The Triumphant Return

Article
By Ollie Nicholas
11/01/21

Subtitle

Can I take a minute to talk to you about Jesus Christ?

Contents

1. Getting back on the horse

2. Painting

3. There are benefits to having a pickup truck

4. Dropout 2021

Nothing To Say (2020) by Ollie Nicholas

This is a pretty self-indulgent article, but I didn't know what else to write about. I wanted to get back into posting on Dropout as it's been a while, so here's some ramblings of what I've been doing over the past few months. Enjoy.

Subtitle

Can I take a minute to talk to you about Jesus Christ?

Contents

1. Getting back on the horse

2. Painting

3. There are benefits to having a pickup truck

4. Dropout 2021

This is a pretty self-indulgent article, but I didn't know what else to write about. I wanted to get back into posting on Dropout as it's been a while, so here's some ramblings of what I've been doing over the past few months. Enjoy.
1. Getting back on the horse

Can I take a minute to talk to you about Jesus Christ? No? Ok, enjoy your day.

This is how I feel about a lot of the stuff that I have written on Dropout. Whether it's been articles about the environment or homelessness I have popped up on your social media feed like one of those street fundraisers, trying to avert your attention away from memes and onto some of the injustices in the world. And just as you would with a street fundraiser, you briskly move past, doing your best to avoid eye contact. I do write this from a point of frustration but I completely understand your viewpoint, I am the exact same. We all have stuff going on in our lives and it naive to think that you can take on every injustice that the world faces. This is something that I have come to realise as of late, hence the dip in Dropout content. It’s also quite difficult to get yourself fired up about projects and content when you’re stuck at home. You can only do so many video calls with people because we’re all running out of stuff to say.

I have sat down at my laptop to write a couple of times recently but I just haven’t been feeling it. There’s certainly not a shortage of things to write about; coronavirus, Donald Trump, Brexit and so on, but I must be honest, I don’t actually know about any of these topics in great detail and it would be disrespectful to reader and more importantly myself to hash something together. If I’ve learnt anything in my short journalist career, people can smell bullshit a mile off. For the past few months I’ve loosely followed the news, but I’ve mostly been a bit of a hermit crab with a healthy larger addiction. Two cans a night has been a more than fitting accompaniment to writing comedy and trying my hand at a bit of painting, rather than putting together some drivel on the coronavirus vaccine. Saying that, I do want to get back on the horse and get back to work on Dropout, and you’ve got to start somewhere, so here I am for my triumphant return.

Vegans Did This (2020) by Ollie Nicholas

Fisherman (2020) by Ollie Nicholas

2. Painting

It was my 25th birthday in September and my parents gifted me a set of 60 acrylic paints to keep me busy in lockdown, and I've been enjoying every single one of them. Emerald Green, Oxide Yellow, Cerulean Blue, Carmine Red, if it’s in the box, I’ll give it a go. Obviously my skill level isn’t great just yet, but to be honest I couldn’t give a fuck. I’d probably come 4th in a primary school art show, but that’s only because my parents didn’t help me with my piece. You must take pride in your own work, no matter how infantile. I must thank my new friend Daniel Spivakov (who is a proper artist) for inspiring me to give painting a go. Daniel took part in the 2020 edition of New Minds, and during our conversation he took particular interest in the fact that I had been doing standup comedy. I was equally as interested in the art work he’d been making, so we decided to reconvene at his house in Queens Park to exchange trade secrets. We met in the morning and didn’t beat around the bush. It was barely 11am and we enjoyed beers and cigarillos whilst Daniel showed me the paintings that he was currently working on. We then sat for a while and spoke about the limits of stand up comedy and our shared appreciation for Jerry Seinfeld. Maybe it was the Stella taking affect, but I left Daniel’s feeling like I could take on the world. I’ve actually written a comedy sketch for the two of us, but obviously coronavirus is keeping that on hold. I hope we get to work on it together soon.

I never paid much attention during art in school, but it was a welcome break from things like maths and geography, and we did have fun flicking powder paint at each other from time to time. Saying that, flicking powered paints gave me no idea where to begin when I sat down with my 60 paints and a set of canvases. A friend had gifted me a book of Basquiat paintings, and it looked like he just rolled up his sleeves and got cracking, so I did the same, and to a degree that works. He obviously did it with a little more thought, but sometimes you just need to get something down on the page, or the canvas in this instance, to know what you need to do next. I’ve done about 20 paintings so far and there’s been no masterpieces just yet. Turns out I’m not a genius artist, but I kind of suspected this before I started. However, this is the craft of a lifetime, so check in with me on my death bed.

Blue Man, Red Man (2021) by Ollie Nicholas

The Meaning Of Life (2021) by Ollie Nicholas

3. There are benefits to having a pickup truck

Something that has surprised me recently has been the music that has accompanied my creative process. I have been particularly enjoying two artists out of Tennessee in the way of Morgan Wallen and Kings on Leon, both of which had been recommendations from Theo Von and Matthew McConaughey respectively. I’m a regular listener to Theo Von’s podcast of which Morgan Wallen was a guest about a month ago. I’ve never been one for country music but he seemed like a good guy on the podcast so I thought I’d give him a shot. Morgan lives up to southern stereotypes and his music does make me laugh at times, but he’s a great songwriter, and the positivity and introspectiveness in his writing is welcomed during such a miserable period. He’s also developed some interesting concepts, such as making his music videos into short films which is pretty cool. Whether it’s hit or miss, I always appreciate people that take chances and think outside the box because originality is dwindling in todays digital world. My favourite songs from his debut album ‘Dangerous’ are ‘This Bar’ and ‘Cover Me Up’.

Getting into Kings of Leon was also quite surprising because I thought that ship had come and gone. They’ve been around forever and aside from the prolific ‘Use Somebody’ and ‘Sex On Fire’ I would have struggled to name another of their songs. They came onto my radar at the start of November as I began a 250 mile running challenge. Knowing that I’d be spending much of November out on the roads and trails, I downloaded a number of audio books to accompany me. One of the books that I chose was ‘Greenlights’, a memoir by Matthew McConaughey because what better to keep me going than the smooth southern charm of the wise and poetic man. Hearing about all of his adventures spurred me on as I embarked on an adventure of my own, although his seemed a little more exciting than trudging through the trails of a cold and soggy Surrey. I don’t actually recall why he mentioned Kings of Leon but I was feeling the monotony of the challenge and wanted to get something new coming through my headphones. I skipped the main songs that I knew and got into some of the bands deep cuts, and after a few days of listening, I came to find that I was drawn to the more country style songs that they had released. They portrayed a sense of adventure in the same way that Matthew McConaughey’s stories had and I began to realise that it was the story telling aspect of country music that was fuelling my affection for it. Who knows if this country phase will stick, but for now I’m quite happy letting it be my sound track, although I should remain wise to its influence on making me want to buy a pickup truck. I mean there are loads of practical benefits so I am considering it.

4. Dropout 2021

I will be doing my best to post more frequently on here this year. I've already had some talks over potential collaborations, most notably with 'The Mikro Collective' which has been set up by Sarah Graham and Dr Megan Barnett.

In there own words: "The Mikro Collective is a digital catalogue of microorganisms that possess unique capabilities that are interesting for designing sustainable solutions for today’s problems. It acts as an educational and engagement tool for designers, scientists and engineers new to biodesign as well as a facilitator for successful collaboration among these groups".

This project could not be more important and it's been exciting to see it develop over the past few months. I met Sarah after I spoke to the Material Futures students at Central Saint Martins last year, and it's been a great to reconnect with her on a number of occasions since. She's helped out with projects on Dropout and given me loads of advice on my move to Canada, so it's been a pleasure to help out with The Mikro Collective, which launches in the spring of this year.

As always thanks for reading and don't hesitate to get in touch! I'll leave you with this...

  • The Triumphant Return

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Ollie Nicholas (@ollienicholas)

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