Karen Axelrad Archives - TheAppWhisperer

Mobile Photography & Art – Flickr/Instagram Group Showcase – 30 June 2019

30/06/2019 by Joanne Carter

Her body is “like a car that you park in the projects, you don’t leave anything valuable in it ’cause you can’t keep it from being broken into,” a frustrating but all to realistic quote from ‘Baise-moi’ (1993) a novel by Virginie Despentes. The quote calmly describes her friend who was gang-raped, she reasons, ‘at least they left her alive‘. The book itself is about two young women on a revenge sex and killing spree following the gang rape. The author, Despentes, herself was gang raped at 17 and had a knife in her pocket at the time but was too terrified to use it. She writes in her memoir ‘King Kong Theory’, 2006, “I am furious with a society that has educated me without ever teaching me to injure a man if he pulls my thighs apart against my will, when that same society has taught me that this is a crime from which I will never recover,”. I am not trying to set the scene for a rant here, merely frustratingly mentioning that living a life as a man is a wholly different experience to living life as a woman. Art, for so many is a sanctuary and a necessity and I fiercely guard everyone’s entitlement to it. Some artists get distracted with soul-sucking tasks to make money, it’s a necessary evil. What I see here every single week, are the heftiest and most fascinating inspirational artists. I make this statement not with empty braggadocio but without falsity. This weeks showcase results in an allegory that feels elevated. This is multi-dimensional story telling, of real people because this is what is required, so we can luxuriate in the crevices of our emotional rational irrationality. 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.

Anca Balaj, Clarisse Debout, klimtt – M. Cecilia Sao Thiago, Jane Schultz, Mazetman – Monsieur Georges, berleyart – Kim, Niels Brunelli – @niels_b, acciental_artist3 – Ransom Candice, Rosa Perry, Loulou Buntbein, Rita Colantonio, Linda Hollier, Deborah McMillion, Jun Yamaguchi, Lorenka Campos, Albion Harrison-Naish, Damian De Souza, Fleur Schim, David DeNagel, Peter Wilkin, Sheldon Serkin, Alexey Amelyushkin, Jeremy Cassell, Karen Axelrad, Susan Detroy, Clint Cline, woltarise, Rob Pearson-Wright, Yasuo Furue, Laila, Judy Wahlberg, Susan Rennie, Gianluca Ricoveri, TheiPhoneArtGirl – Meri Walker, jilllian2 – Jill Lian, Deborah Field.

Music this week is ‘True Intimacy’ by Leah West

Mobile Photography & Art – Flickr/Instagram Group Showcase – 23 June 2019

23/06/2019 by Joanne Carter

This weeks thrilling and thoughtful Mobile Photography and Art showcase projects a sense of artists maintaining their fidelity to the human race, whilst all around many are losing faith, it is at the heart of everything. Each work of art chosen here has a stake in our world. There are counterweights and balances as joy emerges in the work here. This storytelling is far more alive to the possibility of hope, of relationships, uncomplicated love and connections, each representing the intimacy of the long years of support that our community brings to one another. Enjoy.

Anca Balaj, Candice Ransom – @accidental_artist3, Deborah Field, p.a. hamel, Oola Cristina, Fleur Schim, jilllian2 – Jill Lian, Gianluca Ricoveri, Tomaso Belloni, Marina Sergeevna, Kerry Mitchell, Sergiy Beliayev, Jun Yamaguchi, Laila, Deborah McMillion, Karen Axelrad, Poetic Medium, Jeremy Cassell, Beate, Juta Jazz, Enio Godoy, ArrrRT eDUarD, Paul Yan, irene Oleksiuk, Lorenka Campos, Susan Rennie, Susan Maxwell Schmidt, Clint Cline, Judy Wahlberg, @ange_ombre – Ro Lannes, @raulbar – Raul Barrios, Lydia Cassatt, @one.fine.eye.phone – Kate Zari Roberts, @raveninnyc – Lori, Clarisse Debout, @mariatbellotti – Mariateresa Bellotti, Sarah Bichachi,

Music this week is ‘China Moon’ (instrumental) – Angels of Venice

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.

Music this week is ‘Silver Bullet’ ©Alpha

Mobile Photography & Art – Flickr/Instagram Group Showcase – 19 May 2019

19/05/201919/05/2019 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. Today, several new books have been released along an albeit more modern but similar vein. I am thinking of Frankisstein by Jeanette Winterson, author of Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit. As well as Ian McEwan’s ‘Machines Like Me’ new release, set in 1982. This counterfactual novel sees Argentinian end the war abruptly with the Falklands becoming Las Malvinas. McEwan introduces an £86k male robot designed by Alan Turing, who in this book, has not been hounded to death for his homosexuality but instead, lauded for his technological breakthroughs. Of course it’s speculative fiction but the complexity is as disturbing as it is intelligent.

During an interview with Lisa Allardice for The Guardian, in a smart London restaurant last week, Winterson concedes, (in response to the Allardice’s statement that creating this novel (Frankisstein) would have taken her down some unlikely digital paths).“I did worry about that. Watching guys have sex with bots, female sex dolls start at around $2,000 for a really crap one”, she said, and it was no surprise to learn that they are “entirely fantasy. They’ve got huge tits and small waists and long legs, but of course what they haven’t got, and never will have, is a clitoris. They don’t have to worry about that!”

It’s interesting to me how the current crop of writing that is very much in vogue is AI based, much like mobile photography and art. Both arts mirror the trends. While the Machine Stops, represented a sci fi fantasy and immense treasured escape from my living reality, now at 50, Winterson and McEwan, along with the AI of smartphone visualisation represent, our new reality, and are the forces driving the process. Today, this mutual cultural presence is the next revolution, it is not just present within photography, it is reaching all arts. In 2015 Taylor Davidson, for Time magazine, described the camera of the future as an app, “a software rather than a device that compiles data from multiple sensors. The smartphone’s microphone, gyroscope, accelerometer, thermometer and other sensors all contribute data as needed by whatever app calls on it and combines it with the visual data”. Stephen Mayes, went on to contribute “and still that’s not the limit on what is already bundled with our digital imagery. Our instruments are connected to satellites that contribute GPS data while connecting us to the Internet that links our data to all the publicly available information of Wikipedia, Google and countless other resources that know where we are, who was there before us and the associated economic, social and political activity”.

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.

Poetic Medium, Jun Yamaguchi, David DeNagel, Caren Drysdale, Deborah McMillion, Art Noonan, Lydia Cassatt, Laila, Karen Axelrad, Eduardo Llerandi, jilllian2 – Jill Lian, Chris Montcalmo, Vladislav Niko, Paul Toussaint, Nick Kenrick, Rita Colantonio, Vadim Demjianov, Allyson Marie, before.1st.light – Jane Schultz, borsbschulz2009, Kat McClelland, Susan Detroy, Amo Passicos, Kerry Mitchell, Will Reyes, Susan Rennie, Gianluca Ricoveri, Kate Zari Roberts, Debara Splendorio, Ralf Mauvog, Peter Wilkin, Rob Pearson-Wright, Clint Cline, TheiPhoneArtGirl – Meri Walker, Rita Colantonio, Catherine Caddigan, p.a.hamel, Jormain Cady.

Music this week is ‘As the Mist Clears’©Salt of the Sound

Mobile Photography & Art – Flickr/Instagram Group Showcase – 5 May 2019

05/05/201905/05/2019 by Joanne Carter

“Whenever the world throws rose petals at you, which thrill and seduce the ego, beware” Anne Lamott. I was told a similar thing, not quite so poetically, when I was promoted and became the technical editor of a print camera magazine, many years ago… it’s long gone. “Many congratulations Joanne, but keep those feet on the ground“, cautioned the main editor of the title. Sound advice, but doesn’t it get a little boring sometimes? For years now, I’ve noticed that I have become more and more sensible and it’s getting frustrating. I’m organised, at least in my mind, it might not show physically in my office. I keep my children’s diaries, as well as my own ticking over, day by day. I attend fabulous five star art events, around the world, I attend school meetings with senior teachers, I view the most breathtaking art – on a daily basis, I share my life with the richest most eloquent artists I’ve ever had the good fortune to befriend, I read and respond to specialist medical reports, I attend countless hospital appointments and physical examinations monthly and each time, return home, to remain forever sensible and organised. Even my car, is so understated that it only occurred to me recently, why it was that every single time I look into my rear view mirror on the motorway, that there seems to be a horizontal row of traffic a good 100 yards behind me, the reason being, the British public appear to believe this is an undercover police car and I’m about to turn on my hidden blue lights to anyone who overtakes me. It’s actually quite useful, I can get to destinations much quicker and my car remains untouched when unattended (unusual for around here).

To desire is as good as to possess and I think, I’ll just keep being judicious a little longer, at least until I can fully reveal what I’m working on, after that, I can assure you, my feet won’t touch the ground, yours won’t either and the only blue lights we’ll see, will be the ones at the celebratory party!

Oola Cristina, Chris Feichtner, Paul Yan, Jun Yamaguchi, Clint Cline, Lydia Cassatt, Robin Robertis, Allyson Marie, Karen Axelrad, Catherine Caddigan, Jennifer Bracewell, borisbschulz, Poetic Medium, jilllian2 – Jill Lian, Yasuo Furue, Tracey Grumbach, Rita Colantonio, Kristie Michele Art – Kristie Benoit, Joseph Cyr, Kat McClelland, Lawrence Lazare, Damian De Souza, before.1st.light – Jane Schultz, Susan Blase, jon jon, Kate Zari Roberts, Susan Rennie, Judy Wahlberg, Rob Pearson-Wright, TheiPhoneArtGirl – Meri Walker, p.a. hamel, Michael Brunsfeld, Lorenka Campos, Candice Railton, Gianluca Ricoveri.

Music this week is ‘Anchor’ ©Stephanie Schneiderman

Mobile Photography & Art – Flickr/Instagram Group Showcase – 21 April 2019

22/04/201921/04/2019 by Joanne Carter

Earlier this year, I attended the press view of ‘A Fortnight Of Tears’ by and with Tracey Emin, at The White Cube Gallery, London. What has interested me, particularly, since the exhibition are the wide ranging and diverse reviews and critiques of this show. Having spent time speaking with Emin, as well as sharing the exhibition and space with her, I felt closer to this artwork and to her psyche than I ever have before. Many of the reviews were critical, she is an artist who has always attracted harsh critics. Her most infamous work “My Bed” (1988), is in many ways, metaphorically, part of this exhibition. It’s re-inacted as fifty huge iPhone selfie images displayed on the gallery walls, taken as she awakes in bed, displaying plastic surgery scars, moods and various nightgown changes. In an interview, she describes to Griselda Murray Brown, Financial Times, how this exhibition relates, “the Bed for me, is the closest thing that I have to [these] works because I stained that bed, I cried in that bed, I shit in that bed, I fucked in that bed, probably vomited in that bed. Everything that that bed is, is in [these] paintings”. Her theme of art has been the same for sometime, over 30 years, and consists mainly of abuse, abortion, love, loss, death, so not for the fainthearted but to define this recurring theme in one word, I would choose ‘life’. She has relentlessly been criticised for yelling about rape, this was before the #MeToo era and her response to that was “Of course I’m screaming about rape. Why shouldn’t I be?” frankly, I couldn’t agree more, don’t you? “I kept trying to say [this] to people years ago”, Emin continued. “Suddenly I’m allowed to express myself and to have the language and the voice that I’ve had for years and years. Now we’re in a time where we can put things right, and this is what my work is about”. Critics continue to urge her to ‘move on’ but much of the true grit of life, is incessant.

Another recurring critical aspect of Emin’s art and again it’s one that is repeated throughout the art world, is ‘is it art?’. I wonder why we are still asking this question.

In 1988, Richard Woodward wrote a feature article in the New York Times discussing recent photographic work, entitled “It’s Art, But Is It Photography?’. He went on to say “It isn’t clear anymore how photography should be valued or looked at, where within our museums it should be exhibited-even what is or is not a photograph”. In the late 1800’s debates literally raged about the status of photography, ‘is it art or not?’ critics hollered. Amusingly, (or not, depending on your sense of humour), in the 1920’s even Edward Weston accused pictorial photographers of making ‘pseudo paintings, instead of photographs’. Of course the debate has shifted full circle. Since the 1960’s , the question of whether photography is art became irrelevant with the acceptance of photography into museum collections. But the question once again shifted in the late 1980s to ‘Is it photography?’. It could be said that the prestigious Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York was not accepting of the depiction, not of art but of photography and in turm, what could be concluded, as photography. Prior to the 1990s MOMA had not given an exhibition to David Hockney, Robert Mapplethorpe, Cindy Sherman among others. It seems the theory being the work of these artists might have been art, but not photography.

This is an extract of a larger piece of writing that I am working on and it is relevant today in our era of mobile photography and art. We have made huge strides to encompass what we know is the most formidable and time changling art today but we still have further to travel. This weeks mobile photography and showcase, highlights once again the pioneering artists pushing the boundaries, challenging the status quo. Colour and wild creativity flourish, each visionary coherently embracing dreaming, while awake. Enjoy!

Gianluca Ricoveri, Rita Colantonio, Tuba, Kathy Clay, Fleur Schim, Kate Zari Roberts, Jun Yamaguchi, Candice Railton, Erik Beck, Nick Kenrick, Joseph Cyr, Poetic Medium, Erik Viggh, Susan Blase, jon jon, AleDi Gangi, borisbschulz2009, Catherine Caddigan, Mark Swanson, Johann Veers, Deborah McMillion, Ivan_sl, Francesco Sambati, Cristina Rossi, Clint Cline, Sherrianne100, TheiPhoneArtGirl – Meri Walker, Rob Pearson-Wright, Susan Rennie, Amo Passicos, klimtt – M. Cecilia Sao Thiago, 123ems, Lorenka Campos, Karen Axelrad, Ian Clarke, Tricia Dewey, Ioannis Sidiropoulos, Heather McAlister, Jane Schultz – before.1st.light, p.a.hamel.

Mobile Photography & Art – Flickr/Instagram Group Showcase – 7 April 20019

07/04/201907/04/2019 by Joanne Carter

After scoring a hat trick, I am back! As some of you will have noticed, I was off last week. Not one to take life easy, I managed to cram it with, Mother’s Day, my 50th birthday and a serious lung infection. An accomplishment even by my own standards. The lung infection leading the way, I spent my days and continue to do so, (desperately trying to avoid another hospital admission), dosing up with antibiotics, sleeping sitting upright (it can be done, I’ve learnt, once complete exhaustion sets in) and reading a wide variety of books. I got it down to two books every two days, a record for me. This is all in sharp contrast to the preceding two weeks where I, at least felt like, flew around Amsterdam and swanned around Paris, with a scrum of journalists in close contact throughout, trying, initially politely, to avoid some persistent esoteric amorous advances. No doubt, the grounds I picked up the lung infection but that’s a little unjust; I feel quite hip these days, sharing a serious autoimmune disease with a raft of celebrities. ‘Lady AppWhisperer‘, has a bit of a ring to it, don’t you think? The main treatment for serious autoimmune diseases (for the uninitiated) are strong immunosuppressant drugs. These are delivered to my home address every two weeks, straight from a refrigerated van, handed to me in person and placed immediately into my own fridge (middle shelf, with nothing touching the contents, ‘not too close to the back, front or sides‘, my nurse voiced, as she inspected my placement). Then every two weeks, I inject myself, the fun part is I get to select the location, will it be my left or right thigh this week? Or perhaps and I’m still striving to gain confidence, will it by my abdomen, just along from my tummy button, hmm – the mental battle continues for that one. The result is that in order to reduce the immune system attacking itself, my immune system is reduced to next to nothing, therefore, any bugs floating around, once caught, take quite a bit of shifting and this lung infection is still lingering and I foresee, will continue in a similar vein for the next week or so. It’s proving to be the hardest secondary illness I’ve had, since original diagnosis to eliminate…

Speaking of books, one was bought for me this week by my eldest son, Jake, ‘Do No Harm’ by Henry Marsh. It’s a book by a neurosurgeon (Henry Marsh) of forty years and once picked up, hard to put down. Perfect when you’re confined to bed. Reading the accounts and surgeries of his poor patients, certainly helped to keep my own predicament in perspective. One quote from this book stays with me “Anxiety might be contagious, but confidence is also contagious” and of course, that’s what we strive so hard, to build here at TheAppWhisperer for the community of talented mobile photographers and artists that share their work with us. This weeks mobile photography & Art Showcase is a bumper one (I missed last week, see above), as it plays out, you’ll view, what is sure to be called, a ‘superbly original and exquisite spellbinding twenty first love story’, asserted by many of the major mobile photographers and artists operating in our world today. It’s pure poetry, mysterious and yet glittering, enjoy!

Rita Colantonio, Deborah McMillion, Kristie Benoit, aka Tman, Jon Arne Foss, Paul Toussaint, Lorenka Campos, Isabel Afonso, borisbschulz2009, Paul Yan, Tomaso Belloni, Candice Railton, Susan Maxwell Schmidt, Susan Detroy, Kat McClelland, Jun Yamaguchi, zeeyan, Eduardo Llerandi, Ian Clarke, zeeyan, Eduardo Llerandi, Ian Clarke, Linda Hollier, Clint Cline, Catherine Caddigan, Laila, Oola Cristina, Gianluca Ricoveri, Vako Darispanashvili, Kate Zari Roberts, Judy Wahlberg, Susan Blase, Michael Beresin, Hanni K, TheiPhoneArtGirl – Meri Walker, Montse Abad, Karen Axelrad, Yasuo Furue, Basak Aytek, Poetic Medium, Catherine Caddigan, M. Cecilia Sao Thiago, Susan Rennie, Tuba Korhan, Fleur Schim, before.1st.light – Jane Schultz, Paula Broom.

Mobile Photography & Art – Tickle Your Fancy #62

23/03/2019 by Joanne Carter

Welcome back to our sixty second post in our Tickle Your Fancy section. ‘Tickle Your Fancy’ includes a round-up of between seven to eight links to articles from around TheAppWhisperer over the past few week, that you may by chance have missed. Please note, I’ve been a little unwell this week, so have not published as much as I wanted to.

Artists cited include Amy Ecenbarger, Rita Colantonio, Valeria Cammareri, Deborah McMillion, Jenny Pieters, Feliz Ak, Kerry Mitchell, Fleur Schim, Diane Neubauer, Peter Wilkin, Lorenka Campos, Paul Yan, Paul Toussaint, Isabel Afonso, Catherine Caddigan, Ile Mont, p.a hamel, David DeNagel, Barbara Nebel, Karen Axelrad, Vadim Demjianov, Rob Pearson-Wright, Deborah McMillion, Linda Hollier, Rita C, Allyson, Tomaso Belloni, Yasuo Furue, 1968selin, Jun Yamaguchi, Clint Cline, Kat McClelland, Candice Railton, Gina Costa, Fleur Schim, before.1st.light – Jane Schultz, Gianluca Ricoveri, Kate Zari Roberts, Hanni K, Kate Zari Roberts, Barbara Braman.

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

17/03/2019 by Joanne Carter

‘Thank you for sleeping with us’, read the headline on my bill as I checked out of a hotel in Amsterdam this week. It amused me ‘thank you for sleeping with us’, why would they use that expression? Was it a nod to the infamous red light district around the corner? Being thanked for sleeping with someone, is a little patronising, don’t you think? I’ve not been thanked for sleeping with anyone before, neither have I returned the sentiment. If I was, I’d feel as if I had just completed a service, as opposed to sharing a vivaciously intimate moment. Or were they implying, how important it is to sleep well and to be ‘well slept individuals’? The bed and pillows were delightfully comfortable, more so than most and had I had the time to achieve the recommended eight hours, this would have been the place to do it. We’re under pressure from so many areas as the world unravels on so many levels and we are under increasing pressure to achieve eight solid hours sleep but surely this must be ideology at its purest? We have to make time to sleep but what if our time is not our own, as was the case in Amsterdam, it was a press trip. However, I did manage to etch out a few awoke solitary moments, in between meetings and they were divine. This was an adventure, I told myself, an intriguing quest, and one that I would regret not seeing through at least a little further along the way. I walked into the hotel restaurant, found a seat backing against a wall (my preferred seating placement), I could see all who approached me, as I ordered North Sea Chowder with a glass of Prosecco, from the attentive waiter, what could be more ambrosial? I delighted in the process, as the waiter asked if I was dining alone and I replied with glee, ‘yes’, he removed the opposing cutlery as the chilled Prosecco slipped slowly down my throat. It’s possible to carve out special moments, just for yourself, you just need to be disciplined enough. Self care is a radical act, let’s all to try to have a #selfcaresunday. The feminist poet Audre Lorde says: “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it’s self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” Wishing you all a beautiful Sunday.

Many congratulations to the following artists for being featured this week: Peter Wilkin, Lorenka Campos, Paul Yan, Paul Toussaint, Isabel Afonso, Catherine Caddigan, Ile Mont, p.a hamel, David DeNagel, Barbara Nebel, Karen Axelrad, Vadim Demjianov, Rob Pearson-Wright, Deborah McMillion, Linda Hollier, Rita C, Allyson, Tomaso Belloni, Yasuo Furue, 1968selin, Jun Yamaguchi, Clint Cline, Kat McClelland, Candice Railton, Gina Costa, Fleur Schim, before.1st.light – Jane Schultz, Gianluca Ricoveri, Kate Zari Roberts, Hanni K, Kate Zari Roberts, Barbara Braman.