"The mind is the limit. As long as the mind can envision that fact that you can do something. You can do it, as long as you really believe 100 percent."
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Who has inspired you throughout your life and why?
Is it someone you know? Someone famous?
There can be so many reasons for us to consider someone to be our ‘hero’, maybe it’s their philosophy on life, their achievements, their charitable nature, their drive etc. The individuals who inspire us might change through different stages of our lives as our own ambitions, circumstances and priorities change.
We’ve pooled together a few stories we enjoyed about some inspirational people who have achieved greatness, smashed stereotypes and positively represent the older generation.
Japanese mountaineer Yuichiro Miura became the oldest person in history to reach the top of Mount Everest at the age of 80 in 2013 and still holds the record.
Miura had made the impressive 29,029 feet climb twice before, once at 70 and again at the age of 75. He explained the momentous achievement as being ‘the best day of his life’ and expressed how he never imagined that he could make it to the top of Everest at the age of 80.
At 80 years old, Barbara Peters is the oldest person to take any of the Royal Academy of Dance tests in Britain. Peters started dancing at the age of two and attended RAD to study to be a teacher of ballet and classical dancing. 58 years after her final exam she returned to complete her grade 7 ballet exam as there was no grade this high when she studied there. Peters opened her own dance school in 1965 and launched babyballet in 2005 which she still runs with her daughter in Huddersfield.
At the age of 96 Huang, became known as The Rainbow Grandpa when he saved his village from being closed and turned it into one of Taichung’s main tourist attractions that now receives millions of visitors each year. Huang had lived in the village for 37 years when he heard the governments plans to close the village. In an attempt to protect some of the homes he came up with the imaginative and inventive plan to paint the buildings.
Over the course of seven years he painted properties across the village turning it into a vibrant sea of colour. As a self-taught artist he painted what he learnt to draw as a child and covered buildings in colourful images of puppies, kittens and pigs. 11 homes were protected and it was agreed by the government that the village should be preserved.
The story was covered in 2018 by the BBC and you can watch it here.
Noriko Shinohara is a Japanese-American Artist who lives and works in Brooklyn. She arrived in New York at the age of 19 to study at the prestigious Arts Student League. Not long after her arrival she met her husband, the artist Ushio Shinohara. After years of suppressing her own artistic tendencies due to the demands of supporting her husband’s rising career and bringing up their son, it wasn’t until the fifth decade of her life that she was able to focus on her own work. Noriko works in the mediums of painting, sculpture, writing and etching and is best known for her semi-autobiographical drawing series Cutie & Bullie, two characters she created to narrate her life’s story. The series inspired the 2013 documentary film Cutie and the Boxer, Cutie to represent Noriko and Boxer as Ushio due to his renowned boxing paintings.
"Man does not cease to play because he grows old, he grows old because he ceases to play" George Bernard Shaw
David Hockney is staying creative whilst in lockdown at his house in Normandy and recently shared some of his most recent images in a BBC exclusive. Whilst spending a lot of time in the garden he’s captured the start of spring using an Ipad to do his drawings.
He told the BBC Arts Editor –
"I intend to carry on with my work, which I now see as very important. We have lost touch with nature rather foolishly as we are a part of it, not outside it. This will in time be over and then what? What have we learned? I am 83 years old, I will die. The cause of death is birth. The only real things in life are food and love in that order, just like our little dog Ruby. I really believe this, and the source of art is love. I love life."
Read the full article and view his work here
Get closer to Art -
As mentioned in our first post, Google’s Arts and Culture pages are a fantastic resource to expand your art knowledge.
There are countless articles, ideas and news items inspired by arts and culture from all over the world. Step inside renowned artworks, galleries and arts venues and discover something new every day.
Today they’ve posted 10 floral artworks to brighten your day and share some artworks produced by famous artists who studied the rich symbolism of flowers in their work including, Andy Warhol, Georgia O’Keeffe and William Morris. Take a look here
Life on Hold –
Life on Hold is a Creative Remix project set up by Bristol based businesses, Hey What? And Duchess Media.
Through an online portal they’re inviting designers, illustrators, animators and musicians to remix some of the works made by some of their key Artists.
The initiative is to help raise funds to support the NHS and the Charity Mind.
The 5 steps of the project -
1. Donate via the website to access the Life On Hold portal
2. Download one of our key artists creations
3. Remix it and make it your own
4. Upload your remix to the Life On Hold portal
5. Share your creation with the world and invite others to take part
To register your interest and find out more click here
Yesterday's quiz answers -
1. In the 60s Queen Elizabeth II dedicated an acre of ground in memory of which American President? John F. Kennedy
2. Tom Whittaker was the first man to climb Everest in what circumstances? First disabled person as he’d had his right foot amputated
3. Picasso moved to Paris in 1901 but where was he born? Spain
4. Who became the first woman Prime Minister of an Islamic nation? Benazir Bhutto
5. Who described his paintings as "hand-painted dream photographs? Salvador Dali
6. What was the name of the first animal to be launched into space and in which year? Laika in 1957
7. What is Aphra Behn famous for? English Playwright – one of the first English women to earn her living through her writing.
8. Where was Germaine Greer born and in which year? Melbourne Australia, 1939
9. When was Mikhail Gorbachev leader of the Soviet Union? 1990 – 1991
10. In which country was Mother Teresa born? North Macedonia
11. What was the name of a young illiterate pheasant girl who lead an army? Joan of Arc
12. Who won a Nobel Prize for both Chemistry and Physics? Marie Curie
13. What was William Wilberforce most famous for? Abolishment of Slavery
14. What has Tim Berners-Lee invented? World Wide Web
15. Which female heroine has hospitals named after her? Florence Nightingale
See you soon -
We’re taking a short break from daily content but will be providing a weekly roundup of ideas to help you stay busy during this time.
In the meantime, keep dipping into the previous posts and share with us anything you’ve been working on, we’d love to see what you’re creating and can upload it onto the website to share with others.
Keep thinking and creating, stay safe and we hope to see you soon!