Another course

Yes I know!  I do too many.  But this one with Fibre Arts Take Two is a Masterclass and is called Essence of Identity.  It's about finding out more about yourself so you can put  more of yourself in your work.  I feel it builds on the mentoring sessions I had with Christine Chester in 2017.  Can't believe it's that long ago.

One of the modules has been to look at elements and principles of design - which ones appeal to us and which ones we use.

I went through some of my photos and put them together to demonstrate LINE (see above) and SHAPE (below).

 TEXTURE

 And DECAY which is another form of texture.

And you can probably see - if you didn't already know - that I'm attracted to neutral COLOURS and pale blues.  Also rust and orange!

I've also looked at my own work and where the elements and principles are in that but I'll share that another day.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

More poetry. One photo

And the photo isn't mine!

I spent another very productive couple of hours on a Write Poetry zoom call run by Sara-Jane Arbury. You may remember me mentioning her last month.

(c) Element5digital

Again we did 3 exercises.For each exercise Sara-Jane introduced us to a poem, talked about its form, language and punctuation and set us off to write a poem of our own.

The first exercise was to write something about a first experience or step.

First Day 

Bag unpacked, reading books primed
ready to be heard.
Pencils sharpened, crayons
corralled in tins upon the desk.
Small tables, small chairs
for small people. 

The smell of disinfectant.
Why do school toilets smell the same
whatever the school? 

The bell tolls. The day begins
with registration. Each child
acknowledging their presence
to the teacher. A new term for them.
A new job for me. 

The second was about watching somebody who doesn't know you are watching them.  It was suggested we start with 'I see you'.

I see you growing

In your ballet dress I see you
Twirling and smiling
Lost in the wonder
of the dance. 

Sometimes dressed as Elsa
Being a princess. Frozen
on a screen as Mummy
takes a photo. 

I see you cutting up cucumber
And putting snacks in a box
ready for daycare.
Mummy’s little helper. 

I see you colouring in pictures
in a colouring book
whilst you wait for your brothers
to finish their martial art. 

I see you.
But I can’t touch you.
I see you in a photo. In a video
your mummy shares with me. 

I can’t reach through the screen
to touch you 12000 miles away.
But, my beautiful granddaughter
I see you growing. 

 

The last exercise was writing about a place that was deep inside you.  The example was Orkney/This Life by Andrew Greig.   Coincidentally I have been doing an online Masterclass called Essence of Identity with Donna Watson, where one of the modules was about sense of place.

A sense of place 

You have called me.
You have invited me.
Set a table before me
covered with life-giving food. 

You have called me.
You have invited me
to walk in the river,
A river set in the middle of the street
in the middle of the city. 

You have called me.
You have invited me to view
the trees on either side of the river.
Their life-giving leaves
bring healing for the nations. 

You have called me.
You have invited me
into your family.
Adopted me.
Called me your own. 

You have called me.
You have invited me.
You have set eternity
in this human heart. 

Thank you for joining me today
Bernice

Guess what! A book

However it's not a handmade one.

It is a photo book from Photobox.  I spotted a phenomenal offer for an A4 book with unlimited pages for only £20.   I trawled through my somewhat large collection of canal photos (I haven't actually counted how many there are but it will be at least in the upper hundreds), and uploaded them to the Photobox website.

I didn't write anything in the book.  The names of the places and the walks are not important, it was more about providing inspiration for my work.   I divided up the photos into themes.  You'll be pleased to know I'm not sharing every one of the 40 pages.

Boats

Bridges

 

Boats & bridges

Buildings

Loocks

A bit of everything

Winter

I was really please with the quality of the book although some of the green is bit - well, too much green - but considering how little I paid for it I am delighted.

Do you make photobooks with your photos?

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice