100 Seconds to Midnight

And what have you done Another year over And a new one just begun John Lennon/Yoko Ono Awash with pre teenage angst and clinging to her friend, my 12 year old self cried her eyes out to that song at the end of the school Christmas Disco in 1982.  I imagine it had something to do with last dance rejection from the then object of my desires, but I suspect too that it was actually the start of my relationship with 'end of year melancholy' that was to follow me through the next four decades - until now. If this year has taught me anything, it is this -  be grateful for what you have, do not take your health, happiness and freedom for granted, and never underestimate the value of good friends, with everything else stripped away those moments of shared togetherness become more important than ever. Visiting my son and girlfriend in London in January; drinking raspberry Bellini's with my sister and other son having just watched him perform live in February; celebrating our friend...

What is the purpose of art? Amongst the many varied definitions that popped up when I googled the above, the one that jumped off my screen came from artist Erik Wahl  The purpose of art is to produce thinking.  Artwork should be an active verb - a lens by which to view the world and not a passive noun.  This is what I'm aiming for with my penchant for taking close up photograph and the subsequent hashtags about mindfulness that undoubtedly accompany them on Instagram. The art of seeing beauty in the everyday, when you open your eyes wide enough to notice what is already there in front of you.  As a creative practice is has served me well and definitely played a significant part in helping me learn to live in the moment but, as we hurtle ever faster towards Christmas, attending to the detail in my life is just inducing a state of panic and I desperately need to find a way to step away and see the bigger picture. Thankfully a reminder to change focus appeared, quite l...

Ten days - one dress - several hundred photographs! I've had mixed feelings about the first tenth of my 100 Day Dress Challenge.  For whilst I am loving wearing the dress and subsequent liberation from the ongoing question of "What am I going to wear today?" I'm pretty sure that stressing over the daily photographic evidence was not the intended outcome, and certainly doesn't fit with premise of having more time to do the things you love.  It is, after all, not a photographic competition - but by the time I am a couple of days in, I have a sneaking suspicion that, for me, it might as well be.  And when, on Day 4 I discover that fog is forecast for the following morning and message a friend to ask if she'd be up for a 8.30am woodland photoshoot to catch the atmosphere, I think I'd be hard pushed to convince anyone otherwise. Luckily for me, said friend was indeed prepared to take on the job and off we went into the woods in search of the perfect shot.  Seph...