TheAppWhisperer

Mobile Photography & Art – Flickr/Instagram Group Showcase – 29 March 2020

2020-03-292020-03-29 by Joanne Carter

It is a glorious spring day outside, there was a beautiful dawn chorus emitting from the garden birds this morning, the flowering bushes are starting to blossom. There’s a cold east wind but the piercing sun heats up our glass roofed conservatory, where I am writing this column with so much warmth, I envisage I am basking on a warm coastline, cocktail in hand. Of course, the realisation that Coronovirus was going to be a very serious problem came to me several weeks ago. My husband was interviewing a photographer in Northern Italy, before the lockdown, but after the schools had closed. He spoke about all the teenagers hanging around, everywhere and how closing the schools had only pushed all the kids out into the streets, none were staying home. Our schools were still open at this stage, my daughter attending daily assemblies with hundreds of other children. I am on immunosuppressant drugs for a chronic disease and in the high risk category. I took my daughter out of school before they closed, I explained that she needed to socially distance and of course, my popularity ratings hit rock bottom. Now all the schools are closed and new measures will be implemented next week to restrict our movements further. The supermarket shelves are empty, I have seen the photos online, hunter-gatherers we maybe but with the support of freezers and fridges we will reach a point where we run out of storage space. I’ve had one or two tearful days this week, much like all of us, none of us can know what’s next but we can try to reduce our anxiety. What we must do, is respect the measures to keep us all safe and healthly, to respect our healthcare workers and most of all, to continue, to create beautiful art. Stay safe.

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.

Mimi Svanberg @imagomimago, Paul Yan @cresting_wave, Anita Elle @hipstanitaelle, Jenny Pieters @sodium_light22, Cintia Malhotra, p.a. hamel, Diane Neubauer, @luison_street, Sabine Gromek, @nadvodnuk – Nadvodnuk Galina, @povaliaeva – Povaliaeva Tatl, @pause.and.breathe – Susan Latty, @_jenbeezy_ – Jennifer Bracewell, @klimtt M. Cecilia Sao Thiago, @roberamitchell9675 – Roberta Mitchell, Lorenka Campos. @sunflowerof21_365 – Elaine Taylor, Eliza Badoiu, Manuela Matos Monteiro, @ebuka__michael, @remintrusions – Damian De Souza, @lizanderson48, @guryanova_phone, @coeiphoneart – Gerry Coe, @ja_graham – Jennifer Graham, Deborah Morbeto, @artistunveiled – Margot, @wphotonick, @marshadraws – Marsha Estes, @salwa_afef Salwa Afef, @honingdruppels, Christine Mignon, Robin Cohen @psychephoto, Jane Schultz, Jon Arne Foss, Jun Yamaguchi, Clint Cline, Rita Colantonio, TheiPhoneArtGirl – Meri Walker, Catherine Caddigan, Andy Alexandre, Gianluca Ricoveri, Peter Wilkin, Judy Wahlberg, Karen Axelrad, Hanni K, borisbschulz2009, Candice Railton.

Music this week is ‘Utopia’ by Goldfrapp

Mobile Photography & Art – Flickr/Instagram Group Showcase – 22 March 2020

2020-03-22 by Joanne Carter

22 March 2020, Mother’s Day, England, “fear educates our care for each other – we fear a sick person might be made sicker, or that a person’s life might be made even more miserable and we do whatever we can to protect them because we have a fear a version of human life in which everyone lives only for themselves. I am not the least bit afraidd of this fear, for fear is a vital and necessary part of life“, observed poet Anne Boyer. This week, like many of us, I’ve immersed myself in art, both written and visual. I found myself, once more, drawn to Bleak House by Charles Dickens, throughout the novel many illnesses are depicted, none more so, or more profound than smallpox. Dickens demonstrated an exceptional grasp of disease, he demonstrated the unique ability to offer fear as a motivator, in order to convince people to change their ways of living. In the novel one of the characters contracts the disease in a graveyard and passes it on to two others, one who nearly dies and the other who is scarred for life. But it was clear that avoidance of graveyards was not enough to prevent the spread of this disease. Other factors played a part, miasma – bad air – or poisonous gas from rotting organic matter was suspected. However, what was very clear was the disease spread from person to person. Self-imposed quarantine became a theme of two of the characters, “keep her out, Charley, if you love me truly, to the last! Charley, if you let her in but once, only to look upon me for one moment, as I lie here, I shall die“. Quarantine is emphasised repeatedly during the characters illness, to which she refers to it as ‘contagion’. There’s a juxtaposition between art and medicine throughout the book, this is deliberate, Dickens knew that the art we create offers far more than respite, it is a tool enabling us to physically and mentally gain perspective not only in troubling times but throughout our lives. Stay safe and love your mothers from afar today.

Michael Beresin, Vadim Demjianov, Jun Yamaguchi, Susan Maxwell Schmidt, Jill Lian, Kat McClelland, Lorenka Campos, Lindy Ginn, Oola Cristina, Meri Walker – @TheiPhoneArtGirl, Cathrine Halsor, Susan Detroy, Catherine Caddigan, Gianluca Ricoveri, Tomaso Belloni, Peter Wilkin, Judy Wahlberg, Jennifer Bracewell, Jane Schultz, p.a. hamel, Clint Cline, Susan Rennie, Deborah McMillion, soul_engine, Susan Latty – @pause.and.breathe, @aquamirena, @rejanerubin, Dina Alfasi, @iphonefineartphotography, Deborah Morbeto, Jean Hutter, Guido Colla – effe5, le_brab – Pascal, Jenny Pieters – jenivoigt, ja_graham, wphotonick, Eliza Badoiu, Lee Atwell, klimtt – M. Cecilia Sao Thiago.

Music this week is ‘Breath of Life’ by Florence and the Machine

Mobile Photography & Art – Flickr/Instagram Group Showcase – 15 March 2020

2020-03-222020-03-15 by Joanne Carter

“Few travelled in these days, for, thanks to the advance of science, the earth was exactly alike all over. Rapid intercourse, from which the previous civilization had hoped so much, had ended by defeating itself. What was the good of going to Peking when it was just like Shrewsbury? Why return to Shrewsbury when it would all be like Peking? Men seldom moved their bodies; all unrest was concentrated in the soul.” ―E.M. Forster, The Machine Stops and the first book that I immediately reread thrice, when I was thirteen. It was the first book that interrupted my thought processes enough to relieve me of outside pressures. It was transient, like a mediation. This is the life we now live, we need to ensure we flesh out, some of the moral dilemmas within the drama of everyday life and remember what makes us human. We need no one to write us an algorithm for how to treat others and how to live well, although some humans, may be all the better for it.

Lee Atwell, Deborah McMillion, Karen Axelrad, Laila, p.a. hamel, Jane Schultz, Catherine Caddigan, soul_engine, Mark Swanson, Lorenka Campos, Hanni K, Fleur Schim, Janine Graf, Andy Alexandre, Clint Cline, Tomaso Belloni, Jun Yamaguchi, Michael Brunsfeld, Peter Wilkin, Rita Colantonio, Gianluca Ricoveri, Susan Detroy, Judy Wahlberg, @niphisi, Elaine Taylor, Jenny Pieters, Eliza Badoiu, Jormain Cady, M. Cecilia Sao Thiago, @psychephoto – Robin Cohen, Susan Latty, @duca0onte, Damian De Souza, Marsha Estes @marshadraws, @accidental_artist3, Chehalis Hegner @chehalishegner.

Music this week is by Rhodes ‘Close your Eyes’

Mobile Photography & Art Showcase – 8 March 2020

2020-03-08 by Joanne Carter

Clive James the prolific Austrialian author, poet and broadcaster died late last year. I’ve always been a fan of his work, he made his name as a television critic, essayist and wit but he started as a poet and just over five years ago he was diagnosed with leukaemia, emphysema and kidney failure – he described it as ‘the lot’ and he ended as a poet.

There’s a particular story I remember reading about James, it goes like this…

One time he was going through a creative dry spell. He had written a play for the London stage and it bombed spectacularly. Not only did it ruin his family financially but it also cost him some dear friends. He fell into the deepest depression and shame. When the play closed, all he could do was sit on the sofa in his lounge and stare at the wall, mortified and humiliated. His wife held the family together, somehow. He did not feel he could ever write again. He stayed under this spell for a very long time. One day though, his young daughters interrupted his grieving process. They asked him if he could make their old scruffy secondhand bicycles look nicer. James obeyed, in a dutiful but not joyous manner. He carefully painted the girls bicycles in bright shades of red, frosted the wheel spokes with silver and when the paint dried he added tiny silver and gold stars all over the bicycles. ‘A field of exquisitely detailed constellations’. James couldn’t stop painting stars, the girls wanted their bicycles back and grew impatient. When at last he handed the bicycles back to the girls, they pedalled off up the road, on their magical ‘new’ bikes, completely thrilled and excited. The next day, his daughters brought home a little girl from school, who asked if he would paint stars on her bicycle. He did it. When that was done, another little girl turned up and soon there was a whole queue of little girls wanting him to paint stars on their bicycles.

James, one of the worlds greatest writers, spent weeks painting thousands of stars on little girls bicycles in his garage and as he did so, he began to recover. He realised that he really did want to keep on creating things and as he did so, he was healing, something was coming back to life within him. He thought, ‘I will write about this someday’, when he thought this he realised he was free and the creator had returned.

As always, this is another fabulous week of mobile photography and art, 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:

Jenny Pieters, Jennifer Graham, Nancy McClure, Nina Papel, Deborah Morbet, Fiona Christian, Rita Colantonio, Jennifer Bracewell, Maria Moscoso, Jane Schultz, @da_ny_550, mitrydate, Lorenka Campos, Rita Tipunina, Peter Wilkin, Cathrine Halsor, Jean Hutter, Cintia Malhotra, Marsha Estes, Becky Menzies, @terrible.bones.photography, Susan Latty, Boris Schulz, G R Fotos, Deborah McMillion, Gianluca Ricoveri, Candice Railton, Jun Yamaguchi, Jill Lian, G Billon, P. A Hamel, Susan Rennie, Chhororo.

Music this week is ‘Falling Too’ ©Veda

Mobile Photography & Art Showcase – 23 February 2020

2020-02-232020-02-23 by Joanne Carter

Sally Brampton (founding editor of Elle magazine, UK – who killed herself after health professionals ‘missed opportunities to offer her help’, in 2016) said in her memoir on depression: “We are simply defeated by the long, hard struggle to stay alive. When somebody dies after a long illness, people are apt to say, with a note of approval: ‘He fought so hard.’ And they are inclined to think, about a suicide, that no fight was involved, that somebody simply gave up. This is quite wrong.” And so, this week, my thoughts have been with the local family of a 15 year old boy from my daughters school who killed himself. Of course, a well known British celebritiy also did this last Saturday, even with the same method. Except I’m not ‘allowed‘ to discuss the method as The Smaritans warn of the dangers of ‘imitational sucicidal behaviour‘ and request that there’s no placement regarding actual methods. But if we don’t talk about it, aren’t we ignoring mental illness and that’s become so ‘popular‘ to talk about right now? There are more suicides, certainly for poeple under 35 and more so males, than there are road deaths currently per year. Artists are also one of the leading groups of whom suicide is common. ‘Tortured Geniuses’ are most likely to commit sucide, the first-ever study of suicide by professionals from the ONS, which covered England in the years from 2011 to 2015, showed that people who work in arts-related jobs are up to four times more likely to commit suicide. People, are so ashamed, hurt, overwhelmed for so many reasons, that they’d rather end their lives, than seek help. It was reported this week, that Caroline Flack, the celebrity I mentioned above, did reach out to a friend but her friend told her it was too much for her. If we don’t talk about it, when someone approaches us, if we don’t soothe them, offer support, listen, then aren’t we ignoring the obvious, of what will inevitably come? They already feel ignored and unsupported. Isn’t that why people confide? We must continue to talk, we must support, mentor and above all, care… isn’t that why we’re here?

In the UK the Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international suicide helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org.

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:

Enio Godoy, Deborah McMillion, Rita Colantonio, Jun Yamaguchi, Milly M, Candice Railton, Jean Hutter, Jill Lian, Jon Arne Foss, Gianluca Ricoveri, Catherine Caddigan, p.a. hamel, Susan Maxwell Schmidt, Lee Atwell, j.a. Graham, @deborahmorbetoffinear, M. Cecilia Sao Thiago, @berleyart – Kim Clayton, Linda Hollier, Rejane Rubino, @sunflowerof21_365 – Elaine Taylor, Michael Vaile Garner, Janis Brandenburg, @remintrusions – Damian De Souza, @Badgrowshop, Brendan O Se, @marshadraws – Marsha Estes, @ange_ombre, @jormain, Eliza Badoiu, Alisa Smith Williams, Jane Schultz.

Music this week is ‘The Other Side’ by Ruelle

Mobile Photography & Art – Flickr/Instagram Group Showcase – 16 February 2020

2020-02-16 by Joanne Carter

Fatigue with the stress of life, current news, financial worries, sickness, broken relationships, abuse, wreak havoc. As I shot my (medicinal) drug needle miraculously through my fingernail instead of my thigh this week, I know and it hurts but there’s also something called ‘compassion fatigue’ in relation to photography. It is so called when people view vast quantites of shocking images, perhaps photojournalism from a warzone for example and they become muted, to the visual atrocities before their eyes. From as early as the 1980’s ‘compassion fatigue’ was also known as ‘Secondary Traumatic Stress Disorder’, essentially it developed from an excess of compassion. David Campbell, Director of Programs and Outreach at the World Press Photo Foundation, has written a time pressing essay on the subject entitled ‘the dream of photojournalism and the cultural anxiety of images’, I urge you to engage with it. I further researched this subject and was satiated to read, Jeremy Adelman’s, (Henry Charles Lea professor of history and director of the Global History Lab at Princeton University) essay entitled ‘Don’t Look Away’. He said, ‘when Susan Sontag composed her first essay on photography, for Epstein and Silvers, she was thinking about ‘Napalm Girl’. The sight of her agonised face ‘was more memorable than a hundred hours of televised barbarities, it may even,’ she speculated, ‘have done more than anything else to mobilise the anti-War movement.’

In 2020 as we navigate between connection and isolation, company and solitude, know that when you’re creating mobile photography and art you are driving the framentary narrative forward, we can change things, for the better. This weeks carefully curated mobile photography and art showcase gets under your skin and leads the way for the ultimate climax. Enjoy!

Many congratulations to the following featured artists this week including:

borisbschulz2009, G Billon, Susan Detroy, Susan Rennie, Jane Schultz, Gianluca Ricoveri, Andy Alexandre, Jill Lian, Rita Colantonio, Candice Railton, Lorenka Campos, Joseph Cyr, Milly M, Jun Yamaguchi, Clare Taylor, j.a graham, Eliza Badoiu, Jenny Pieters, @bortolinimassimo, Ile Mont, Sarah Bichachi, Christine Mignon, Alisa Smith Williams, Amo Passicos, Kim Clayton, Dina Alfasi, Rodolfo Alcaraz, Jean Hutter, Adrian McGarry, Mehmet Duyulmus.

Music this week – ‘Over the Love’ Florence and the Machine

Mobile Photography & Art – Flickr/Instagram Group Showcase – 2 February 2020

2020-02-02 by Joanne Carter

“Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties“, writes Erich Fromm, one of the most prescient thinkers of the 20th century. Love and creativity play a huge part of my life and it is physical. Love of art, the art of loving, irrational, intellectual, obsessive, insightful. Professor Semir Zeki, a neurobiologist at the University College London, proved in a series of pioneering brain-mapping experiments that viewing art triggers a surge of dopamine, the feel-good chemicial, into the orbito-frontal cortex of the brain, resulting in feelings of intense pleasure, the same part of the brain that is excited, when we fall for someone, romantically. For all of us associated with mobile photography and art, we already know this, mobile art is our fix just like illicit drug taking, we feel immediate stimulation and like a drug, our reward centres crave for more. I also believe it is not just the viewers but also the creators of mobile art, that reach for that high too. Love, like creatvity, requires courage, to let ourselves go, as Fromm described above. It’s fierce trust, it demands you put forth your work, without knowing an outcome because fierce trust knows that the outcome does not matter, it cannot matter. Keep sharing your work, each one of you reading this was born to create. Ask yourself, how fierce is your trust in that love? Keep creating, keep viewing, it’s our labour of love.

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:

Clint Cline, Jerry Clack, jilllian2 – Jill Lian, Susan Blase, Hanni K, Lorenka Campos, Fleur Schim, Oola Cristina, Jayita Mallik, @imagomimago – Mimi Svanberg, @do.brze, Susan Latty, @honor_life – Irene Oleksiuk, @marymodale – Dale Botha, Beate Goralczyk, Dina Alfasi, Thelma Penteado, @jules4921 – Rita Colantonio, Janis Brandenburg, @winter__lines, @rain.is.poetry – Paul Suciu, @miandreai – Marius Andrei, Rosalie Heller, @rodrigobw – Rodrigo Vieira, @luison – Lrh, @jawdoc2, Alexis Rotella, @cardinphotography, Filiz Ak, thefringeproject, Jun Yamaguchi, Jane Schultz, Laila, Gianluca Ricoveri.

Music this week is ‘Breathe’ by Fleurie

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

2019-12-092019-12-08 by Joanne Carter

The life of an artist encompasses many avenues, one perhaps that I am frequently reminded of is the need for solitude, to create. French philosopher, Jean-Paul Sartre said ‘hell is other people‘. Sometimes I agree, sometimes I disagree with this sentiment, like many, it depends on the company. Orson Welles said ‘we’re born alone, we live alone, we die alone’, I disagree, I was fully present when my three children were born, I’ve never lived alone and nor would wish to and I’d be surprised if I die alone. I have experienced a death of a loved one, who died alone but many of the deaths I have experienced, have had company. There’s a difference between the feeling of solitude and the feeling of loneliness. The former is a luxury, one where we enjoy our own company, where we can create with all abandon. Loneliness can be an exhaustion. Professor John Cacioppo has been studying the effects and causes of loneliness for 21 years. He is the director of the University of Chicago’s Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience. His book Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection examines the pathology and public health implications of the subject. In this very interesting book in answer to the following question he raised, “How many confidants do you have?”, he discovered “25% of Americans said they had no one at all”. This is a sad figure, but is one confidant enough to change brain chemistry if it is a quality connection? Professor Cacioppo explains “Enough is always a hard term, but certainly one is hugely better than zero. Two is probably better than one. The true answer to this question is that it depends on context. If, to take an extreme example, you are in a state of war, then one probably isn’t enough – you need a small army of people around you”. In the UK, in 2018, the first Minister of Loneliness, Tracey Crouch was appointed, we have an epidemic due not less to the breakdown of communities and connections. Cacioppo also disclosed that loneliness is contagious and leads to early death. It’s so important to de-stigmatise loneliness and we would love to see a mobile photography project devoted to it. At this time of year, with the holidays upon us, many people feel lonelier than ever. If you would like to create a project of loneliness, we will feature them, join us to help prevent social isolation. Please send a series of 12-15 images to this email address – joannetheappwhisperer@protonmail.com and please include narration.

I hope you all love this weeks mobile photography and art showcases 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.

Deborah McMillion, Juta Jazz, Tomaso Belloni, Hanni K, Clint Cline, jim yoksimovich, Gianluca Ricoveri, Oola Cristina, Jerry Clack, Susan Rennie, p.a. hamel, Rita Colantonio, Cintia Malhotra, Scott Simpson, Lorenka Campos, Karen Axelrad, qingxian guo, Jun Yamaguchi, Catherine Caddigan, TheiPhoneArtGirl – Meri Walker, G R Fotos, jilllian2 – Jill Lian, Peter Wilkin, Sailisa Li, Mark Swanson, Cathrine Halsor, Laila, borisbschulz2009, Mikhail Grebenshchikov, marc gommans, Sebastian Burczyk, Manfred Major, TSOriginaux, Fleur Schim, Kathy Clay, Phil Harris, Judy Wahlberg, Lydia Cassatt, Jane Schultz, Heather McAlister, VeraJane Vickers, soul_engine, Mehmet Duyulmus, Susan Latty, mitrydate, Jean Hutter, @tankaqueen – Alexis Rotella, Diane Neubauer, @tatteredphotographs – Kim Clayton, Eliza Badoiu, Rejane Rubino, @stillcindyjane, nielsb, Joy Sussmann, ja_graham, Chehalis Hegner, @clau_clara, @klimtt – M. Cecilia Sao Thiago, @alban_rita, em.visualartist – Eduardo Marques, @alice1280, Filiz Ak, Marian Rubin, Fernando Prats, bartonsup, Derrick O Boateng.

Music this week is CLANN with ‘I Hold You’

Mobile Photography & Art – Flickr/Instagram Group Showcase – 24 November 2019 –

2019-11-252019-11-24 by Joanne Carter

I live in a built up area, as you might imagine, but when I stopped off at a petrol station, in the dark and pouring rain, to fill my car up this week, I was silenced into hushed awe. I lined up a pump, got out and opened the filler cap, whilst the blond captivating man, not disimilar in looks to the iconic Kurt Cobain, in the oposite pump was reaching a crescendo as he squeezed his pump into the fill spout. As first it was an unnerving experience, all the punters filling up their cars were hushed, as if in a theatre, all polite, near silence, no one stopped him, no one spoke to him (this is England) but everyone smiled at him and he grinned and stared at me. He unleashed a crystal clear voice before shaking the drips off his pump and hanging it back with a sway in his hips and an ‘I don’t give a **** attitude. His anarchic spirit undercut the atmosphere and his voice did the heavy lifting with a thrilling sense of scope and ambition. I’ve never had such a memorable experience at a petrol station. As he drove away, I yearned to be resuscitated, silently shouting ‘where are you? Art is all around us none more so evident than in this weeks showcase, enjoy!

Oola Cristina, Laila, Peter Wilkin, Yasuo Furue, Alexey Amelyushkin, Clint Cline, TheiPhoneArtGirl – Meri Walker, Susan Rennie, Jane Schultz, jilllian2 – Jill Lian, Jun Yamaguchi, klimtt – Cecilia Sao Thiago, Vadim Demjianov, Shelly MacNeil Conway, Paul Toussaint, Peter Wilkin, Francesco Sambati, Rita Colantonio, Cintia Malhotra, borisbschulz2009, Lorenka Campos, Gianluca Ricoveri, Eliza Badoiu, _soulkitchen_ Valeria Cam…, @colourcooker – Barbara Banthau, @mitrydate, @chehalishegner- Chehalis Hegner, @schwitter.li – Liliana Schwitter, @imagomimago – Mimi Svanberg, @lindahollier – Linda Hollier, @pause.and.breathe – Susan Latty, @patragraphy, Christine Mignon, @le_brab – Pascal, @filizakart – Filiz Ak, @jenburnett, @ijanrm, @comizi – Cozi Koji, @tatsmosc -Maria Moscoso, @alice1280 – Ann.

Music this week is another of my favourites, Mahalia with ‘Back up Plan’

Mobile Photography & Art – Flickr/Instagram Group Showcase – 17 November 2019

2019-11-182019-11-17 by Joanne Carter

I was delighted this week to learn that 45 year old Ivorian artist, Joana Choumali has become the first African photographer to scoop the Prix Pictet prize, winning with a series of embroidered photographs responding to the trauma of terrorist attacks in Ivory Coast in 2016. The series is entitled ‘Ca va aller‘ – meaning – ‘it will be ok‘, a reference to stoical reaction to adversity that she said permeated Ivorian culture. Her images were printed onto canvas and then later embroidered with stitches directly onto the surface. Combining photographic imagery with fabric and therefore, creating ‘conceptual portraits‘. She created this work ‘as a need to process the pain‘. She said ‘each stitch was a way to recover, to lay down the emotions, the loneliness and mixed feelings I felt‘. Her work is stunning but what particularly interested me was the way it helped her to process her inner pain. I believe pain is the root to many artists’ work, whether that be pictorial, sculpture or the written word and I refuse to believe anyone who tells me, and they frequently do, that it has no place – it has every place. I am luckily enough to be invited to many exhibitions and shows around the world and earlier this year, I attended the opening of Tracey Emin’s brutal portraits of female pain exhibition ‘a fortnight of tears‘. I spoke with her and discussed her work. Her background repeats in much of her art and as she gets older, also the sleeplessness, exhaustion, whirling anxieties and the fear of running out of time contribute. The power of female art has become vital for women and not ‘just‘ artists but for all women. French writer and poet Andre Breton once described Frida Kahlo’s art as a ‘ribbon around a bomb‘, I say, standby for the blast…

Chhororo, klimtt – Cecilia Sao Thiago, Jun Yamaguchi, Sebastian Burczyk, Clint Cline, woltarise, borisbschulz2009, Catha Li, Catherine Caddigan, Deborah McMillion, Lorenka Campos, Sherrianne100, Hanni K, Southfield Photos, Laila, Rita Colantonio, I-C-Things – David Starling, Gianluca Ricoveri, Judy Wahlberg, Susan Rennie, p.a.hamel, Jane Schultz, Marguerite Khoury, Vadim Demjianov, psychephoto – Robin Cohen, kathyc2136, Eliza Badoiu, Anca Balaj, J A Graham, @filizakart – Filiz Ak, @schwitter.li, @pause.and.breathe – Susan Latty, mitrydate, Rosalie Heller, Diane Neubauer, Judy Wahlberg.

Music this week ‘You mean the world to me’ – Freya Ridings