nature close ups

Part of an on-going study of found things, using the macro lens. If you like these photos, I have a 2015 calendar for sale with these types of pictures (click here). Enjoy your weekend!

on clouds

I take a lot of photos of clouds. When the sky is doing impressive things, I will be outside, staring at it. I tried briefly to learn the names of the different types, with the intent of becoming something of a cloudspotter, but I realized I don't need to know anything about clouds for them to impress me. It's enough for them to pass over my head, dazzling me with their shapes, layers, textures and colours. Its as if each cluster is a painting made of giant brush strokes, a work of art that is only there for a few minutes.

When I lived in London I did not like clouds. They tended to be that low down type, that cover the entire sky, often for days and days and days. They made me feel trapped, claustrophobic, hemmed in. I still feel like that now sometimes - if I don't see blue sky for a day or two, a gloom descends and I am reminded of how it felt in London. Houses are tall there, they loom over you and you never get a sense of how big the sky is. You never see the horizon.

It was nearly 15 years ago that I lived there, but I still have a recurring dream about leaving London. Making the decision to go, packing, tying up loose ends. I think I have that dream a lot whenever it feels like my life is ending one era or phase and entering another. For the first time though, I just had a dream about going back to London! The first thing I tried to work out when I arrived was what was the same and what had changed. I am not sure what it means, maybe that I am going backwards somehow...? A new era, but similar to one I have been through before...? Turning back time...? I hope it is a good sign. I think it is.

H.

beach colours

on ceramics

If you have seen my Instagram page then you already know that in June I started a short ceramics course and then I enjoyed it so much I enrolled again in October. I am back at TAFE! That cracks me up. I spent three years at TAFE in the 90s (doing photography). TAFE is great!

I started the course because I wasn’t working and needed a new thing to occupy my time. I was still taking photos, but was a bit bored by it, and actually turning on the computer to edit photos wasn’t really fun to me. I wanted something new and fun, that was not on a computer, and that involved other humans. I looked up the TAFE short courses, decided ceramics looked like fun, invited a friend to come with me, and enrolled. I had done ceramics at school and loved it, but that was a long time ago and I had mostly made sculptures, not anything functional like a bowl or plate. I liked the idea of making things I might use, or at least display around my house.

From the first week, when our teacher threw a ball of clay at each of us and said “make something by the end of the night, anything, it doesn’t matter what” I loved it. LOVED IT. I hadn’t done anything creatively fun in ages. I loved the routine of having a fixed thing to do every Tuesday night. I loved sitting at the table having a chat to the others. I loved knowing nothing about what I was doing, having no real expectations, being able to make mistakes – and, when things didn’t turn out the way I imagined I ended up enjoying working through that, getting over the disappointment and trying again. I loved having a teacher, someone who knows infinitely more than you and whose job it is to help you, to make suggestions and help fix your mistakes – how often do we get that as adults? How often do you get to say “errr, I seem to have entirely stuffed this up, is there a way to fix it?” and actually get an answer?!

Also, for ages, I’d been feeling like when you take photos you are not often left with a thing, an object. Especially with digital, all you get are pixels floating in space. I’d been wrestling with the idea of how to turn my photos into things – books? prints? – things I could touch, hold, display, give to people. Ceramics was suddenly the answer to that.  You start with a blob of clay and end up with a thing. A thing that wasn’t there before. A thing you made, and that you can see your fingerprints in. A thing that won’t go away if you accidentally delete it or if your memory card fails.

I’m at the end of my second term and feel strange about it ending. I’ve found the act of making things incredibly relaxing and purposeful. To decide in the morning that you might have a crack at an idea you’ve had, and then to do that is completely rewarding. It’s ended up, without me planning it, being the polar opposite of my day job where I never felt rewarded, never felt like anything got achieved or even finished, never saw a useful outcome of anything I did. If it sounds like a lot to get out of a short course at TAFE, I agree! It really has been an eye-opener and one of my best spontaneous decisions.