Stepanka Ceramics

Last year, my daughter gifted me two of Stepanka Horalkova's beautiful ceramic mugs and I made a  note to write of them, with photographs, but never felt satisfied with the photographs I had taken. 

So I put it aside, knowing I would finish the job sooner or later ... but I didn't. 

So much time has passed that I feel ashamed because I loved the gift of them and because I wanted to share the beauty of Stepanka's work with everyone. 

Finally, here I am with the news. 

You can buy Stepanka's work over on her Etsy store or visit her website to read more about her.

 

 

Fertal Lahcen, artist

Imagine, always traveling, meeting people ... hearing their stories. 

Alex and Mina have their blog, ...sending postcards. Who could resist reading them: 'During the autumn of 2009, we sold our house, quit our jobs, and were married in the sun. We left our life-long home on the prairies of Canada to run away together and see the world. This travelogue was created to document our extended honeymoon - the often mundane, seldom peculiar, and sometimes extraordinary details.'

I found this artist over on their website.  Turn the volume up when you watch Fertal describing the materials he uses to create his artworks.

Time ...

"Gradually my perspective on time had changed. In our culture, time can seem like an enemy: it chews us up and spits us out with appalling ease. But the monastic perspective welcomes time as a gift from God, and seeks to put it to good use rather than allowing us to be used up by it.

A friend who was educated by the Benedictines has told me that she owes to them her sanity with regard to time. "You'll never really finish anything in life," she says, "and while that's humbling, and frustrating, it's all right. The Benedictines, more than any other people I know, insist that there is time in each day for prayer, for work, for study, and for play.

" Liturgical time is essentially poetic time, oriented toward process rather than productivity, willing to wait attentively in stillness rather than always pushing to "get the job done."

Kathleen Norris,  extract from The Cloister Walk.
The truly lovely Diana, introduced me to the blog of Sofie and I believe I may have found a delicious new blog to add to my google reader.  I particularly enjoyed Sofie's post titled The Liturgy of My Hours ... oh yes.

 

 

Amy Turn Sharp, Poet

and sometimes we would dance in the stone street
sometimes I would put my head on his shoulder
and wonder what sadness there was in the world
when the sun could be so warm
when the island flowers could smell so summer strong
when people could dance with such grace
when my heart had a thousand chances left

Amy Turn Sharp, extract from #82 her series, a poem a day for a year.

I love this woman's poetry.  There have been so many treasures so far. I'm looking forward to spending a year reading her.

 

RIP - Ivan Sinnaeve aka Shrapnel Charlie

Today I learned that Ivan Sinnaeve, better known as Shrapnel Charlie, had passed away yesterday, via The Belgians Have Not Forgotten blog.  And the news continues out into the world, via those who knew him, everyone sad to have lost him.  He had a way about him that left people smiling.

I went searching, and found my story of meeting this remarkable man ... back in 2009. 

I met Shrapnel Charlie yesterday.  Meeting him was as a part of my quest to create a photography exhibition about the people out here on the Westhoek ... the people who take care of the memory of the soldiers who died in WW1.

Valerie was my guide, my patient guide, who drove me to Ieper where we both enjoyed meeting this lovely man.  He was quiet yet brimming full of fun.  It soon became clear that he was also a man known to many all over the world.

Ivan Sinnaeve is his real name but he explained that the Canadians had needed to find their own way of dealing with his ‘Russian-sounding’ name and then, failing with the Belgian pronunciation (E-van), they decided to christen him Shrapnel Charlie, in recognition of the magic he works with the old shrapnel found out here on the WW1 battlefields of Flanders. Shrapnel he said he had initially been accustomed to finding out in this vegetable garden, as  turning the soil anywhere in this area usually means finding some artefact from that terrible war.

A carpenter by trade, Ivan’s career was cut short when his back was broken in an accident, leaving him with constant pain and time on his hands.  He told us he fell into this business of recreating soldiers and regiments from long ago ...but not as a real business.  Ivan, like so many who work hard at preserving the memories of the soldiers who died on Flanders Fields, never charges anything that would see him making a profit from the war dead.

We took us out to his garden shed, a space considered holy by so many kiwi men I knew growing up ... but even I have to admit, his shed was magnificent.  I could imagine the kiwi blokes drooling a little, as they ran their eyes over the collection of ‘stuff’ Ivan keeps out there.  The shell - preserved so you could see how it worked internally, timers on the end and including the containers of shrapnel.  He took us through the process of making a shrapnel soldier and I ended up learning more than expected from my photo-shoot.

This was no passive photography shoot.  Ivan is a charming and amusing raconteur.  And charmed we were, by this man who has created so many thousands of shrapnel soldiers during his time.  We were sad to leave, as we could have easily spent the day with him however, it was time to give him back some of the peace we had shattered, while photographing him doing this thing and that.

Many thanks to Ivan, and to Valerie, it was a lovely way to spend a morning.

David duChemin, Photographer

Patience, curiosity, and a willingness to value and love our subjects more than the photographs themselves will, in the end, result in stronger portraits. This patience and care allows subjects to calm, to drop their walls, and make way for moments like the second frame above – unrushed, unplanned, and unrepeatable.

David duChemin, a world & humanitarian photographer, best-selling author, and international workshop leader. David uses his powers for good and not for evil.

I enjoy his wise words on photography and wandering the world.  Tomorrow he's releasing another of his truly excellent books.  This one: Forget Mugshots, 10 Steps to Better Portraits.


And then I found something beautiful ... De Veer van César

I left the MASS Museum and walked back through the grey city, carrying my heavy camera bag, wondering why an earth I had taken it out on a such a dull day.

I stopped to look through the window at my favourite art gallery here in the city.  It's the place where I consistently see art that appeals to me ... which is no mean feat.  And it's easy to pass-by, located in Maalderijstraat, between the Cathedral and Grote Markt.

Anyway, I decided I would blog about it and so asked Minske if she spoke English.  Of course she did.  Most Antwerpenaars speak English.  I asked if I might take a photograph of the gallery and share it with you here but  then ... I got distracted.

I asked Minske Van Wijk how she had ended up with the gallery and somehow, we kept talking and it turned out she had also made a short film titled De Veer van César.

I was curious to know more and, at some point, realised this film might be 'the beautiful thing' I was searching for in the city today.

And so it was.  I came home, organised my little world here, then sat back to watch.  It's delicious!  It has English subtitles (and French too), and it gives a delightful sense of this place.  A behind-the-scenes glimpse.   Oh I need to write of this in a better way but for this first taste, you only need to know that it is poetry, and beautiful cinematography, and wonderful animation ...

You can find out where to buy your own copy of the DVD over here.  Meanwhile, the trailer is below ... without subtitles.

Maya Angelou, Life

“Because of the routines we follow, we often forget that life is an ongoing adventure....Life is pure adventure, and the sooner we realize that, the quicker we will be able to treat life as art: to bring all our energies to each encounter, to remain flexible enough to notice and admit when what we expected to happen did not happen. We need to remember that we are created creative, and can invent new scenarios as frequently as they are needed.”

Maya Angelou

Darren the Bull ... with Robert & Sheepy

Martin OConnor introduced me to this series of youtubes short films by some New Zealand sheep over on ThePenNZ's Channel.

I went searching and found the website where it says: Two Kiwi sheep and their take on life.  Written and voiced by Guy Capper and Jemaine Clement.

I've been giggling away, remembering all the kiwi blokes I've heard saying similar stuff while under the influence. 

Listen carefully and you'll hear some New Zealandese there near the end ... 'couldn'thaveI'

Anthony Pisano ...

This Is My Home from Mark on Vimeo.

I loved this ... On an unseasonably warm November night in Manhattan on our way to get ice cream, we stumbled upon what appeared to be a vintage shop, brightly lit display window and all. As we began to walk in, a man sitting out front warned us that we were welcome to explore, but nothing inside was for sale. Our interests piqued, we began to browse through the collections the man out front had built throughout his life. This is a story of a man and his home.

 

Wendy Towers, Psychotherapist

Wendy Towers is one of those special people you sometimes get to meet along the way, and having experienced her at work as a therapist, just by the way, I wouldn't hesitate in recommending her to anyone looking for an English-speaking therapist here in Belgium.

Wendy is a London-trained humanistic psychotherapist, a New Zealander living and working Belgium, with her husband, Patrice van de Walle. 

She believes that the power of therapy emerges out of the relationship that develops between the therapist and client.  She works on developing a relationship based on openess, honesty and trust.

Wendy is available for one to one sessions, both on skype and in person.  She also runs Womens Groups in Brussels and Villers la Ville. Don't hesitate to contact her if you would like to know more.  She's a beautiful soul.

Her website is over here, and you can also find her on LinkedIn.

 

Patrice van de Walle, of Web Video Impact

 

Yesterday I spent the day, someplace else in Belgium, photographing Patrice van de Walle of Web Video Impact.  His company is a European leader in Client Led Video Marketing.  One of his current projects is working with companies who want to highlight the engagement their clients have with products or services.  

Web Video Impact's stated objective is to place the client, as much as is possible, into the production and distribution of advertising videos.  It's exciting and I loved the concept. I viewed some of his work yesterday, and was impressed.

Francesca Puccio, a much-admired interior architecture and renovation specialist and friend here in Belgium, has a beautiful sample of Web Video Impact's work up on her website.

And then ... as I worked on, with my second photoshoot of the day, Patrice filmed me at work ... just for fun.  So, if all goes well (and I can deal with the sadness of not actually looking like Sandra Bullock) you may get a taste of how it is to be photographed by me ... captured by the maestro himself. 

The photograph below, shows Patrice filming me, with one of the smaller more portable video cameras in his stable of cameras.

 


My Great Big Photographic Hero ...

My Great Big Photographic Hero ... David du Chemin, posted news that rocked my world.  In a bad way.

David is a talented photographer, a man who wanders the world, capturing scenes, telling stories, and sharing his wisdom in ways that delight me. 

I've just come from reading his blog, a post where he tells his story of being denied entry to the United States of America.  But I'll let him tell it: '

But after 5 hours of questioning, an extensive vehicle search, and a second interrogation, I was told I was being denied entry to the United States of America, because “we have no proof you’ll return to Canada and we worry you’ll try to live here,” which nearly had me on the floor with laughter because, ahem, how do I put this? I like living in Canada. I have no desire to live in the United States. I want to travel the U.S., I want to photograph it, but I have no desire to leave my home. Which, as it turns out, is good, because they aren’t letting me. God knows they wouldn’t want a Canadian stealing the job of a Mexican. I just wanted to visit, man, not invade.

I was finger-printed, photographed, and made to sign transcripts of the interrogation on top of the line that said, “Signature of Alien,” which made me want desperately to sign, “E.T.”, “Mork”, or “Spock.” I couldn’t decide, so I signed my name on the form, and got back into the Jeep, grateful they’d only used the latex gloves while they searched the trunk of the Jeep, and not the trunk of, uh, ahem, me.

He will, and is, handling this with grace but he has planned this roadtrip for a long time, he'd already started out on it before his accident and now, it's over.

There's nothing more to say ... is there?

a few days and good friends ...

I have some truly remarkable friends and I've been busy with some of them.

Shannon came visiting from Holland, arriving on Friday night, she stepped straight into a wee adventure, racing off to view the latest Jane Eyre movie with Ruth and I.

I had forgotten how much fun the movies could be ... and it was a most excellent movie.

Shannon and I wandered through Saturday ... starting late, we headed into the city and spent most of the day chatting in the lazy lovely way old friends chat.

She left on Sunday but not before we picked up Peter, the lovely tenor bloke I know, from the Airport bus.  We strolled across the big square outside Central Station, here in Antwerpen, and popped into the Zoo Cafe for a small wine-quaffing session.

Shannon left, and Peter came home to stay with Gert and I.  He's here for a few days before he jets back to his base in Berlin and so our days are full of conversation and photographs.  Jessie and I are updating his professional information photographically and he is being generally entertaining.

In other news, my daughter photographed me today.  I needed a publicity shot too.  It's quite the bizarre thing to be on the other side of the camera but voila ... hello from me here in the flatlands.

David duChemin, Photographer

Remaining creative and finding joy in that work isn't a sprint to the finish.  It's a long run and if you don't pace yourself, whether you do this vocationally or not, you run out of steam.  The creative process has a rhythm and requires not just time but energy, and to keep that energy you need to watch how fast you burn it.  Whether you're a so-called working pro or not, your creative energy and drive are your greatest assets; do what you need to protect them.

David duChemin, extracted from Vision is Better 2.

I love this man's work and words ... his photographs too.