and Himdawg and her sister ... hmm... oh yeah, it was this Hindi movie, 'Housefull' (fairly funny, not wowzer, but you know...), and there was this character. She appeared really sweet and gentle and stuff, and she was supposed to marry the guy with the bad luck. We're all like: Awwwwwwwww.

And Himdawg and her sister, they kept going on about how pretty this chick was, and I agreed. Then my sister, who had watched it previously, was like: 'Psh, yeah, give it ten minutes and I don't think you'll agree anymore.'

We were like: 'Say whaaa?'

Then ten minutes later, we learnt she was a phony, that she just needed to get some money, and was playing on our poor hero's heart for her own selfish reasons. Instantly we curled up our noses in disgust, and honestly, she looked really ugly to me all of a sudden, and ... yeah. I realised my sister was right.

We always see the Bad Guy as ugly because of his/her character. It's as simple as that. Kate, from Lizzie McGuire used to be so hideous to me as a kid, just 'cause she was such a snothead on the show. Regardless of the fact the Queen in Snow White was supposed to be beautiful, she was always ugly to me. Because in my eyes, character counts. Big time.

I mean, I guess I've seen it applied in real life too. There's this girl I know - let's call her Jo. She's gorgeous, I think; the perfect slender figure, that's not 'stick like' - it's got her 'feminine curves', if you get my drift, but she's still slim. No pimples or blemishes on her face, her features all seem to be perfectly shaped, her hair is sleek, shiny and always in line, and she looks effortlessly beautiful always. So it always baffled me why - in this Western country, public school - she never had a boyfriend. Ever.

Well, I was speaking with another one of my friends, who's a close friend of Jo, and to sum it up, Jo still has a Barbie poster on her wall. She's just so childish (and I love her for it ^^ ) and because of this, no guy is ever interested in her. But she's so beautiful! I wish I could present visual evidence for this, but I can't without permission, but please take my word for it.

And I mean - family. Everyone in my family is gorgeous, only because I love them so much and I just can't see ugliness in them. Same with friends. And they don't seem to be able to see it in me, unfortunately... wait... fortunately? ^^ But isn't that how it is for most people?

So that's it. When I tell you you're beautiful, I actually mean it. Truly. It's not just an obligatory statement that I make, I genuinely believe it because of how I value your character. And when I whinge about myself being ugly, it's  because I don't sit down and think about all my good points - that would be vain anyway, right? Maybe you won't believe me, maybe I'll never stop whinging....

But I'm with jnana on this one - she told me:

I am pretty sure you are beautiful. Because God doesn't create anything that isn't perfect and wonderful to look at.

I think it's true, just hard to see sometimes. But it's always there. 

... that's really cheesy. Um. Yeah.

Okay, I know I have to tone down these superdy long posts, but I can't help it, okay! Just a few more things, promise.

I watched Girl in Progress, something I found on Meli's blog. I'm in love. I love love love this movie. I don't know, it was so quirky, so bittersweet, I just found it so heartrending. It's teenagery, but I love it - it just found its way to my Favourite Movies list. Cierra Ramirez is awesome right now - beautiful for the character she plays :')

And I finished The Fault in Our Stars - it met all the expectations I had! Of course it had to - it had the stamp of approval from Markus Zusak & Jodi Picoult. Hazel's character really speaks out, it was just so funny and sad and... gahafhalskfh. And if boys like Augustus really exist... *sigh*

That is all. I don't usually do this, but really, please look out for my next post; I'm superdy excited about it, and I promise it won't be so wordy. I solemnly swear to it x)

ATM:
Reading: Peeps. Scott Westerfeld. I'm going to start it about now..
Writing: By golly, I've finished writing so many things right now... um... yes, I've got something due for a SAC, but it's not titled yet.
Listening to: Anything I'm Not. Lenka. I think it's fitting right now, no?
Feeling: Giddy. Eeeep.... Girl in Progress was soooo gooood x)

Oh, why's the world so cruel to me?
When all, all I ever wanna be is anything I'm not

Gimme a break, a little escape
I am so tired of being me
I wanna be free, I wanna be new and different
Anything I'm not

Peace in,
Laila