before.1st.light (Jane Schultz) Archives

Mobile Photography & Art – Flickr/Instagram Group Showcase – 26 January 2020

26/01/2020 by Joanne Carter

“Genuinely, I couldn’t give a damn about wrinkles, or middle age or putting on weight or my first grey hairs or reading specs – these are reasons to celebrate”, said Dr Rachel Clarke, a palliative care doctor in her new moving memoir entitled ‘Dear Life’. These are very similar words that I heard from our dear friend and artist Carolyn Hall Young, who stayed with all of us until her passing. Books by doctors have become extremely popular over the past few years, they bring the reader closer to worlds they may have indeed been a part of but on the other side of the fence. My eldest son Jake, when he wishes to buy me a present and he’s the sweetest, knows that a good Dr book will keep me willingly distracted and rested until I’ve devoured it in its entirety, which doesn’t take long. Although, I do find myself, still annoyingly, being frustrated about wrinkles, middle age, reading specs and in my case weight loss, there’s a depth to my annoyance which more than covers my gratitude to still actually being here, with you all. In the UK we have a belief that we call and provide ‘cradle to grave care’ sadly due to NHS underfunding, this has become a fallacy. And I could give you all sorts of depressing statics about it but really, we don’t actually need to know. What we do here and now, with every immensely precious moment that we have together, is what really matters. What you all do best is to create the most stunning mobile photography and art, the greatest actually and with each creation an artist makes within our community, each one I view, I silently call a MasterPeace. In light of this, I have created a new style of interview entitled Mobile MasterPeace and intend to publish those in the coming weeks, for now though, bask with us in this weeks absolute glory of a showcase of Mobile MasterPeace.

I hope you all love this weeks mobile photography and art showcase as much as I do. Thank you to all the talented artists for submitting your works to our showcase this week. If you would like your work to be considered for entry in to our weekly Mobile Photography and Art Flickr Group, please submit it to our dedicated group, here. You can also submit images to our Instagram tag for this section #theappwhisperer.

Many congratulations to the following featured artists this week including:

@wemarriage_goddess, @marshadraws, @ja_graham, @cardinphotography, @before.1st.light – Jane Schultz, Diane Neubauer, Paul Suicu, Janis Brandenburg, Dina Alfai, Eliza Badoiu, Nico Brons, Christine Mignon, @sodium_light22 – Jenny Pieters, Laila Bakker, @klimtt – M. Cecilia Sao Thiago, Mimi Svanberg, @pause.and.breathe – Susan Latty, Rita Colantonio, Juta Jazz, Jennifer Bracewell, Hanni K, Jeremy Cassell, Lorenka Campos, P.A. Hamel, Clint Cline, Debara Splendorio, Susan Maxwell Schmidt, Oola Cristina, Gianluca Ricoveri, Milly M, Deborah McMillion, Jill Lian, Manfred Majer.

Mobile Photography & Art – Flickr/Instagram Group Showcase – 10 November 2019

15/11/201910/11/2019 by Joanne Carter

Many people write to me each week and I love it. Sometimes, I am asked for advice, sometimes I’m asked about me. This week a few times, it was mostly the latter. I was asked, ‘how do you keep coming up with ideas?’, ‘where do they generate from?‘ and then ‘how do you deal with a creative rut?‘. I think the latter was the hardest because the first two I answered with ‘I’m constantly gathering ideas, things that I see each day, people I meet, observations that I make, judgements (I hate to say), but they all encapsulate and become the images and ideas that I’ve been having for the past ten years and I amalgamate them’. To answer, ‘how do you deal with a creative rut?‘, was a lot tougher. I love writing but sometimes I get stuck, as I am with one project now, that has pained me for too many tortuous months. I don’t have a solid process, sometimes I surprise myself that anything gets written at all. But sometimes, I get an idea and find the angle I need and write the whole thing up in no time, wtf. When I get stuck, when I hit a creative rut, I have to take myself out of all of the usual things that I do. So, I’ll pick up a book for example, that might have absolutely nothing to do with creativity, if I can say that, because the fact that it’s been written is a sign of creativity isn’t it? – yes, I frequently argue with myself. Anyway, if you haven’t read Naomi Wolf’s book, Vagina, then you should, specifically the paragraph on the creative power of the orgasm, it really helped me to formulate my next project and reminded me of a quote within the main tome that I am currently re-reading, Sontag by Benjamin Moser, chapter 12, when Sontag has an affair with ‘Irene’ who was by all accounts totally luscious and Sontag was quoted as saying ‘she could make a rock come‘, how glorious! Writing can be a lonely occupation but sometimes ideas flow out of me like a goddam fountain climaxing. I would say, as I have often repeated, resilience is key, and remember when you were 20 and looking forward, never back? As you get older, when the going gets tough, people look back, why do that? I don’t do that. Life is still in front of you and it’s that that needs to be treasured. Keep going…

rain.is.poetry – Paul Suciu, _soulkitchen_ – Valaria Cammari, @iameirkabrown – Erika Brown, @eslieber – Erik Lieber, @ilemusi – Ile Mont, Nichole Christophe, Jana Curcio, @chalktiger, Eliza Badoiu, @jorgeolaveriveros, @ja_graham, @accidental_artist, Rosalie Heller, @thelma.penteado, @josephineduson, @marshadraws – Marsha Estes, @iphotami – Karen Axelrad, pause.and.breathe – Susan Latty, @luison_street – Lrh A, @patragraphy, @mitrydate, @velvet_iris_photography, Peter Wilkin, @schwitter.li, Laila, Jun Yamaguchi, woltarise, Yasuo Furue, Clint Cline, Hanni K, Rita Colantonio, Linda Hollier, Gianluca Ricoveri, Susan Rennie, Sheldon Serkin, Judy Wahlberg, Andy Alexandre, @nini_nini-, Allyson Marie, @before.1st.light – Jane Schultz,

Music this week is Nina Simone – Feeling Good (Avicii Remix)

Mobile Photography & Art – Flickr/Instagram Group Showcase – 27 October 2019

27/10/201927/10/2019 by Joanne Carter

I spend everyday thinking creatively, as indeed all our readers do and I would go so far as to say, everyone does in somepart. What does surprise me is when writers bandy around the phrase ‘creative industries‘. I can honestly say, hand on heart, I don’t know of any ‘uncreative industries‘. Creativity is the most powerful competitive advantage any business can possess. New ideas, fresh thinking are the fizz companies to make their business’s pop. There’s this overriding notion that creative artists are cut from a different cloth, this needs to be debunked. Young children overspill with ideas, they cannot hold back. Earlier this week, I was walking one of my dogs on a green, close to a primary school and a little bright red haired girl, of around 6 years old came bounding over to my dog Rosemary (named after the herb) and I. This little girl asked me five questions in the space of around 20 seconds about Rosemary, or so it seemed, she was thoroughly invigorating. Her mum appeared and rushed her away to a playdate. As we walked away, I began thinking how important it is to empower people to use their imagination. Schools are so focused on children passing exams, that when these children join the workplace they’ve been conditioned to conform and have in many cases lost the ability to ‘think outside the box‘. Remember, that old Apple ad that said ‘here’s to the crazy ones!‘ – that’s us, rule breakers, creative thinkers and thus this should lead to creative leaders. You can only get to that place, if you stay creatively minded. Boardrooms need to affect the changes and become more innovative, it can be done. Twenty years or so ago now, I managed to pull off a face to face meeting with a major photographic retailer here in the UK. It was a meeting with their Chairman and all of their board in their headquarters. I remember saying to them, as they announced yet another new shop opening, ‘customers will start to make purchases online in the future, you need to create an online presence and once you’ve done that, you need to offer cheaper prices for your products online with free shipping‘. Every person around the table laughed in my face, and it’s not the first time, I could give you many examples of similar meetings. I wanted to run their online presence but they could see no need to have one. Earlier this week I read this same company, not for the first but for the second time, since that meeting, has plunged into receivership and announced job losses into their thousands. I thought, perhaps this is dawn of a new epoch: the creative age for mankind. It’s needed urgently, more now than ever.

Thank you to all the talented artists for submitting your works to our showcase this week. If you would like your work to be considered for entry in to our weekly Mobile Photography and Art Flickr Group, please submit it to our dedicated group, here. You can also submit images to our Instagram tag for this section #theappwhisperer.

Anca Balaj, Eliza Badoiu, before.1st.light – Jane Schultz, @tatteredphotographs – Kim, @cawestruck – Carol Wiebe, @bee_dobs – Barbara Braman, @da_ny550, Shelley Benjamin – @sbenja823, Marianne Rieter, Christine Mignon, @vadqcooper – Vicki Cooper, @mitrydate, @rosaliehellerphotography – Rosalie Heller, klimtt – M. Cecilia Sao Thiago, Nicole Christophe, Filiz Ak, Lorenka Campos, @rain.is.poetry – Paul Sucicu, @marymodale – Dale, @pause.and.breathe – Susan Latty, Sukru Mehmet Omur, @niels_b – Niels Brunelli, @tankaqueen – Alexis Rotella, @cresting_wave – Paul Yan, @remintrusions – Damian De Souza, @ja_graham, Kathy Clay – @kathyc2136, @karenklinedinst – Karen Klinedinst, Gianluca Ricoveri, Vadim Demjianov, Deborah McMillion, Joyce Harkin @harkinjoyce, Maarten Oortwijn, Susan Detroy, Susan Rennie, Hanni K, Jill Lian @jilllian2, Catherine Caddigan, Tonytang Tang, p.a.hamel, Frank Van Dongen, Clint Cline, Linda Hollier, Steve, Karen Axelrad, Yasuo Furue, Paul Yan, I Rome, Rita Colantonio, borisbschulz2009, Rob Pearson-Wright, Laila, Jun Yamaguchi, Judy Wahlberg, Karen Axelrad, Damian De Souza, Carol Wiebe, Vicki Cooper, Christine Mignon, p.a.hamel, Jun Yamaguchi, Barbara Braman, Filz Ak, Frank Van Dougan, borisbschulz2009, I Rome, Vadim Demjianov, Gianluca Ricoveri, Maarten Oortwijn.

Music this week, another English singer/songwriter who I adore – Jess Glynn with ‘Take me Home’

Mobile Photography & Art – Flickr/Instagram Group Showcase – 8 September 2019

08/09/2019 by Joanne Carter

This week, I’d like to talk with you about courage and it’s scary, being creative is a path for the brave. If you lose courage, you lose creativity. Each one of you has hidden treasures within you, as do I and we need to bring them to light and it takes a lot of faith and hard work, not least devotion. It’s important to say ‘no’ at times, I suppose, not that I’m one for that, it’s easy to say ‘no’, you’re off the hook but if you say ‘yes’ then what happens? It’s showtime! There are times, when you might need to lay low, as I have this week, many will notice my work output has slowed, I’ve been very unwell but that’s ok and do you know, why I know it’s ok? Because I have fierce trust in myself, I know I am a success with what I do, I believe in myself, I have had to and I know that I have so much more to do and so much further to go. The one thing you must never do, as a creative, is turn around and walk out. You show up, you do what you can in the time you’ve been allotted and you do it to the best of your ability and that’s what I’ve done today, with this weeks magical mobile photography and art showcase, I have tried my best to put this together, for all of us, although I am still unwell. You invited me to this party and I’m here to stay. Enjoy!

Tuba Korhan, Laila, before.1st.light – Jane Schultz, woltarise, borisbschulz2009, Clint Cline, Deborah McMillion, Susan Rennie, Paul Yan, Judy Wahlberg, TheiPhoneArtGirl – Meri Walker, Tomaso Belloni, Rita Colantonio, Jeremy Cassell, soul_engine, Enio Godoy, Catherine Caddigan, Manuela Basaldella, Linda Hollier, Peter Wilkin, Jun Yamaguchi, Chris Feichtner, anandamoy chatterji, Tricia Dewey, coeiphoneart – Gerry Coe, jdalerobertson – Dale Robertson, tanja_houwerzijl – Tanja Houwerzijl, sodium_light22 – Jenny Pieters, raveninnyc – Lori, effe5 – dinalf – Dina Alfasi, kathyc2136 – Kathy Clay, nicolechristophe – Nicole Christophe, joe.legrande61 – Joe LeGrand, ja_graham – Jenifer Graham, klimtt – M. Cecilia Sao Thiago, remintrustions, Sarah Bichachi, vadqcooper – Vicki Cooper, clau_clara, iwo.ska, ringuin, ullahauer – Ulla Hauer, elizabadoiu – Eliza Badoiu.

Music this week, is another of my favourite bands – Cigarettes after Sex, with their track ‘Keep on Loving You’ – I always, keep on loving you all, even when I’m unwell, perhaps more so, then.

Mobile Photography & Art – Flickr/Instagram Group Showcase – 1 September 2019

03/09/201901/09/2019 by Joanne Carter

It hasn’t happened many times to me, but the strength of desire was too strong to ignore, irresistible actually. I had to return to the beginning of The Parisan and start all over again and this time, when I reached the end, the feeling to begin again and was even stronger than the first time. This is a masterful debut novel by Isabella Hammad, it’s historical fiction. A young man, a Palestinian is sent by his father to study medicine in France at the beginning of the First World War. He spends several years in France, liberating and transformative years before returning to Palestine. Along the way, he falls in love, perhaps it could be said, more than once, haven’t we all? The prose is exquisite and Hammad’s ability to paint a scene is as exquisite as the artists in this weeks mobile photography and art showcase, literally have. Their work is as complex as this novel, closely observed, elegantly created, assured and captivating. Enjoy!

J A Graham, Eliza Badoiu, Ile Mont, Laurence Bouchard, Liliana Schwitter, Maritte Schrijiver, accidental_artist3 – Ransom Candice, theartofmayte, hipstanitaelle – Anita Elle, carlosrpaz, realityfragments, etienne.serville, Emilio Nadales, mitrydate, Sarah Bichachi, klimtt – M. Cecilia Sao Thiago, Dina Alfasi, soul_engine, Rita Colantonio, Russ Merz, Jeremy Cassell, Deborah Field, Anastasia Potekhina, Lorenka Campos, Paul Toussaint, Jun Yamaguchi, Debara Splendorio, Enio Godoy, Clint Cline, Peter Wilkin, duran6687, Oola Cristina, Catherine Caddigan, TSOriginaux, Jim Yoksimovich, Paul Yan, Gianluca Ricoveri, Judy Wahlberg, Susan Rennie, Ray Harrop, Michael Beresin, before.1st.light – Jane Schultz, Francesco Sambati, Jill Lian, Rob Pearson-Wright, p.a.hamel, TheiPhoneGirl – Meri Walker, Tomaso Belloni,

Music this week is another of my favourite bands, British group, London Grammar with their live track ‘Rooting for You’ – I’m rooting for all of you, always x

Mobile Photography & Art – Flickr/Instagram Group Showcase – 7 July 2019

07/07/201907/07/2019 by Joanne Carter

“I told you I was ill‘, my favourite black comedy quote, written by Spike Milligan, engraved into gravestone. For many, health anxiety is a compartment of life – a dark cell – usually totally separate from their day-to-day self. Of course, there’s a lot to be anxious about in the world today and this phenomena shows no sigh of shrinking. Psychoanalyst Michael Currie notes that we rarely deal with the causes of anxiety – job insecurity for example, or social isolation – when trying to treat it. Writing in The Monthly, he says: “Anxiety-as-disease is treated much like an infection, as if the symptoms were a bacterium that should be eradicated.” The novelist William Boyd identifies the human condition as walking a tightrope between happiness and unhappiness. As glib as it sounds, I have always appreciated most of all the state of happiness, and never more so than when with my family and friends. And I was lucky enough to feel its power this morning at 4.20 am when my eighteen year old son returned home from a weeks holiday in Cyprus with friends, he came in and hugged me really hard, having missed me, I could feel the strength of his body, as I felt so small enveloped into him. Sigh, the sleepless week was worth it…(I tell myself). Anxiety can be crippling and next week when I am forced to stop and lay down on a hospital bed for day surgery, I will be thinking of this fabulous showcase that I have had the privilege to create with your art. The greatest stress buster, in my opinion, is art and each one of these artists knows that only too well. Enjoy!

Lydia Cassatt, Elaine Taylor, Mieke Elzinga @elzingamieke, Laura Peisch @isnob, Deb Field, Raul Barrios – @raulbar, @raveninnyc – Lori, @before.1st.light – Jane Schultz, Lou Ann Donahue – @Imgdonahue, @klmitt – M. Cecilia Sao Thiago, @elizabadoiu – Eliza Badoiu, Jun Yamaguchi, Andy Alexandre, Eloi Batista Fotografo, Giancarlo Beltrame, Jeremy Cassell, Lorenka Campos, Joseph Cyr, Linda Hollier, Tomaso Belloni, Fleur Schim, Gianluca Ricoveri, Susan Rennie, Deborah McMillion, Poetic Medium, Catherine Caddigan, Hanni K, Judy Wahlberg, p.a. hamel, Nick Kenrick, Paul Yan, Ian Clarke, David DeNagel.

Music this week is ‘We are One’ ©DizzyX

Mobile Photography & Art – Tickle Your Fancy #64

22/06/201922/06/2019 by Joanne Carter

Welcome back to our sixty fourth post in our Tickle Your Fancy section. Tickle Your Fancy includes a round-up of between ten to twelve key links to articles from around TheAppWhisperer over the past few two weeks, ones you may, by chance, have missed.

Just to explain the title for this section Tickle Your Fancy is an English idiom and essentially means that something appeals to you and perhaps stimulates your imagination in an enthusiastic way, we felt it would make a great title for this new section of the site.

Artists cited include: Susan Maxwell Schmidt, Clarisse Debout, Oola Cristina, Deborah Field, Deborah McMillion, Yariv Weinberg, Karen Axelrad, Kathy Clay, Sergiy Beliayev, Catherine Caddigan, Gianluca Ricoveri, Susan Rennie, Lorenka Campos, Damian De Souza, Jun Yamaguchi, borisbschulz2009, Catherine Caddigan, Arko Rayhan, Susan Detroy, Peter Wilkin, Laila, Paul Yan, Dragan Fly, before.1st.light – Jane Schultz, Clint Cline, Enio Godoy, Lydia Cassatt, Rita Colantonio, Kate Zari Roberts, Sheldon Serkin, Nick Kenrick, Tomaso Belloni, Eleni Gemeni, Jormain Cady, Elaine Taylor, Shelley Benjamin, M. Cecilia Sao Thiago, Dr Christophe Christ, Sandra B Martins – Violet Martins, Rita Colantonio, Deborah McMillion, Lisa Mitchell, Dale Botha, Catherine Caddigan.

Mobile Photography & Art – Flickr/Instagram Group Showcase – 16 June 2019

16/06/2019 by Joanne Carter

“To be excellent at anything, it must cost you something“, a direct quote from ‘In Pieces’ by Sally Field. A book that she spent seven years writing, without ghost writers, unusual for her circle. This book made me weep this week. It’s a beautifully written intimate memoir as well as a gut wrenching self portrait, bordering on a personal investigation. Now at 71, Field felt the compelling need to assemble her fragmented past. Contrast that with ‘Normal People’ by Sally Rooney, another book I have been reading, a future classic by all accounts and a book the BBC are working on for a new tv drama. It’s a story written in less than one year, showing what it is to be young and in love at any time. It too bought me to tears. I’m always quite close, the price we pay… Whilst putting together this weeks mobile photography and art showcase, each carefully chosen image is so fascinating, assuming and expressing the status of work of art. I like to think of these images as characters I compose with and elevate them to stage, with a realist meticulousness and luscious concern for detail, invoking a narrative of uncommon richness and intensity with a radical reframing of the purpose. Enjoy.

Susan Maxwell Schmidt, Clarisse Debout, Oola Cristina, Deborah Field, Deborah McMillion, Yariv Weinberg, Karen Axelrad, Kathy Clay, Sergiy Beliayev, Catherine Caddigan, Gianluca Ricoveri, Susan Rennie, Lorenka Campos, Damian De Souza, Jun Yamaguchi, borisbschulz2009, Catherine Caddigan, Arko Rayhan, Susan Detroy, Peter Wilkin, Laila, Paul Yan, Dragan Fly, before.1st.light – Jane Schultz, Clint Cline, Enio Godoy, Lydia Cassatt, Rita Colantonio, Kate Zari Roberts, Sheldon Serkin, Nick Kenrick, Tomaso Belloni, Eleni Gemeni, Jormain Cady, Elaine Taylor, Shelley Benjamin, M. Cecilia Sao Thiago, Dr Christophe Christ, Sandra B Martins – Violet Martins.

Mobile Photography & Art – Flickr/Instagram Group Showcase – 2 June 2019

03/06/201902/06/2019 by Joanne Carter

As humans, we have the unique ability of utilising our skill of habit, to our own disadvantage. We can fail to take note of what is always around us. Thus, we suffer emotionally because we lose sight of the value of what we have and then yearn for imagined attractions elsewhere. We live on auto pilot. As an example, if you think back, to when first learning to ride a bicycle, we become hyper aware of everything, as we sit on the saddle and place one foot on a pedal and the other on the ground, to steady us. As we try to push off and bring up the other foot to its pedal, we are acutely conscious of everything that is going on, we’re highly alert to sound, light, movement, balance and speed. But, after years of practice, we then jump on a bicycle and it’s possible to ride and ride without thinking consciously about changing gears, balancing, breaking or indicating. Our actions become a part of subconsciousness. And it is this autopilot being that can become our misfortune because, we begin to hardly register the important things. So instead of editing out the lesser things, enabling us to concentrate on the road, which is crucial in my example, we end up editing out elements of the world that have so much to offer us. But it is art that can bring us back to a more accurate assessment of what is valuable by working against our habit of autopilot and inviting us to recalibrate what we admire or love. This is called, Appreciation. When an artist creates an image, of an everyday item, objects that we encounter on a daily basis, when we view this image of those same items in a gallery, or look at them in a photograph, our attention is arrested and directed, we start to pay more attention to their shape, design, colour, we see them, as if for the first time. And despite this modest example, in time, we learn to look with kinder and more alert eyes at the world around us. One of the powers of Art is that it enables us to reawaken and value the merit of lives we live.

You’ll see plenty of examples in this weeks Mobile Photography and Art Showcase, as each artists utilises art as a re-sensitisation tool and helps us recover our own sensitivity by finding new ways to view the old. Enjoy!

Poetic Medium, Sheldon Serkin, before.1st.light – Jane Schultz, Gianluca Ricoveri, Clare Pickett, Ian Clarke, Catherine Caddigan, Oola Cristina, Jun Yamaguchi, Enoi Godoy, Eduardo Mueses, Lorenka Campos, Laila, Deborah McMillion, Jeremy Cassell, Jormain Cady, Song Hui, Anastasia Potekhina, Clint Cline, Rita Colantonio, jillian2 – Jill Lian, TheiPhoneArtGirl – Meri Walker, Damian De Souza, Kathy Clay, Judy Wahlberg, Susan Rennie, Michael Hamments, Kate Zari Roberts, Filiz Ak, Amy Ecenbarger, M. Cecilia Sao Thiago, Becky Menzies, Carol Wiebe, Peter Wilkin.

Music this week is ‘A Love Song’ by Xenia Dunford

Mobile Photography & Art – Flickr/Instagram Group Showcase – 26 May 2019

26/05/201926/05/2019 by Joanne Carter

“As soon as the vote of Brexit came through, half the people I know were trying desperately to work out whether they had Irish grandmothers. But I would never take dual German nationality because I owe this country too much, and I wouldn’t want to dilute it”. Deeply loyal, Judith Kerr speaking in the Financial Times in 2017. Commonly known, within Britain, as our ‘national treasure’, Kerr led a remarkable life and wrote and illustrated the most enchanted children’s stories. I was so saddened to read that she had died this week, born in 1923 into a bourgeois Jewish family in Weimar, Berlin. Her father, Alfred was a famed theatre critic and essayist and her mother, as well as housewife (no small task), a talented composer. Alfred was outspoken in his prose and it attracted enemies. Not least when it came to mocking the Nazis and as soon as Hilter became Chancellor in 1933, the family fled Germany. Nine year old Kerr and her elder brother Michael, with their mother escaped by train across the border to Switzerland, after a few months, penniless, they arrived in Paris. Kerr wrote how she loved the ‘brevity of the French (language) after the endless sentences in German’. Fortunately, for the family, the film director, Alexander Korda, a Hungarian Jew, working in Britain, bought Alfred’s script about Napoleon’s mother and this enabled them to move to England and therefore avoid the Nazis invasion of France in 1940. The film was never made and Kerr always suspected he only bought the script to save their lives.

A fascinating story and there’s so much more I could tell you about her life. Most of all, I am grateful for the influence she has had on my own small family. Two of my children have serious developmental disorders, along with specific learning difficulties and I read and snuggled up with them relentlessly when they were younger. So, it really warmed me when speaking with my middle son, Jovian (almost 18), who was actually the only child consciously wandering around the house, when I started to compose this Sunday’s showcase early this morning. I said to him, ‘Good Morning Jove, do you remember when I used to read ‘The Tiger Who Came To Tea’, when when you were little?’. He hesitated, but of course, once I showed him the glorious illustrations, he recalled the story instantly and he smiled warmly with the memories and thus his smile ignited me and gave me another excuse to hug him. That’s the legacy that Kerr has left behind, to many families, a warm embrace with enchanted memories firmly planted in our souls. Very often, children’s authors, try to ‘get rid of the parents’, in order to build the excitment of the story, but Kerr kept the parents as central to her work and that’s an aspect that I really appreciated. My tiny family mean the world to me and I really wanted them to feel that parents can actually be fun and enjoy their excitement too. I still recall my children’s eyes widening when it came to the part of Sophie’s parents taking her out to tea (after dark) – because the tiger had eaten all their food – what an adventure, what magic!

This is the influence of art and all that you do, all that you create. When creating mobile art, remember, it’s not just you that feels the warmth of your creations, it’s the rest of us. Draw, paint, photograph everything, you’re gifts are priceless.

Candice Railton, Hanni K, Rob Pearson-Wright, Paul Toussaint, Eduardo Llerandi, Arko Rayhan, Jun Yamaguchi, Deborah McMillion, Lorenka Campos, Damian De Souza, Kathy Clay, Judy Wahlberg, Susan Rennie, before.1st.light – Jane Schultz, pa.a hamel, Anatasia Potekhina, TheiPhoneArtGirl – Meri Walker, Woltarise, Rita Colantonio, Gianluca Ricoveri, Yasuo Furue, Michael Hamments.

Music this week is ‘Love Heals Us All’ Dave Tough