The title is stupid I know, but I'm just too tired to think of something intelligent for a title; and I do believe that all things must have a title. Because unnamed this and unmarked that is just confusing. Currently I am so swapped with work I have barely the time to look and comment the deviations of people I watch and that leaves me with no time to photograph or even edit some of the photos I took when I went to Marjan.

Yesterday, for 7 hours, I had a class about Greek and Roman history and their influence on Croatian lands and in those 7 hours of lecture I have learned absolutely nothing because our professor kept talking about statues and pillars, structures, grave stones and inscriptions on them and how to read them and decipher them and extract information from them; and of course about the CIL III or Corpvus Inscriptionvm Latinarvm and forgetting in the process that half of us don’t know any old Greek and little Latin. Oh joy…

And then she gave us an assignment to do: we have to write a seminar on a subject we get – and the subject is some inscription and we have to interpret it with the help of literature, which by the way we didn’t get because in their obliviousness they forgot it was Saturday and today is Sunday and the library’s don't work on those days. And we have to at least know something about the subject we are writing about until Monday when we have the next round of 7 hour lectures. I have absolutely no idea how to get some relevant information on the subject I’m working on, which is isle of Electra from The Argonautica by Apollonius Rhodius; and I don’t think they’ll accept the www as a valuable and credible source. So in essence I’m in trouble, or the whole class is in trouble because we have no idea what to do. And did I mention they didn’t explain what exactly we need to do? Of course not, we spent 7 hour discussing topics of minor relevancy…

Ugh and that’s just one class from my university. I have 2 mayors: English language and literature and History and about 5 various classes from each of those mayors. I have tons of homework, little free time and no social life whatsoever. I knew it was going to be hard when I got in to the university, but what I didn’t expect was: lack of literature, no proper explanation on what needs to be done, classes on Saturday (the whole day!), no information or syllabus on the net and no organization skills. OK I knew about the organization problem, because the Faculty of Philosophy in Split is located in 5 places around town and I have lectures in 4 of those places, but at least I’m at one place per day and I don’t have to run around town like a maniac or something…

Well that’s about enough rant about my university and problems. I hope you’re having a better time than I am with school/work/life/something and that you’re enjoying your Sunday off. The only good news I have is that I’ll be going to Salona in 2 weeks and that’s a great opportunity to get some wonderful photos. For those of you who don’t know where or what Salona is here’s a short explanation: Salona was an ancient capital city of the Roman province of Dalmatia. During the invasion of the Avars and Slavic people the city was destroyed and its population retreated behind the walls of Diocletian’s palace in Split; and thus was my home town formed. The ruins of ancient Salona are situated near today’s town of Solin (near to Split).

Until next time and hopefully in a better mood

Nessa

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I'm… in a rather strange mood to say the least. I’m happy, exhilarated, sarcastic, devious, lazy, annoyed and so many things at once that sometimes I think I’ll burst from all these conflicted emotions. Sadly those emotions don’t produce photos of any kind, and the heat didn’t help either. All I have is a few various sketchy ideas about stories and characters in my head, not written just swimming around my head like fish in a bowl. Stupid comparison I know… I’m moody.

University lectures are starting in October, and there’s so little time left to photograph things around town freely. I don’t even know what to photograph these days, it seams like I already shot everything. The only time I take my camera out these days is to photograph postcards – a new hobby of mine. Split Film Festival starts this Sunday and I’m one of the volunteers. For the past few days I’ve been volunteering at the Nam June Paik exhibition which is also part of the festival. Before this I had no idea who Paik is, but now I kind of like his work. I’m not much of a modern art person, but I like him – he has some good works, and the multimedia section is great. So Split Film Festival – I just noticed how many films in there I want to watch. Wow… I’m really looking forward to it, and perhaps I’ll take some photos.

You know there’s a strange thing about opening night of an exhibition… It’s like people are not there to see the artwork or the artist himself/herself but they come there to eat, drink and be seen. They tolerate the necessary 20 minutes of speeches and introduction and then everybody just stampedes over to the food and drink sections. By the 10th canapé sandwich and 3rd glass of alcohol they’re already so out of it that they don’t even know who they are let alone where they are and what are they seeing. I sometimes wonder what would be like to look at artwork, especially modern art when you’re drunk or stoned… Would it be enlightening? Would you have an epiphany and realise what’s all that about? Or would it just be a bunch of hardly understandable rubbish? One day if I have the chance, enough guts and no brain cells left I’ll try that. I’ll just wonder until then.

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I got tagged by . So without further ado let's get this show on the road.

1. Post these rules.
2. Each tagged person must post 8 things about their self on their journal.
3. At the end, you have to choose and tag 8 people and post their icons on the same journal.
4. Go to their pages and send a message saying you tagged them.
5. No tag-backs.

1. I'm obsessed with jewellery, earrings in particular. I don' know how many pairs I have, and I'm not sure I want to know.
2. I love postcards and I do a little happy dance every time I get one. They make me so happy.
3. I write only when I'm in the mood.
4. I read books in English equally fast as those in Croatian.
5. I remember things better when I read them in a foreign language.
6. Winter is my favourite time of the year because it's cold and I tolerate cold better than heat.
7. One day I'm going to buy a Nikon camera.
8. And one day I'm going to go to Japan and master Japanese language. I hope

And the 8 (un)lucky people tagged (in alphabetical order) are:

*drum roll*



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The Croatian phrase larpurlartizam comes from the French phrase l'art pour l'art – Art for art's sake. The phrase is credited to Théophile Gautier (1811–1872). The reason this journal entry was named with that phrase is rather silly, and can be contributed to the fact that I have some time to spare because I'm working on a side project on my computer. I was recently involved in a discussion on a forum I visit with, one could say, alarming frequency. The discussion was about art and how to criticise art – or to be more specific can you say that one direction of art is utter crap (pardon my French) and that another is pure genius? While I'm no art critic, nor am I a brilliant artist (in fact I don't consider myself to be one) but somehow I feel that criticism from a variety of people, no matter how educated they are, can lead to good things. Or at least it should. Otherwise I would never be able to say anything about any piece of art anywhere in the world except I like this because, and I dislike this because.

Now while I do think that a lot of works art experts define as modern art is (to me) a bunch of utter crap (again pardon my French) compared to the so called works of the old masters, I don’t mind having them on display in some gallery or museum. I just won’t pay the ticket and go see them, because I have better ways to spend my money than seeing something I don’t like. But this is not a discussion about what art is and what isn’t, although a lot of things these days deserve to be questioned and perhaps redefined and settled in another category. But that’s another story. I am typing this to give people the chance to see how I look at art and how I express myself about it; or to put it in DA context how do I react when I see someone’s deviation and what do I write in the comment section.

During my almost two years on DA (June the 22nd will mark my second anniversary on DA) I’ve submitted a lot of works. Some were horrible, some were ok and some were great. My opinion sometimes varied from the opinion of my watchers, fellow artist and critics but I appreciated every little comment they gave me. Whether it was just a: wow this is stunning/amassing, or a half a page dissection of the work I read each and every one and responded to them. I think responding to people who took the time to see or read your work is very important. I know some DA members have tons of comments and it’s impossible to believe that they have the time to answer each any every one, but it’s a nice gesture and I think people will appreciate you more for that. The same thing goes for s.

When I comment someone’s deviations I try to avoid the shock and awe comments that consist of single words and a few emotions. I try, but sometimes I am shocked and awed that I simply can’t say anything but that. But every time I look at someone’s deviation if I’m going to give a comment on it I try to be constructive. I try to tell the author what do I like about it, what I don’t like, what I think should be fixed and give some advice if I can. The easiest things to comment for me are photographs. I’m a amateur photographer with an Olympus FE-5500 compact and through (sometimes horrific) trial and error stage I learned a thing or two about photography – enough that commenting comes easy for me. That and my sense of aesthetics . I refer from technical comments, mainly because I’m not familiar with everything, but about concept, originality, perception, theme, general and artistic impression and how well was the entire thing done – in that I do have an opinion and I try to make myself as clear and constructive as possible. I won’t say that something is horrible or awful, I’ll point to a part I didn’t like and say something like: Oh I think you should change the angle, or do this instead of that and so on. The greatest satisfaction I get is when I see that the artist’s next photo or photos are better than the previous ones.

When it comes to drawings, whether they are digital or traditional I’m in bigger trouble. I can’t draw to save my life, and this is no exaggeration. I can draw primitive shapes and forms of objects, but to make them look decent let alone beautiful… For that I would need magic, and that I don't have. But I try to stick to the same principle as I do with comments about photography. Concept, originality, perception, theme, general and artistic impression and how well the whole work is done, although I’m a little softer on the painters than I am on photographers. I kind of expect precision and a bit of perfection with photographs (edited in PS or not), but with painters, especially with beginners, I’m a bit more understanding. Don’t suppose that I think that photography is an easy art, it’s not. Sometimes to achieve a great photo is harder than to paint something very good. I’ve seen photographers climb walls and mountains, or simply twist themselves in to some pretty uncomfortable positions just to get a shot of something. I did that when I was taking photos of flowers; and let’s not forget that people look at you like you’re a madman. I’ve never seen those looks given to painters.

The arts and craft section is another one where I have the shock and awe problem. And I’m a girl, so naturally I like jewellery of every shape, size and kind. In here mostly I’ll comment on a job well done and ask about a few technical details because I’m very interested to know how these things are done. As stated above, don’t expect a lot of intelligent comments from me there, I think the s are enough to show you that I like what you do. Or they should be most of the times. Photomanipulations belong to a genre that I like very much and I know how hard it is to make a good one. I’ve never been able to make a good one, only a mediocre one – but that’s not the point. I’ve seen a lot of photomanipulations – DA is full of them. In some you couldn’t distinguish the manipulation from a photo, and some were dreadful – you could see that they were done with little knowledge, sense of aesthetics, composition and all that jazz. But to the people who really make it, and make you think where to put that work of art – now that’s something. I enjoy giving comments in this section, because I have a feeling that I’m on familiar ground and can give some solid and constructive advice when I’m not under the shock and awe phenomena.

To conclude this very long text (it would be longer if I wrote it in Croatian ) I’m just going to say a few things. Art is what you make of it, and whatever you make try to get better and better each passing day. Maybe you won’t become Da Vinci, or Rembrandt or Picasso or Annie Leibovitz or *insert a random famous name* but the important thing is that what you do makes you happy. And if you are satisfied with yourself you won’t have any problem excepting advice and critique – as long as they are not there simply to be rude, but to teach you something. Mind you sometimes an advice can be given in a not so polite way (a House like way I would say), but try to find something insightful there before you pronounce the whole thing a flame and delete it. And for those of you who are giving comments remember that old saying: do to others the things you want to be done to yourself. Constructive criticism, encouragement, or simply a pat on the back and a good job means the world to people. Reviews and critiques make every artist happy; and happy people don’t do horrible things, they do beautiful things.

Until next time have fun, take care of yourself and be as productive and supportive as you can.

Nessa Saelind




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I have been really tired these past few days. Running around town, doing errands for everyone, going out, getting as little sleep as possible, disrupting my sleep cycle... I'm a mess. But I've got a whole bunch of photographs as a result of that. At least there's something positive.

The local elections are on Sunday in Croatia and I'm an observer on those, so perhaps I'll get some photos of that momentous occasion. That thing, along with preparations for the entrance exam on the Faculty of Philosophy in Split and Zadar, and for Law in Zagreb are taking much of my time. I still haven't decided which one I'm going to go in the end, I'm keeping all of my options open. But I hope I will get in somewhere... Oh the drama of university education Meanwhile I'm still jobless, broke and well busy with stuff. And since I've got flat rate I get to spend my time doing nothing intelligent (although that's debatable ) and just hang around on DA and various other sites... Yeah, I know I've got no life

Well anyway, I'll conclude this entry with well wishes, lots of inspiration and hope of just rewards and fun. May they be plenty of those for all of us.

Nessa Saelind




Member and moderator of



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Great and talented artists I watch and admire