Tag Archive for: artist

Five questions for creatives: Stephen Molyneaux

Stephen Molyneaux started his career in the games industry before moving into cinema.

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Neotists — raising the profile of creatives in St Neots

Since we launched the Neotists website a month ago we’ve had over 2,600 page views. We’ve also had lots of new members sign up to the group – so we now number 110 creatives, with 24 of them featured on the added new categories for creative profiles, including motion graphics, product design and sculpture, showing that Neotists have a huge range of skills to offer.” People section. We’ve also added some new profile categories, including motion graphics, product design and sculpture, showing that Neotists have a huge range of skills to offer.

So the creative community is growing – but what about the visibility of that community?

It’s vital that the designers, illustrators, photographers, coders, writers and the whole range of creative people who either live or work in St Neots and have not come across Neotists can find our community. So we’ve been working hard in the background, using the right keywords, using a variety of popular online platforms, meeting people face-to-face and using existing community networks to help raise the profile. Here are some of our tips, trade secrets and general common sense that’s helping us get on the first page of searches.

In terms of the internet holy grail, (search engine optimisation or SEO) we’ve done a great deal in the background to ensure that the website, its posts, pages and profiles are all labelled correctly so that those omnipotent search engines don’t mark us down. Take this post for instance – the word Neotists is mentioned the most so it makes sense to use the keyword Neotist St Neots. So as it appears in the title, URL and text it means we get the thumbs up and better ranking from search engines.

Sharing posts across a variety of channels is also important as it’s a great way to reach the creatives out there who don’t already follow our Facebook or Twitter pages. So we’ve been sharing our articles on other community Facebook groups and we’ve had great feedback already with new members signing up who’ve spotted the articles or responded to questions posted in those groups.

I mentioned in a previous article how creating a visible creative community is important now as the new Winteringham estate in the west of St Neots is in the planning stages. When the development begins and properties begin to go up for sale, people will be looking to move to the area and, just as with Love’s Farm, residents will bring a whole range of creative skills to the town and these creative people will need a community to service their interests. One of the ways we’re helping those people find Neotists is by adding a culture section to the St Neots page on Wikipedia. Previously no culture section existed and we felt this didn’t reflect the diverse physical and technical creativity going on in the arts in St Neots.

Finally, and crucially we’ve submitted the URL www.wneotists.co.uk to all the major search engines. What this means is that the likes of Google and Bing will then be aware of the website and regularly check for updated pages and posts.

We’ve focussed our attention to visibility online in the last month, and although we know this is not the only way to help people find us, with the launch of the website, it was key to make all those connections first before getting on with other stuff.

The therapy of drawing with chubby wax crayons

Original article by Paul Muir

After I had finished my training as a drama therapist I decided to embark on a psychoanalysis to help me both personally and professionally.

The therapist I attended was from a school whose lineage reached back to the psychoanalyst, Carl Gustav Jung. I saw her over a 23 year period. And for a large proportion of that time I saw her for several sessions a week; as many as five in a week. This began, observing the traditional format of the patient lying on a couch and the analyst sitting aside and slightly behind the analysand.

C.G. Jung coined the term synchronicity. This has been variously defined but the pithiest is ‘a meaningful coincidence.’ I explain this because in the context of the chubby wax crayon drawings synchronicity plays an integral part.

After a few years of therapy I was sitting in her waiting room awaiting the time for that day’s session to begin when I did something that I had never done before. My attention focused on a small cabinet that was part of the furnishings of the waiting room that had always been there though had never aroused my interest. I went over and guiltily opened the door into this private space. On the small shelf was a pad of paper and a red leather pencil case. I quickly closed the door afraid this intrusion would be met with disapproval.

In the session that followed I told my therapist what I had done and to my surprise she asked me if I would like to get them and bring them into the analytic room. I said ‘yes.’

In the weeks that followed she introduced a pad of paper of the lowest quality – plentiful, cheap and disposable. At the same time she provided a circular plastic container of chubby wax crayons.

For the next three years and for a short period several years later these would play an important role in the therapy.

The images I began to draw would sometimes be discussed and sometimes not. Sometimes I would become absorbed in image making that I would hardly talk during the session and at other times I was doodling in a half hearted way, more interested in the verbal communication that went on.

The single rule relating to the ownership of these drawings, that was established early on, was that once the therapeutic relationship was concluded they would belong to me but until then, she would look after them. This ending occurred a few days before the Christmas of 2013.

The chubby wax images are, presumably, container’s for various intra-psychic activities. Unlike art therapy where art is implicit to the therapeutic process, drawing with these primitive materials associated with very young children came about through a chance moment and not a conscious use of art materials. The chubby wax images arose from a moment of ‘synchronicity’. An absent minded event in a waiting room all those years ago.

Art ended for me at age 13 and only began again when I was given a pristine collection of chubby wax crayons and a pad of A4 paper.

One last thing I’d like to share is something my therapist reiterated. She told me I would sometimes draw something and at the last minute turn the paper upside down and present the image to her as something, presumably, utterly different to what I’d been drawing during the session. So some of the images can be turned around to be viewed.

My gratitude to the patience and insight of the jungian therapist that followed me on my chubby wax crayon journey and now exist for everyone at www.chubbywaxcrayon.com