I blog therefore I am......

" Photo-montage by Eliud

This image and poem mirror the absurdity and capriciousness of violence in the world we live in today.......it's a bit about my struggle to remain artistically viable, if not hopeful, ....in the moment, as it arrives. It's also about my struggle to find an answer to the question: Is art just a luxury, a superfluous distraction in the face of war, famine, injustice, oppression......? Does it make a difference.....can I?

"We Are Waiting"
by Pablo Neruda
There are days that haven't arrived yet,
that are being made like bread or chairs
or a product from the pharmacies
or the woodshops:there are factories of days to come:
they exist, craftsmen of the soulwho raise and weigh
and preparecertain bitter or beautiful daysthat
arrive suddenly at the doorto reward us
with an orange or to instantly murder us.

In my mind, Pablo Neruda would have been my best friend and hero even if he'd never been famous, although Pablo Neruda (1904-73), is one of the renowned poets of the twentieth century. He was born in Parral, Chile. He shared the World Peace Prize with Paul Robeson and Pablo Picasso in 1950, and received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1971.


My first ever blog...... Don't really know where I'm going with this, but I do hope to have fun and provoke myself into thinking ideas "outloud", sharing poetry, orginal art, musings, rants and share my journey with anyone interested enough to come here.....the good, the bad and the ambiguous.

Who am I, what am I, why am I...? All questions that don't really require an answer but they have a way of showing in the most unexpected and mundane ways. And if any of this is a mystery to you as it is to me, then it just simply is what it is......I blog therefore I am. To keep it short and sweet, I'm an artist, a photographer ......and maybe even a writer of who knows what.....

Whatever this may mean to you, I’ve been a lifelong photographer. Over time I've discovered the joys of recording the life I've learned to have and love. At this time photography has become the medium of an artistry I’ve always had but never quite gave myself to.

I still see myself as an emerging artist although many years in the making...... "struggling" in the relative obscurity and safety of fulltime and, on occasion, thankless employment as a civil servant. No complaints here. It's allowed me to pay rent as well as the luxury of "doing art" on my own terms. I believe Ansel Adams had it right when he said:

"We don`t make a photograph just with a camera;

we bring to the act of photography all the books we have read,

the movies we have seen, the music we have heard,

the people we have loved.”

To this I will add.....all the cool & unloved jobs we've had, all the places and poetry I've loved....and most of all, all the things I've learned........then outgrew, unlearned or forgggotten. It's all brought me to right now.......