It's been a while, my friends. To be honest I have been quite overwhelmed by the preparation, building and opening of the exhibition. When people ask me if I'm delighted by how successful it has been? Honest to my dying breath, I have to partially disappoint by whinging about how damn hard it all was!! I can laugh at myself to some . . .
Putting a fire under creativity
"Firstly to cook for the Baba Yaga, (the forest witch) one lays a fire- a woman must be willing to burn hot, burn with passion, burn with words, with ideas, with desire for whatever it is she truly loves. It is actually this passion that causes the cooking, and a woman's original ideas of substance are what is cooked. To cook for the . . .
Memory making through photography
I don't necessarily think of myself as an older person. But there you are, I am an older person. So when I was asked by Garter Lane Arts Centre to facilitate a photography workshop for older people as part of the Bealtaine Festival, I was curious. (The Bealtaine Festival is about celebrating the arts as we get . . .
Bokeh
Early morning light at it's best with sprinklings of frosty dew drops. From my window I won't miss a thing that moves or changes. Small birds hang around on the willows, waiting for the breakfast I will serve them shortly. I've noticed the February sunrise is at the perfect angle. The dimmer switch is being turned up slowly. The sun . . .
Photographing evening skies
There's something about photographing evening skies that never fails to raise my spirits. Tonight, driving home into the western sunset, I had to stop to capture the ever changing canvas, so many times along the way. As the sun dropped towards the horizon the colours intensified and deepened. It was a welcome distraction . . .
Ripening
Six weeks have passed and I am still fairly house bound. At this stage I am crawling the four walls, that common form of cabin fever, but I think I am finally on the mend. Over the last few months I have had a stash of ripening seeds under my desk. They are not for planting but for . . .
A gift
Photography with heart People often ask me about what camera I use and whether I have any advice for some one starting out to make photography a part of their life. Over time I have created this short guide to my approach. I called it Photography with Heart (download by clicking on link) The information is more focussed on the experience of the . . .
Silver
Remember to look the other way; sense what is lurking behind your back, what is over your head and what is under your feet. For a moment out on the island, up close with the grasses I heard them whispering about the state of things; the end of summer and the dying back of the plant world. In the salty air out there, old petals crunched . . .
Breathe in experience
"Breathe-in experience, breathe-out poetry." Muriel Rukeyser I'm delighted to be a Finalist in the 2016 Littlewoods Irish Blog Awards, of course I am. If you can hear a "but" coming that's because I sometimes feel a little like a square peg in a round hole in the blogging world. Blogging for me . . .
Creativity, imagination and happiness.
It was 2010, I was a bit tired and depressed about the world. The every day news seemed to reduce everything to the fact that human nature was ugly and hateful. Politics was hopeless too, having worked for social progress all my life, change seemed to happen at a snail's pace. Suicide was on the increase, many young people had nothing to . . .
