recovering from a year as an art student - the big clear up

unbearable lightness © caroline fraser

OK.

Some of my readers were a little confused and concerned about me after my last post. I was quietly letting you know that MA book art has not been a bed of roses.

In fact it has been a very strange year, in which I was almost squeezed into a little grey box, but broke out fighting in the nick of time.

It does not come naturally to me to quit.

In fact I can't remember when I last did.

I am a 'completer-finisher' in the Belbin personality test. Someone who does what they say they will do. Not a maker or shaker. Just a plain ordinary, get on with the job sort of person.

So it turns out that book art is not for me.

I am less interested in 'the fold'and 'the gutter', and more interested in going outside with my camera.

I can play the conceptual art game if I have to, but not if it is at the expense of the enjoyment of my photography. I lost the plot near the end of term, and produced a work called 'Blood, Sweat and Tears'.

blood, sweat and tears by Caroline Fraser 2017

OH ( my other half) said it was 'weird'.

My classmates liked it. My tutors liked it.

I didn't want any of my friends to see it so I didn't invite them to the end of year show.

It has real blood, and dust. It is a book about a failed project.

I was sent home for the holidays to 'reflect on why it is so successful'.

At which point, I knew I could go no further.

So I went home, put all my books away, tidied my desk and made a book for my daughter about my grandson.

After which, I felt so much better that I took my camera down to the woods and took some photos of sunlight on the stream.

unbearable lightness © caroline fraser

unbearable lightness © caroline fraser

After which I felt better still.

So I printed some postcards for a postcard exhibition.

poems from the north © caroline fraser

And then I felt so good that I did some gardening, and listened to the mad chaffinch that tweets from dawn to dusk outside my kitchen window.

I even did some hoovering and collected a variety of dubious objects from the floor and made pictures with them.

I started with the plague of house flies that is currently in my kitchen for reasons yet to be discovered, and moved on upstairs, where I found no shortage of dust and dead animals.

house fly

I would like to say that all of this dirt was in OH's hovel ( study), but no one is allowed to touch anything in there, and nor would they want to. I might let you see some photos if it doesn't change in the next 5 years......

delights from the study after the clean-up

delights from the kitchen floor ( not sugar.... ant powder)

I thought that these photos were getting back to the realms of 'blood, sweat and tears', so I stopped that nonsense and moved on to flowers. Which didn't last long, as it was getting too formal.

geranium © caroline fraser

hydrangea © caroline fraser

pansy © caroline fraser

So then I just stopped, and read a book, and slept in the garden in the sun, and bought some luxury bath oil, and went for some walks in the rain.

And didn't think about writing 4000 words, except to think how amazingly wonderful it was that I no longer have to write them.

I think I will be OK now.

I was nearly squeezed from my colourful world into a little grey box. My lego model from a 'stuckedness' workshop in my first term says it all.

I am on the left. Book art is on the right.

lego serious play

I am out and free.

The house is a bit clean, and I might even make some books!

and breathe........ fresh air, a wedding in Braemar and a visit to Balmoral

I can say it now.

We had a wedding.

My beautiful daughter got married.

It was in Scotland. In the middle of nowhere where the midges roam, and the temperature is around 10C in mid July.

It was a long drive from south London, carrying a car full of pine cones, assorted stationary, clothes for wet weather, hiking and partying, a steam generator iron and a wedding dress. Not to mention three baby fawns and the hand crafted 'confetti cones'.

three baby fawns

We covered more than a few service stations, where we bumped into Lochs and Glens coach holidays, and partook of fine dining.

Lochs and Glens

obligatory service station cone picture

old blue car getting some free parking

Overnight in Moffat for a gentle ease into a very different way of life.

doing the tartan thing

the first of many deceased animals encountered on our travels

We breakfasted on haggis and made our way to Braemar.

The weather was very Scottish, with an 'unseasonal' amount of rain. While waiting for beautiful daughter and her tall dark and handsome fiancee to arrive we decided to be tourists and visit Balmoral.

Balmoral

The queen arrives in August. Everything in the garden is geared to her arrival. Vegetables and flowers all designed to be ready for one month of the year. Fresh flowers in every room, every day. Vegetables from the garden.

Balmoral garden in action

the vegetable garden

the vegetable garden cone

red squirrel at Balmoral gatehouse

Beware - squirrels crossing

does the Daimler have a leak?

Scotland is very green right now. 

Ancient birches and pines in abundance.

And then there was the wedding.

A joyful affair.

I even enjoyed the ironing. I will probably never again iron tablecloths ON the table, using an extension lead and my trusty steam generator.

I will probably never again even iron a tablecloth anywhere.

And I will never again iron a brides train or three bridesmaid dresses.

My face was subjected to brushes and attention that it has never experienced before. 

I was 'made up'.

OH said I should do it every day. I thought I looked pretty odd.

It will never happen.

make up brushes

make up 

It took three attempts to wash it off at the end of the day.

The day was perfect.

It even stopped raining for the photographs.

We danced and laughed, and danced and smiled and talked and danced and were filled with joy.

Normal service was resumed the following day, and I was allowed out with my camera between family meals and parlour games.

The foxgloves are rich and and the grass lush and wet.

Ferns and buttercups in abundance.

Lush clover and long wet grass

It was a wonderful weekend in a wonderful place.

I will be back soon.

Bananas for Buddha

Temple at Inle Lake

I promised to say a bit more about Burma ( now known as Myanmar), and my photographic efforts whilst travelling there. As a proper tourist, travelling with a large group of professional travellers, by coach, it wasn't my idea of a  photographic expedition. Being in a group one has very little time to stop and explore when the mood takes, having deadlines for getting back on the coach, and always travelling at the wrong time of the day for photography. Most of our companions had been to more countries than I have even heard of. I couldn't attempt to compete with their tales of camping in the Mongolian steppes , climbing at altitude in Nepal or trekking in the desert sun in Africa.

Burma is a fascinating country, and the people are very friendly.

But there are a lot of temples.

Every day we visited another gold encrusted temple, saw Buddhas of different shapes and sizes and local people making offerings as a means to a better life.

The activities of 'kuthko' (merit making) are the Myanmar people's approach to a better life, and include

• offering food to monks
• donating to temples
• regular worship at the local 'Paya" (Buddhist monument)

Stuppas at Inn Dain

As we traipsed around with our guide, who knew less about the local history than we could glean from our Lonely Planet guidebook, I became fascinated with the offerings that people were making to Buddha. In all of the temples prayers were being offered, but what surprised me most were the offerings of food and drink to Buddha.

Often the temples were dark, and people were praying, so I didn't want to use my flash.

I decided to try making a series of images in black and white at high ISO inside the temples, as a record of offerings being made to Buddha.

In Myanmar buddhism 'giving' blesses the one who gives as well as the one who receives. As an example, in local tea shops free tea is available on all the tables, however basic the shop, as a means of the proprietors giving something to their customers.

tea free for customers in a local market

Imagine getting free tea in a high street coffee shop in the UK. It just wouldn't happen. We have only recently persuaded restaurants to willingly serve tap water.

Some tea stalls are more appealing than others; a typical roadside cafe 

Apart from tea as a form of offering, other forms of giving to Buddha include

• saying prayers
• giving flowers,
• water
• fruit and other foods, especially bananas
• light
• incense
• gold leaf placed onto a Buddha image ( only men allowed to do this)
• cleansing rituals
• and recitation of Pali texts ( the words of Buddha from his teachings)

Baskets of bananas and flowers on sale outside the temple at the full moon festival in Yangon

offerings inside the temple at Yangon

 a glass of water for Buddha

multiple glasses of water for Buddha

Girls waiting for a procession carry money as gifts

In the temple there are separate glass boxes for locals and for tourists to donate money

cleansing rituals at the temple are common

I was surprised to see food offered in ready meal cartons

biscuits and cake for Buddha

And had to send my other half to get this image of men applying gold leaf to a Buddha.

gold leaf application 

Female monks wear pink in Myanmar; here is one at prayer

Buddhist texts

So where are my black and white images, I hear you say?

Monochrome seems a little serious for a blog article about travel to a colourful place.

So I will leave you with just one, of a light bulb and some money inside a dark temple

light bulb and money at the foot of a Buddha image inside a temple

As you can see, it is quite dark, hence the need for a high ISO and my preference for monochrome.

I'd be interested to know which you prefer?

And you might also like to know that we bumped into Cliff Richard at a local airport, having his "summer holiday".

Or you might not.