Everything started right after my second solo exhibition, exactly one year ago. In that moment, I just wanted to introduce myself and my creative work to the crowd. Exhibition “We are not alone” was opened on Thursday January 14. I bought this awesome domain name on Saturday, coded a very simple WordPress theme during that afternoon and my adventure has begun in the morning January 17.

Die without art was such an amazing experience for me. I’ve met many cool peeps, made lovely friends and had a lot of fun in general. Hooray!

I’d like to pick out some of my favorite posts. So, let’s go back in time a little bit. Stephen Morris made us crazy with his amazing creativity. You must see his jumps and standing-on-head’s. Incredible sisters Mirna and Martina told us their life stories. I felt a big responsibility to bring their story, amazing, must read. During the Stockholm Fashion Week I’ve presented Balkan-inspired clothes by Lamija Suljević. Her main inspiration was the Balkan traditions. Feeling when art makes you younger is very familiar to my dear friend Marta Lamovšek, I simply couldn’t believe she is older than thirty.

I’m very proud of two amazing interviews I did during the first year of Die without art—with professional fashion and portrait photographer Lindsay Adler and lovely Erin Loechner of Design for Mankind. Three guest bloggers helped me while I was away. Sky Nash wrote about five books she loves, Giulia Scifoni showed us photography in the opposite direction and Yamille Marmont presented an exclusive preview of 500 Seconds Of No Breathing, her most personal work ever and a collection of 20 years of images. Thank you girls.

I was dreaming about my studio, my own huge creative space where I can work on visual art projects with my friends. I was official blogger at my favorite regional photography festival Rovinj Photodays. That was awesome!

Thank you all for reading this blog, this is 110th post here. Happy first birthday Die without art! Cheers people, love you.

My family is far away, Google Maps calculates more than 600 km. I’m kinda feeling like Kevin on Christmas. Hah, not really! I will see them right after New Year’s Eve. Otherwise, student life is awesome. New town, new country actually, new friends and so on. Everything’s really cool.

Die without art wishes you a Merry Christmas & Happy 2011.

Bad news knocked on the door last weekend. Maybe it’s not so bad because I still don’t understand what happened. Yes it is about my new little toy Canon 7D. I was working whole summer long to buy it and now the camera won’t turn on. Why? What happened?

During photo shooting with Elen a weekend before it turned off and we had to break off and sadly go home. I came home and recharged the battery. Green light and it turned on. I was so so happy, like I got a baby. I downloaded photos, edited and uploaded some of. Then I had to pack my stuff for moving to Novi Sad. Whole madness.

I moved to Novi Sad, Serbia three day ago. The city is cool and everything is fine but I’ll publish another post about that. Beside I was a speaker at BlogOpen 2010, here in Novi Sad, I also supposed to be official photographer and catch everything around this awesome event. It was Friday morning and I still thought 7D is all right. Before the shooting with aprons for BlogOpen I went for a photo walk and when I tried to turn my camera on, again the same story, it won’t turn on. I couldn’t believe! I was crying that night.

I was searching for the answer. Maybe it’s about the battery or battery charger. Hope it’s nothing serious. The camera was bought from UK, brand new and it’s only 2 months old. 3 year guarantee is fine but I have to send it to UK. If there is another way I’d like to try it. I need it back! Can somebody help me?

Last days I’m working on a brand new experience of Die without Art blog, redesign. Before the launch I’m collecting and processing all important information of how people use my blog. Who they are and what they are looking for. I must admit this is really hard work. I’m reading a lot about design and user experience on the internet, and what is interesting, I’m not a web designer or any kind of a designer actually I’m a photographer and blogger, but I’m trying to do it all by myself. I need a very simple, clean and useful design for my blog. I was brainstorming till 5am last nights. I’m still drawing a new concept, testing different widths, colors and fonts. I’m learning how to use a pen tool in Adobe Illustrator, because I’ll need it for the logo.

Hope the near future will come with new pretty stuff and readers will enjoy totally new experience of Die without Art. If you wanna help feel free to leave your thoughts down below. By the way, why don’t you take a quick survey?

Photo © Rosie Hardy

I know some other blogs and sites disabled leaving comments, but here on Die without Art, comments are still alive. Not so alive, because you have a problem with them. Is it so hard to leave a few words about some others work or I have to integrate like buttons to save your time? Come on, I’m not angry but offended about your relation with my blog.

The blogosphere is made up of all blogs and their interconnections. The term implies that blogs exist together as a connected community (or as a collection of connected communities) or as a social network in which everyday authors can publish their opinions.

It’s a very nice habit of leaving comments on other blogs, right? Blogosphere has to breathe, interact in all ways. We have to grow it together. Maybe this won’t change anything… but… please do not be so lazy.

Photo by SunnyMarry

Making new cool friends via Internet was always my favorite online activity. Especially in the creative circle of people. Some of them are now my real (I also call them face-to-face) friends and I’m such a happy person because of that.

This special blog post is about my new dear online friend Ana also-known-as le vent le cri. Ana is a young 16-years-old photographer from Croatia and you can see some of her shots in this post. FOR MORE VISIT HER AWESOME FLICKR PHOTOSTREAM!

Ana is such a lovely person and I can feel that through her photos, so inspiring. She’s interesting and her photostream is telling one wonderful story. I’m glad she had enough confidence to tell me more about her life. After our call I’m loving her more and more. What has grown from just a few comments, continued via mails? An beautiful friendship! We are still just online friends and I’m looking forward to meet her in person, finally.

Thank you Flickr!

Animation work is great, I work with people, with kids and it’s never boring. In short… creative workshops, aqua aerobics at noon, bike tours, photo routes around the town; sports like beach volley, tennis, basket and so; plus show time program including dances, acting and other performances. I’m doing all this whole summer to buy myself a new photography equipment.

Such a poor free time doesn’t allow me to blog. This summer is crazy, kinda overbooked! About previous post “Academy of Arts is knockin’ on the door!” I have only to say door is closed, so I’m still making my plan for the future and I’ll come back to you in September with more information and some new special topics that are already in draft. News from Novi Sad are not so good, think this is gonna be a very interesting and creative gap year. September is calling!

Busy! Busy! Busy! Busy! Sorry! Be good and see you soon.

I worked hard over two loooong months to finish my portfolio and prepare to enroll the Academy of Arts – Photography department, in a very beautiful town Novi Sad, Serbia. This morning I’m going on a 600-km-long-trip from Novigrad to Novi Sad by car and my uncle goes with me. My dear friend Jelena, also know as Queen of the sunset, will be my host for a week or maybe more. Bags are ready, batteries are charging and my eyes are closing. Before I tap “Publish” I just wanna say “Big Respectable & Lovely Thank You” to all of my friends and supporters who wrote a few very kind lines for me. Hope my parents will sleep well these days.

I’M GONNA DO MY BEST, REALLY!

By the way, read my 3 months old post “Setting my goals, reachable targets” about my plans, it’s closely connected with this one, and it will explain a bit better what is in my head at this suppose-to-be-stressful-but-it’s-not-at-all moment.

PHOTOGRAPHY IS MY LIFE, SO WISH ME LUCK!

Wanna help? Submit your work!

I’m busy but that doesn’t means this blog will stay without new posts. I’m calling you, my dear readers, to help me! If you wanna share something creative with us please drop me a line to submit AT diewithoutart DOT com, thank you.

To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe. — A. France

I’ll need a very simple and good organised space with all those required equipment such as lighting, softboxes and umbrellas, backgrounds etc. I’m a photographer, that’s clear, but that won’t be only a photo studio, that will be the multi-something studio. The idea is to invite my creative friends and all other art lovers to join me and collaborate on projects, exhibitions and maybe talk shows. I’m looking for designers, illustrators, photographers, developers, advertising experts and guerrilla marketing enthusiasts, social media ninjas and maybe some other cool profession.

I’m still dreaming about a Mac on my desk, that’s also a part of my dream about studio. For team brainstorming we will use IdeaPaint, wall for our ideas. Chill(out) music will be playing all the time in my studio. I’m sure the whole environment will be more than inspiring.

Until the clients discover us and our services we will work on our own identities, each member of our team must have a personal website, business card and maybe a custom tshirt – just for warming-up. I’m a big fan of guerrilla marketing and that’s the way we will promote our studio around the streets. We are going to use social media for spreading the world and communicating with others.

All this is just a dream and I’ll do my best to realize it asap. Then I’ll read this once again.

I was officially on a mission to cover “every move” around the school during the creative workshop. She played the flute and I’ve met her on the hallway. I still didn’t know her name and nothing more. Smile here – smile there!

Here comes the last day of our workshop, the most beautiful and crucial day. We went for a walk with our friends and finally I have remembered her name – Franka. That night, last night, we sat next to each other and watched the funny guy doing some tricks. Franka was so cute and I’ve hugged her. Emotions, yay emotions! Love at first sight. Indescribably!

Franka had to go, you know it’s last day of the creative workshop and her parents came. I was very sad and sent her a message 30 minutes later. This story can’t be explained so easy with these poor words, but I wrote this because of her and everybody who are asking me what happened. Remember, I won’t hide nothing from my life – by the way, sorry for my very often personal posts, do not worry, some articles about art are in preparation. This was how one day and one beautiful person can change my life.

In the end, one special line for Franka: YOU SAID YOU LIKE THIS BLOG, NOW YOU BECAME A PART OF IT. MY LIFE IS MUCH HAPPIER WITH YOU AND AFTER SOME TIME I FINALLY HAVE SOMEONE TO LOVE AND THINK ABOUT. IT’S LIKE THE MOST BEAUTIFUL DREAM, REALLY! THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING AND GOOD LUCK TO US BOTH. I LOVE YOU!

It’s not easy writing this report, because of the sadness and all those beautiful memories. Unbelievable is that one week of creative workshops can connect people so strong. We have simply became inseparable. Everybody are so kind and dear, everybody are smiling all the time. You have to feel that energy. It’s better than utopia, really!

Actually I don’t know how to write down my feelings and where to start. So, I won the elections for the best clown, yay! Whole week was superb and we have made a real circus. It’s beautiful being surrounded with the happy creative kids, I miss them so much. Once again I’ll repeat, everything was happening in my hometown and my ex elementary school. Day begins with the breakfast and morning creative work, buzzing around the school and watching what others are working. Lunch and short break for sunbathing, elevator riding and photo sessions on the meadow. Afternoon creative work in the school again and than, finally, showtime at the hotel. Many arts united on one place, Novigrad, my hometown.

I know all those kids still miss Novigrad and everything what happened here last week, because they are sending me messages all the time. I can’t count anymore how much people I’ve hugged last week, and how much of them have a picture with (or of) me. My voice is still “broken” couz of singing and lots of ice cream that I’ve ate. Back into “normal” world I’m out of space and time. Maybe everything I wrote here today sounds wired and “Nah, that’s just one week”, no it’s not. You have to try it out. During 8, yes 8, years of this creative workshop I’ve met many-many dear people, my friends for ever; and photography as my biggest passion. This was just a try to express my feelings and write a report for all those creative kids and dear people.

DO NOT BE SAD, BE HAPPY BECAUSE WE’VE MET EACH OTHER. STAY IN TOUCH, LOVE YOU ALL! YOU ARE MY FAMILY, HAPPY FAMILY!

Two days are behind us and the time is running so fast. My electioneering for the best clown is going very well, and my plan for tomorrow is to wear a pajama and slippers whole day, crazy? I love this workshop and my funky kids who are making every day more special and unforgettable – thank you!

Fabulous camera obscura will be our main tool tomorrow – let’s do the magic with that box.

First day of the workshops has just passed and we have done a lot. It maybe sounds crazy, but I’m competing for the best clown in our little creative circus and here is one photo from the recording of my advertisement for the best clown. Posters with my crazy clown photo are placed all over the school in a hope people will vote for me – funky elections.

Stay tuned for my next report and a photo with my clown outfit.

During the yesterday’s video call with my dear Sky Nash, a web camera really got angry on me when I showed my art and made the stupid pixels of it. We tried turning off the web cam a few times and it worked properly until the moment I showed my art – pixels again!

Maybe Sky’s MacBook don’t like my shitty laptop or my art is too strong for this poor little web camera – who knows? Very interesting case with no explanation. Whatever, after 2 hours of talking, some silence and tweeting, I’m very happy to have a friend like she.

By the way, after three months of super awesome blogging, meeting new creative people and featuring the best of them on Die without Art, this is my 60th post over here. Yay! Thank you all for reading, sharing and helping me.

Creative workshops from the last post will be starting tomorrow morning, can’t wait. I’m gonna sleep well tonight because I saw my friends on the opening ceremony after one long year. That’s cute, especially the hugs. The kids are amazing, so stay tuned for some photos and impressions.

That’s simply my favorite week of the year because all my creative friends are coming to my town, my ex elementary school, to express their imagination. They are kids from all over the country, all ages – from 10 to 20. We have chose our workshop (for example: dancing, acting, singing, drawing, photography, filmmaking and many more) yet and then all together will be working under one topic – this year it’s a CIRCUS.

How you see on this photos from the last year, we are working all over the place and everything is full of colors and happiness. There’s no white walls, each is painted and filled with thematic illustrations. You would not believe what these kids can make, unbelievable.

Last day we are usually opening our group exhibition before the huge and crying ceremony. This unforgettable experience is repeating every year, better and better. Can’t wait to see my dear friends tomorrow after one long year.

I’ll try to publish our impressions every day, and still don’t know which hash tag to use on Twitter. But make sure you have subscribed to my feed and that you are following me.

In focus

Two years ago after my first solo exhibition titled “In focus”, journalist asked me a lot of questions. That was not my first time in media, but it was kinda serious. I published those photos on the internet and the feedback came very fast, thank you real-time-web. I’m very happy because the title of my first exhibition came true. I’ve finally got my audience. That’s the most valuable treasure which one artist can have. Respect to you all.

Remember, that’s was two years ago. Now, when people saw my growing-portfolio, they started hiring me. Awesome! I finally started making money from what I love to do, like in a dream. I worked whole summer to bought new equipment and I’ll do the same this year.

Social media for the win!

Social media was very interesting for me, so I opened my fan page on Facebook. People are coming and interacting and that’s the power, I can spread my life and passion globally. Twitter also became my communication tool because I’ve met many interesting people over there. Are you following me?

We are not alone, of course not

There came my second solo exhibition titled “We are not alone” on the beginning of this year. Again in media, yay! Now I understand the first sentence of this article. I’m finally what I always wanted to be, recognizable! Feel free to say hello on the street, but make sure I don’t have headphones on. I’d love to hear from you – find me on Facebook, follow me on Twitter or send me an email to danijel AT sivinjski DOT com

Before I start writing about the title of this article… Big respectable thanks to my dear guest bloggers Sky Nash, Giulia Scifoni and Yamille Marmont, who helped me a lot. If you missed, please read their guest blogging articles from last week:

Five books I love, by Sky Nash
Photography in the opposite direction, by Giulia Scifoni
500 Seconds Of No Breathing, by Yamille Marmont

Thank you girls!

Let’s get back to the title, I finally found the battery charger without which I couldn’t work last two months. That’s two long months without photography. I’m a photographer, you remember that? And I need full-charged batteries to work. Photography is my biggest passion, I felt kinda lost those two months. First I thought somebody steal my battery charger, but fortunately I was wrong. It was hidden in the basket under brothers bed. How? I don’t know. Doesn’t matter, now I have to finish my school projects and get ready for the art academy. This is the last, but most difficult month before the summer. I wrote about my plans ‘n’ goals before and you will first know the details during next two months.

If you wanna join them, no problem – never is too late, read more information here.

I’ll keep my eye(s) on your submissions and try to answer every email I receive. Make sure you are following @DieWithoutArt and @sivinjski on Twitter. Hope you are having a great time on holidays and you have prepared the most creative eggs for Easter.

Stay tuned, my guests have some delicious content for you. Subscribe!

If you have something creative and worth publishing I’ll give you the opportunity to share it with the world, simply said my blog is yours. You can use your own art works or find something interesting all around the internet. In case you’re new here, please read older articles. Your style of writing is very welcome here, and do not worry about it. Be yourself and tell us your opinion. Write how much you think is enough, and relax. Write a few sentences about yourself. Enrich the article with links and include interesting quotes.

During my offline week I’ll review your articles and publish only the best. That means I’ll bring my laptop with me, but I’ll have only 1 or 2 hours per day for reading, reviewing and publishing submitted GUEST BLOGGING articles. Important is to send me the content with title and resources such as links, pictures etc.

Submitted articles will be published from April 2nd to 10th and you can send yours TODAY to submit (at) diewithoutart (dot) com, I would really appreciate you.

Thank you!

Set your goals high, and don’t stop till you get there—Bo Jackson

What the plan?

My career in the field of photography, blogging and journalism started already and I will work as much as I can to improve it. The current dilemma is where to go after high school. I’m closely related to the art(s) and I’ll try to enroll in the art academy, that’s my first wish and goal. I trust in myself, but in a case of fail there is always another option—I’m going to work on myself and improve my (special) skills, blog a lot, read and learn a lot, meet new cool and dear people, maybe change my location, drink as much as possible cups of tea, write a book maybe, photograph a lot and spend a year without the college. I do not wanna study something stupid and boring, one year off education is ok.

Following my dreams is going well so far and I’m really happy about everything I’ve done. I wanna live from photography and this blog in the future, I will wait for that moment until it happen. New equipment is necessary, I need a new camera, lens and maybe a laptop. Working whole summer to buy it sounds good. That’s my passion and I have to invest into it. 2010 is a year full of challenges, let’s see what will happen next.

She’s currently working on improving her drawing skills, her design eye, reorganizing both her online and physical studio, preparing fish and going to bed no later than 5am. I’ve spent a few great weekends with her and had so much fun. For Christmas Djuro bought me a book called “Sexy Web Design”, by Elliot Jay Stocks which is still on my *Read me* list. She sometimes tweets about these things. And sometimes, when things consume her enough, she will draw them and put them on her blog.

To realize what she meant with the illustration I asked her a few questions:

The illustration you’ve done is not far away from the blog concept, and that’s why I like it very much. How did you come to the idea?

Well, since our initial Skype musings on Die Without Art blog, we both loved the idea of the illustration to literally represent that title. Your only wishes were to make it black and white, with a dash of red. So that was perfect, because we both wanted it bloody :).

Later I spent (how much?) two – three weeks, just letting my sick and bizarre part of mind do its work. At first I was getting all sorts of suicide – scene ideas, but soon I threw those out and just wallowed in ironic and more “bad luck” ones. And those came suprisingly easy.

This idea came to me while I was in the exact position our guy there is – the living one. I was drawing, with my iPod on and thinking “Okay, so I am indulging in some form of art, so I am safe now, but what if I weren’t?” and BAM! A piano falls right next to me! Well not really, but piano is the quintessential thing to be falling from the sky, killing random non art – loving people. The dog came to the picture later, as I felt bad for killing the poor guy, so hey, why not give him someone to fire the alarm?

It is a very self-explanatory idea and I liked that, header – wise.

I’m sure readers wanna know how you draw it?

I like to have a photo reference when drawing people, so after an unsuccessful web search for the exact poses I imagined, I turned to my only model available at midnight – my boyfriend, and made him pose for both our guys. I must say he was very cooperative, even stayed in the “you were just crashed by a piano” pose longer than needed. The piano was easy to find. So that was the sketch.

After realizing I sketched a way too vertical composition for a header, I traced it on a another paper. Actually two papers, glued together (you can notice the seam on the piano). I traced it with a pencil, and then traced it again with a thin black pen. I used Staedtler Tripulus Fineliner. Originally I planned on on coloring it in Photoshop, but I got carried away with the fineliner, and did the shadowing with hand. I also used a red fineliner and a grey Faber-Castell crayon. And lots of eraser!

I know you’re attending a drawing course, can we expect new works, soon?

Well if I do wish to exhibit something soon, it will surely go up on my blog. I’m trying to keep myself in a learning-mode as much as possible, and the drawing course is extremely valuable for that. Most of my work now is school-work. I sometimes publish that work on Twitter, while the initial “I made a drawing!” enthusiasm is still with me. To publish something purposefully, I need a backstory, an idea, a blog post, or a fun project such as DwA here :)

Thank you Djuro!

You’re following Djuro already?

Djuro is one of DwA’s friends with creative brains, read her blog at drawingdjuro.com. Hope she will publish new stuff more often. There you can find her drawings and sweet words. For short updates please follow her on Twitter.

Wallpaper alert!

You like the illustration ninja Djuro made? You can have it on your desktop. Just choose the resolution 1280×1024, 1680×1050 or 2560×1600 pixels and enjoy it every time you minimize your windows.

DwA logo is on the way. Stay tuned. Thanks for reading.

Google Analytics makes me happy every midnight when I check the stats. I’ll keep those numbers my secret, but the percent of change is absolutely for the public – 188,300.00%. Are you kidding me, Google?

Submissions

DwA‘s submission inbox recieves something new and creative almost every day. On top of the page is an Submit button where you can find more about the submissions. Feel free to submit your work, story, anything.

Fans

Almost 400 fans joined the community on DwA‘s Facebook fan page. I hope you are enjoying the content and that you agree with the title – Die without Art. In the near future you can expect some giveaways on Facebook fan page and Twitter of course.

So stay tuned, and enjoy the content. Thanks for reading.

Subscribe

RSS is a wonderful technology. You just subscribe and the content comes to you, totally free. I use Google Reader to follow other blogs and it saves my time a lot. If you already use it or any other readers, here is the link of DwA‘s feed.

Greeting people on the street is love. Saying ‘Good night’ is love. Love is sharing. Sweetmeats are love. Helping each others is love. ‘I love NY’ is love. Snowflakes are love. Love is everything visible and invisible. It’s important to recognize the love.

Love and be loved.

Saying ‘Thank you’ is love too.

Die without Art blog exists only four weeks, four awesome weeks. I recieved a lot of submissions and feedback from you, my dear readers. I’m very grateful to you. It’s not so easy to start a new blog and I think I’m doing a great job. Beginning might be hard, but in my case art and blogging are passions. I’m doing this every day. I call it a job because my wish is to provide high quality content daily.

Make sure you have been subscribed for new *daily fresh* content.
Let’s move on. Thank you for reading.

If you still don’t know who I am, please check out my website at sivinjski.com.

“Life captured in photography” is the title of an article about exhibition in newspaper. I like press.

I do photography over 7 years, and this was the hardest period for me, but the happiest when I done with work. Why the hardest? Because my camera was a half broken, and deadline came so fast. Every shot was taken with full Manual settings, and Manual focus (MF) too. Results were unexpectedly better.

Press clipping, elsewhere

See complete “We are not alone” collection on Flickr: Link
Regional newspapers wrote about the exhibition: Glas Istre, Regional Express
Official location article: Public library of Pula

Before everything

First, thank you for the visit. Die without Art blog will continue with Art collecting and you can be a part of it. Click “Submit your Art” on the top and send your work, suggest me your friends, your favourite artists. Don’t forget to Subscribe (RSS).

And remember, We are not alone.