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!

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 #mobilephotographyandimagery.

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