Dawn Whitehand: Visual Artist
Weekly Photo Challenge
Weekly Photo Challenge – Mother Earth
This weeks WordPress photo challenge inspired me as it combined those two wonderful words ‘Mother’ & ‘Earth’
The challenge is posited between Earth Day and Mothers Day, depending on where you are in the world – but regardless, it is a great theme, and one I must address.
In our current climate where politicians seem to continue denying climate change – or if they accept it, they have to implement policy that suits everybody (IE big business) – I struggle to feel positive about the future of the planet and my/our children.
Much of my ceramic artwork is informed by this atrocious dilemma and aims to draw the viewers attention toward the world climate crisis. My PhD thesis addressed these very issues – the climate within a feminist (mother earth) framework.
Within this context I am posting some images of amazing rocks found in Lorne, Victoria. The impressions on the rock faces are inspiring, caused by the ever changing cross currents within the bite of the area – they look so beautiful and organic, and I hope these images will inspire a rejuvenated outlook toward our precious environment, as is the aim with most of my artwork.
One Word Photo Challenge: Snow
This week the one word photo challenge over on Jennifer Nichole Wells blog is snow. Snow is something we do get here on the outskirts of Ballarat perhaps a couple of times a year during Winter, but this year, despite the freezing weather, it has not snowed. I must say I like it when it snows – if its going to be that cold, I’d like reward: snow!
Alas, it would appear it is not meant to be this year…. so here are some pics of snow in past years – stay warm 🙂
Be sure to visit Jennifer’s blog and check more great photo responses HERE
One Word Photo Challenge : Wet
My mid week post this week is in response to Jennifer Nichole Wells‘ photo challenge. Participants are asked to post a photo or photos responding to a one word theme – currently the topic is weather, and this week the word is ‘wet’. Interpretation of this one word can be as varied as your imagination desires.
As for me I am being pretty literal (again) – for me wet is how I feel after being doused in sea spray!!
This pic was taken back in March 2010 at Eden Rock in France.
Eden Rock, France
Sunday Studio Visit – Photography and the Katherine Gorge
Photography and the Katherine Gorge and the Weekly WordPress Photo Challenge
I am not doing much in the ceramics studio today…. it has been a busy weekend of friends birthday parties and engagement parties – so I am hoping to get into the studio tomorrow.
In the meantime I thought it would be good opportunity to work on some photography catch-up and go through the pics from my recent travels to the Northern Territory. As regular readers may know I traveled through the Northern Territory recently with my mum and sisters on The Ghan with stopovers along the way – you can see a previous post HERE.
So for today’s studio visit I thought I’d share pics of the Katherine Gorge and relate them to the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge : Intricate – which is about line and pattern.
For me line and pattern is not just about Golden Mean type geometry, but also Natural Geometry, or what call Sacred Geometry, which mirrors the organic nature of our universe, which I have expressed previously in posts such as this ONE.
So, it seems obvious that I would share an image from my experience of the Katherine Gorge for this challenge.
The gorges and the surrounding landscape are owned by the local Jawoyn people, who are custodians of Nitmiluk National Park, and manage it in conjunction with the Northern Territory National Parks body. In Jawoyn, Nitmiluk means “place of the cicada dreaming” and if you visit at the right time of the year you’d know what this meant via your ears! All of the boat tour services are owned by the local indigenous people who share their knowledge of the gorge and history (where appropriate) and some funny stories too!
Katherine Gorge is a deep gorge carved through ancient sandstone by the Katherine River and is made up of thirteen gorges. During the dry season the Katherine Gorge waters are calm and ideal for swimming and canoeing. There may be freshwater crocodiles in the river, as they nest along the banks, but they are harmless to humans. As my partner said, during a previous visit he made the the gorge – they just nibble your toes! However, Saltwater crocodiles regularly enter the river during the wet season, so swimming at this time is not a good idea! We visited the gorge only weeks after the waters had lowered, so were lucky enough to be able to do the river cruise.
We were able to visit the gorge as The Ghan did a stopover between Alice Springs and Darwin with a variety of activities “trainees” could do – we picked the gorge.
It was an amazing experience…. the views were breathtaking and the commentary on the boat tour was delivered by a local indigenous person who knew lots of local history tainted with a bit of funny colour!
So my pic for the challenge is this one…. and following that is a gallery of images taken at the gorge showing more images of Nature’s amazing line and pattern – if you haven’t ever visited the gorge, it is well worth the trip 🙂
In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: “Intricate.”
Weekly Photo Challenge: Wall
In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: “Wall.”
It’s been a while since I participated in the weekly photo challenge, but this weeks challenge caught my eye… I love the colours and textures that are often found in old walls. I find the surfaces inspiring for my sculptural and ceramic artwork. As a result, especially when travelling, I often take photos of walls, including macro details shots.
As well as the inspiring textures and colours I also love how a wall can tell a story about the history of the place and its people.
So for this challenge I will share a few of my travel ‘wall’ photos from France, Italy and Sth Korea.
Enjoy!
Weekly Photo Challenge: Work of Art
It has been a while since I participated in a WordPress Photo Challenge – I guess I have just been enthusiasm rich and time poor! However when I saw the topic for this challenge it grabbed my attention, being an ‘artist’ and all!
As regular readers will know most of my artwork is influenced by nature and the organic and natural colours, textures and forms Mother Nature creates for our viewing pleasure.
Many readers may also know I am lucky enough to live in a rural environment with an uninterrupted view of a natural horizon, which my verandah faces at sunset. Consequently, especially in Spring and Summer, it is not unusual to spy me having a wine on said verandah during the sunset hours.
So, for this weeks photo challenge I am posting a photo of the amazing view I have from my verandah (and studio) – to me this is Mother Natures brushstrokes creating the ultimate work of art!
Check out other contributions to this challenge
http://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/work-of-art/
Weekly Photo Challenge: Object
It has been a while since I participated in a WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge because Christmas, New Years and getting married has pretty much filled my head!!
But, I do need to get myself back on track, so, in an attempt to do that, this weeks challenge the “object” has aroused my interest.
While my offering may not be very creative ‘composition’ wise, I am hoping the viewer might ask – which subject is the ‘object’?
This question may be difficult to answer because the contrast between the two living organic surfaces – one a moving ‘object, the other a stationary ‘object’ – is a dynamic highlighted by the individual textures of the two juxtaposed ‘objects’.
I also appreciate the ragged wings of this butterfly – in its short life it seems to have had many fights (so it is probably a male), and the contrast of this upon the lichen tree limbs demonstrates an ongoing theme in my artwork – IE : the environment and humanities inter-dependence on it, a theme explored in my PhD.
This image was taken in my backyard (a 10 acre property) where I have lots of wildlife, and I just love propagating the environment for wildlife, preserving it, watching it, photographing it and appreciating it!
Butterflies live from between 1-4 weeks depending on the species. I tried to google what this butterfly was, but couldn’t find it….
This post is part of the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge…. check out more entries here.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Horizon
This weeks WordPress Photo Challenge got me thinking about my travel photos from Italy, as I have not posted for quite some time about these travels, I wondered if I had finished the Italy posts? I couldn’t really remember. So back I went through my posts, and found that I had not yet written a post about Florence. So this is a mini post about Florence combined with the photo challenge.
Since the theme is ‘horizon’ I will stay on topic, and only post images containing horizons… the rest of Florence will have to be featured in a future post.
The images are a combination of the skylines from the amazing Il Duomo and Santa Maria del Fiore in the centre of Florence, Ponte Vecchio, views from the Piazzale Michelangelo and the Piazza della Signoria.
Other images from my Italy travels which included Venice, Pisa, Verona, Rome, Naples and Pompeii can be viewed here, or by clicking the Travel category to the right of the page.
Enjoy 🙂
You can check out other Weekly Photo Challenge entries here: http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/10/25/weekly-photo-challenge-horizon/
Weekly Photo Challenge: From Lines to Patterns
Usually when a creative prompt is given to me about ‘pattern’ I think of the the natural environment or the organic surfaces of my ceramics and how those two concepts blend together, but throw in the word ‘line’ and it adds a whole new dimension.
So, this weeks WordPress photo challenge immediately drew my mind to the urban environment which is quite often a combination of lines, patterns and textures – especially old and crumbling built landscapes.
I’d love to comb through my current and immediate environment for some inspiration, but am a bit flat chat at the moment, so after shuffling through some images I already have I decided to post some shots of gorgeous lines and patterns I collected while in Italy earlier this year.
I hope you think they are gorgeous too 🙂
Other entries in this weeks photo challenge can be seen here: http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/09/20/lines-patterns/
Weekly Photo Challenge: An Unusual POV
My POV involves looking ‘down’ a tree instead of ‘up’ a tree!
The image was taken along the shore line in Geelong – I am not sure what type of trees they are, but I love the textured bark on the trunks.
My other POV is of the same tree, but focusing in on one particular aspect of the papery bark.
This post is part of the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge and other posts can be viewed here:
http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/09/06/unusual/
© Dawn Whitehand 2013
This work by Dawn Whitehand is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.