Tauranga under the Matapihi Railway bridge photography and poetry.

Reflections..... Tauranga under the Railway Bridge

 

 

An  exercise to try:

Pairing unrelated  poems to photographs.

The viewer is invited to make their own sense of what you are saying.

You don't have to spell everything out to your audience. 

Try juxtaposing and see what happens.

If you watch animated music videos you can often see this idea at work. 

An animation plays to a song and appears to have little to do with the words of the song even though it tells its own story.

 

Advertisers  use this device to lure watchers into making favourable associations with their products on a subconscious level. 

How many times have you watched clips on television with scenes that appear to have nothing on the surface to do with the thing that is being advertised? 

It's a great device to prolong attention as the mind mulls over possible links. 

 

. 

Following are some tanka paired with scenes near the Tauranga  Rail Bridge .

 See what you think.

 Then go out into the field with your camera in a spot you like

Take about 60  photos and pick out your top 10. 

Write short poetry underneath that look as though on the surface they aren't connected. 

time  does not  heal all wounds

that lurk in crevices 

of  past memories 

frenemies words

no power to derail 

 

                                                                        

                                                                       autumn morning 

on the pathway

possum prints 

in orange juice

                                                                       with discarded peel   

lavender essential oils

baking soda with epsom salts 

soothing tired limbs

after a day of walking

in long shadows

the squarking chorus 

of hopeful seagulls

living for the moment

the couple stop eating

their oysters and chips

at lunchtime  

outside the closed cafe 

rows of crumbling houses 

devoured by

hungry waves

during lockdown 

I run my tongue 

over cracked molars 

yet still 

I suck on toffees

                                                       The high road or the low road.

 i am in the library

discussing writing

with my friend

when a bull dog

of a woman

 who I have avoided

for five years

 for sound  reasons

 passes by.

 

Because of lock-down

 kindness

 I make eye contact

and smile thinking-

that's the end of it-

good deed done.

goodbye

 

On her lonely way out

 she has the cheek

to stop to talk

after all the polluted water

that has passed

under

our  bridges

while showering us

(but mostly my friend)

with pleasantries.

 

 

She parts with a toxic

 judgemental  jibe

leaving me 

 with a mouth full of

indignation and 

wondering about

the wisdom of

 taking the highroad

when faced with a

  bulldog's bite. 

Beginner Photography lessons, especially for women. 

 

From snapshots to great shots in the most rapid time possible without too much technical jargon and complicated language. Plenty of opportunity for image taking and image critiquing. Bring along a pen drive of your images and I will improve them in photoshop for you with my simple to follow editing recipes.

 

 

 

Painting mosaic making, illustration  and creative poetry, short story writing lessons available Monday and Tuesday mornings in my art- filled studio. After school creative enrichment lessons Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 3.30 pm.Wednesday and Friday mornings 9am to 12noon.

Please email janet@jkeen.net  for a no obligation quote.

Phone or text  0273513887 to enquire about booking  time out for creativity in  your special place. 

 

Creative Quote of the day

You must write every single day of your life... You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads... may you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days. And out of that love, remake a world.

Ray Bradbury

 

I think that the practice of writing every day was what made me remember that writing doesn't have anything to do with publishing books. It can be totally separate and private - a comforting thought.

Nell Freudenberger

 

Writing every day is a way of keeping the engine running, and then something good may come out of it.

T. S. Eliot

 

Eat, Pray, Love...Find yourself some heroe's...

In yesterdays blog post I said I thought it was important to have heroes...

As an artist I have my favourite sculptors, visual artists and mosaicists.

As a writer I have my favourite New Zealand and international writers and poets.

As a photographer I have my favourites as well.

Do you have your heroes? Who are they? I'd like to know.

I am going to write little features on various favourites or hero's of mine and include some clips as well...

I looked up the definition of hero worship on the net and it contained some surprisingly positive statements about the human need to have someone to look up to.

If you identify with these people it can boost your own performance and help you believe in the power of possibility.

When I was at art school fourteen years ago I wrote a mini thesis about Taranaki assemblage artist Dale Copeland. I interviewed her for quotes  and received an A grade for my efforts.

I am still in contact with Dale these days via email, have been featured on her website and I have  met her  in person when she came to Rotorua a number of years ago.

She is one of life's angels.

When I decided to start a mosaic making business seven years ago I contacted Sonia King, one of America's most famous mosaic artists, after buying her book.

I asked her via the email if she ever ran  mosaic courses in New Zealand. Miraculously, she had a father who lived on the North Shore of Auckland.

The next year she ran a course, which I attended and she signed my book.

The things I learned from her and other heroes accelerated my success allowed me to pass knowledge onto others. 

Today for my creativity fix I went to a French/ Russian art house movie called The Concert. 

The music and cinematography made me want to find out about making a small film and to practise more on my classical guitar,

Creativity Quote of the day:

Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn.

Charlie Parker