on crossing boundaries, keeping cheerful and mixing things up.

turbine hall -Tate modern

It's been a serious week.

Another very good friend diagnosed with cancer. 

A trip to Conflict, Time, Photography at the Tate Modern.

Events in Paris that shocked the world.


Sometimes it is less easy to think positively. Just back from watching 'The Theory of Everything' about Stephen Hawking at the cinema I feel challenged to do just that.

Stephen Hawking's quote......

 ' However difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at,'......... 

was made at a time when he was unable to walk or speak, but had nevertheless gone on to write "A Brief History of Time". 

When I heard him say this in the film it really hit home. Packed an emotional punch.

It is a sentiment that feels important to hold onto when times get tough.



So now for some good news.......

• While at the Tate Modern I watched a father walk his very small son all around the turbine hall to look at the strange red textile hanging. Small son enjoyed the echo in the hall and became quite vocal. It was a joy to watch, and when I offered to send his father some images he gave me his email address without question, and we communicated in a positive way. 

• This week I have an exciting new challenge to participate in.

At  The School Creative Centre, Rye resident artists are going to pass a half finished piece of work to another artist for completion. This is intended to stir us up, shake us out of our comfort zones, and be good fun.

So all day I have been wondering how I pass a 'half complete' photograph to another artist. 

Options include giving a half developed roll of film, over exposing or underexposing an image to remove half the detail. giving an undeveloped negative, starting a collage out of old prints, and more.

But I have decided that the best way to fully participate would be to really get out of my comfort zone and do a drawing based on one of my images. 

The results may or may not be displayed here later...........

• I am now the proud owner of a new scanner. Here I am in about 1970 writing my diary - no change there.........

the diary that got lost long ago....

I have hours of fun to be gained revisiting my photographic archives, but also wish to experiment with bits of nature.

dry winter hydrangea petal; scanned and photoshopped

• I am learning how to composite ( make one image from multiple images) on my ipad. This with the help of 

Lynda.com

I am always looking for ways to use my stone collection from around the world, so I made this image with one of my stones and the tree from my back garden.

They represent home and away......... two sources of pleasure. There may be more to come.......

composite image © Caroline Fraser 2015

Reasons to be cheerful?



friends

family

photography

sun

rain

summer

winter

trees 

and grass



in no particular order



and many more.

On words, memory and the moon

homage to Paul Kenny © Caroline Fraser

Having a strange day today.

Clearing out a room for the purpose of redecorating I came across a diary from the millenium year that I had forgotten that I had written.

Back to memories again........

I also found my girl guide pencil and cat badges. What happened to all the others? I had an armful.

I wonder what I did to achieve these. We had no cat and we had no dog. OH has kindly searched the web for me and found that I had to care for an animal for 4 weeks.

girl guide animal lover badge

Perhaps it was a hamster.

I probably had to feed it just like I usually did........

girl guide artist badge

 And I was an artist as well.........

I wonder what sort?

All I do remember is that I learned how to change a car tyre. (- did I get a spanner badge for that?)

I became a Queen's guide.

Which then allowed me to leave.

I was not brave enough to say "I have had enough, thank you".

It has taken me about 50 years to be that brave.

Last weekend I spent two days in the company of one of my photographic heroes Paul Kenny

Paul kenny 'Seaworks' 

His recently published book is a thing of great beauty.

Currently he works with scanned objects, creating images with repeated motifs and laden with metaphor.

Circles represent the world, and squares represent man made objects.

Microscopic landscapes representing wider worlds.



He encouraged us to make images from the confines of a small square of the world that might represent other stories or landscapes.

framing the landscape

I got very stuck. An hour passed and I had not made any images.

Mr Kenny pointed me in the direction of a small round fungus and said 'that'll make a good picture'

No pressure then.

And I had been working so hard to try and avoid copying his motifs and style.

I did as I was bid, and added some grassy stalks.

I processed the image with the aim of making a moon or other planetary orb.

Homage to Paul Kenny © Caroline Fraser

And then today in my lost dairy I came across a poem that I wrote in 2000, and which had slipped my mind.

Poem

It feels as though they are meant to go together.



Along with some words from Robert Frost about writing poetry and his poem about the moon.

On poetry - by Robert Frost

Moons and words..........

Memories and images.

Forgotten and found.

I shall have to start cutting and sticking again; so much more pleasurable to read than a digital diary.

Oakville

multiple exposure photography and how to improve your commercial representation as an artist

red hut, rye harbour, green sky © Caroline Fraser 2013

I went to a seminar last week about how to improve my commercial profile. It was enlightening and useful.................. but.............

ever since I have been feeling somewhat overwhelmed.

THERE IS SO MUCH TO DO

SO MUCH TO DO THAT I DON'T KNOW WHERE TO START

Should I visit galleries and talk nicely to gallery owners?

Galleries apparently look for 

● solo exhibitions

● publications ( including brochures, art books)

● critical writing e.g. reviews in magazine, newspapers. 

● biennials and festivals; consider satellites eg Edinburgh Art festival, Whitstable

biennial

● awards

● being in significant collections.

Well that's me out then.

My only claim to fame is having one of my images in the bedroom of the US ambassador's residence in Tokyo.

And the other day one of my images made it onto Canadian TV ( but they forgot to mention my name)

So I have to work hard at getting accepted in biennials..........expensive and likely to lead to a sense of failure if you don't remember that acceptance is for the chosen and fairly random few. You need a tough skin and healthy bank account to cope with regular rejections.

I should visit art fairs and find out which galleries I need to visit.

I shouldn't visit art fairs and talk to gallery owners there............. on pain of death should that be a strategy............

Read  what not to do at an art fair   for a serious and amusing guide to what NOT to do..........at art fairs.

I should join various websites such as Axis and re-title to raise my profile. Now both of these are by application, and for Axis I probably need to do an MSc before I will be accepted.............. so that's at least another £10,000 and 2 years of hard labour...............

So I have done nothing.

And concentrated on making sure I earn some money doing my day job after I have retired from my current day job. By applying for work in New Zealand and the Hebrides, which seem so much more appealing than suburban south east London.

Meanwhile I have continued to work on my current passion for multiple exposure photography in the hope that I will create something different and fun.


All of the images below were taken at Camber Sands and Rye harbour (after George Clooney had gone back home)

multiple exposure using camera rotation for a totally wacky effect

multiple exposure using horizontal movement for repetition

triple exposure of a girl in the dunes

5 in camera exposures of Dungeness from Camber Sands

What I enjoy about this one is the bird flying across the picture.

red hut, rye harbour, pink sunset

For this one, which is one of my favourites, I have superimposed the red hut at Rye harbour onto the sunset over the nature reserve at Rye harbour, turning it pink.


All of these images are experimental, and are fun to make.

Which is what keeps me sane when faced with the fact that increasing my commercial representation is unlikely to come to fruition in the immediate future!