Portrait Subjects Wanted ! – Curses and Riots

I’m looking for London subjects for an exhibition opening in October exploring the relationship people living with long-term invisible conditions (both physical and emotional) have with their…

Source: Portrait Subjects Wanted! – Curses and Riots

First Night Design | Floral Friday

I’m taking a leaf (or should that be petal) out of photographer Leanne Cole’s book today and posting a vase of flowers for your delectation. This photograph is not for sale but I do have several flower pieces in the pipeline.

Yellow Bouquet © Sarah Vernon

“Just living is not enough… one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.” Hans Christian Andersen

Take care and keep laughing!

First Night Design | Of potholes and politics, ducks and hospitals | Notes from the U.K.

The news is good on the ♥ front.

My Heart is Yours Card

The consultant at the hospital in Southampton (what a soulless place the town is) said that although the condition was serious, there was no need to put me through an operation just yet. He’s happy to have the heart checked every six months and go from there. The echocardiograms between last December and this week have shown that progress is slow. If any sign of increased deterioration is detected, the first thing they’ll do is try me on medication. The surgery will have to happen at some point but he hoped it would be a few years down the line.

I feel as though I’ve been holding my breath for six months and at last breathed out. In order to give me time to continue breathing out, you may find that my posts are not as regular as usual. I want to enjoy the summer (such as it is in the UK) and get out and about rather than pore over the computer and social media.

In between time, ain’t we got fun!

If you’re not aware of Ellen Hawley and her blog, Notes from the UK, you’re in for a treat. An American living in Cornwall, she casts her beady eye on the English — our laws, foibles, oddities and customs — in ways that will have you hooting with laughter. I’m re-blogging one of her recent posts partly so I can showcase my ducks. (Ellen talks about ducks, real and rubber) I say ‘my’ but they’re actually based at the duck pond within the grounds of the Isle of Wight hospital.

And now for Ellen’s musings —

‘People involved in British politics swear that politicians get elected (and unelected) mostly over potholes and garbage pickup, although it isn’t called garbage in Britain it’s called, um, somethin…’

Source: Of potholes and politics | Notes from the U.K.

Take care and keep laughing!

Grandmother of French Cinema Agnès Varda on Becoming an Artist at 88

Agnès Varda, Autoportrait devant une peinture de Gentile Bellini, 1962/2015. Courtesy of the artist and Blum & Poe, Los Angeles/New York/Tokyo

Though known as the “grandmother of the French New Wave,” for decades 88-year-old Agnès Varda felt she wasn’t allowed to be an artist. Looking back, the filmmaker realizes it was something she had always desired: she had studied art history at the École du Louvre and photography at the École des Beaux-Arts, was friends with artists, and had been following the work of many others since the age of 18. But in France, especially, she was pigeonholed. “They put me in the drawer as a…

Source: Grandmother of French Cinema Agnès Varda on Becoming an Artist at 88

First Night Design | Happy Easter!

Size: Greeting Card

• Dimensions: 5″ x 7″ (portrait) or 7″ x 5″ (landscape)
• Full color CMYK print process
• All-sided printing for no additional cost
• Printable area on the back of the card is 3″ x 4″ (portrait) or 4″ x 3″ (landscape)

Standard white envelopes included

Paper Type: Matte

The most popular paper choice, Matte’s eggshell texture is soft to the touch with a smooth finish that provides the perfect backdrop for your chosen designs.

• Light white, uncoated matte finish with an eggshell texture
• Paper is easy to write on and won’t smudge
• Made and printed in the USA

Source: Hot Cross Buns Easter Basket #1 Card | Zazzle

N.B. I’m not currently responding to comments or visiting blogs because of ill-health but I much appreciate your support.

Take care and keep laughing!

Charles Flower’s Old London Churches – HistoryLondonHistoryLondon

St Helen, Bishopsgate by Charles Flower, c.1904

Charles Flower’s Old London Churches were published as postcards in 1904. HistoryLondon revisits the images as they appear today.

Source: Charles Flower’s Old London Churches – HistoryLondonHistoryLondon

Hollywood Vintage Gloria Postcard | Zazzle #Sold

Inspired by Edward Steichen’s portrait of Hollywood actress Gloria Swanson covered in lace (Museum of Modern Art).

Orientation: Postcard

Create your own vacation-worthy postcards right here. Any view you’ve seen, any monument you’ve fallen in love with, can all be added to our postcards with our personalization tool. Craft touching, hand-written correspondence while on your next road trip!

• Dimensions: 4.25″ x 5.6″ (portrait) or 5.6″ x 4.25″ (landscape)
• Full color CMYK print process
• Double sided printing for no additional cost
• Postage rate: $0.34

Paper Type: Semi-Gloss

A thin, smooth paper designed for photo printing with the optimal color vibrancy —a solid choice for all your printing needs.

• Bright white, semi-gloss finish
• Semi-gloss finish helps photos pop
• 40% post-consumer content
• Made and printed in the USA

Source: Hollywood Vintage Gloria Postcard | Zazzle

Take care and keep laughing!

Dame Ellen Terry Card | Zazzle

Continuing in the same vein as yesterday, here is the inimitable English actress Dame Ellen Terry [1847-1928] in Much Ado About Nothing at the Lyceum Theatre in 1883.

Size: Greeting Card

Birthdays or holidays, good days or hard days, Zazzle’s customized greeting cards are the perfect way to convey your wishes on any occasion. Add a photo or pick a design and brighten someone’s day with a simple “hi”!

• Dimensions: 5″ x 7″ (portrait) or 7″ x 5″ (landscape)
• Full color CMYK print process
• All-sided printing for no additional cost
• Printable area on the back of the card is 3″ x 4″ (portrait) or 4″ x 3″ (landscape)

Standard white envelopes included

Paper Type: Matte

The most popular paper choice, Matte’s eggshell texture is soft to the touch with a smooth finish that provides the perfect backdrop for your chosen designs.

• Light white, uncoated matte finish with an eggshell texture
• Paper is easy to write on and won’t smudge
• Made and printed in the USA

Source: Dame Ellen Terry Card | Zazzle

Take care and keep laughing!

The Divine Sarah Postcard | Zazzle

I’m feeling less than divine at the moment but I hope you enjoy this exquisite image of my namesake which you can buy as cards, postcards and posters.

The great French stage actress of the late 19th century, Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923).

Orientation: Postcard

Create your own vacation-worthy postcards right here. Any view you’ve seen, any monument you’ve fallen in love with, can all be added to our postcards with our personalization tool. Craft touching, hand-written correspondence while on your next road trip!

• Dimensions: 4.25″ x 5.6″ (portrait) or 5.6″ x 4.25″ (landscape)
• Full colour CMYK print process
• Double sided printing for no additional cost
• Postage rate: $0.34

Paper Type: Matte

The most popular paper choice, Matte’s eggshell texture is soft to the touch with a smooth finish that provides the perfect backdrop for your chosen designs.

• Light white, uncoated matte finish with an eggshell texture
• Paper is easy to write on and won’t smudge
• Made and printed in the USA

Source: The Divine Sarah Postcard | Zazzle

Take care and keep laughing!

Dirk de Herder (1914-2003) – Art Bacchant

Photo post.

Source: Dirk de Herder (1914-2003) – Art Bacchant

This queer Jewish photographer resisted the Nazis and escaped death—and made great art

Claude Cahun, Self-Portrait, 1928.

For Claude Cahun, resisting normalcy was a lifelong pursuit. Born in 1894, she was a genderqueer pioneer, Jewish Nazi fighter, and radical collage artist. The French photographer’s self-portraits are a focused interrogation of identity and gender fluidity. Rediscovered in the 1990s, her work reminds us that the impact of one person’s refusal can ripple for centuries.

The daughter of prominent Jewish publishers, Cahun was born…

Source: This queer Jewish photographer resisted the Nazis and escaped death—and made great art

First Night Design | MKG, Memories and Me #Prints

Some of you know that I had another eye appointment at the hospital on Thursday. The scar tissue was removed by laser, which was fairly painless. I might see a difference in a couple of days but there was talk about it taking six weeks.

AAAGGHHRRR!

No change so far. I’ve always said I was on this earth to learn patience and so it remains. I shall keep smiling and laughing. Because that’s what I do!

And now to the real point of the post.

© Marilyn Griffin

About a year ago, dear Marilyn of MKG- Memories-Keepsakes-Gifts bought one of my prints from Crated. She has now found the perfect frame, as above, and it’s going to look fabulous in her new kitchen. Thank you, Marilyn, for posting about it.

However, took a while for me to realise to whom she was referring:

I first represented this as “Lillian Vernon”… my mistake!… That name always comes to mind when reading Sarah’s Blog… I had read and heard of “Lillian Verno…

Source: Sarah Vernon Print – I Found IT! | MKG- Memories-Keepsakes-Gifts

Anyone who is friends with me on Facebook will have seen the photograph below. For anyone else, it just so happens that I bought the same print as Marilyn about six weeks ago from Redbubble and with a frame.

Copper Pear at Redbubble © Sarah Vernon

As you can see, it hangs above my kitchen sink. I get such a kick out of it. I’m pretty smitten also with my black tap with a white handle, which is from Ikea and the best and easiest mechanism I’ve ever tried.

It replaces what I thought was a beautifully sinuous — apparently very expensive — chrome tap installed by the previous owner but it was a painful ordeal for my fingers.

And that’s it for now.

Take care and keep laughing!

Antony Armstrong-Jones | Iconic Photos

Anthony Armstrong-Jones, society photographer and royal paramour, is dead, aged 86.  As royal portraits went, it didn’t get more intimate than this. In 1962, Anthony Armstrong-Jones sat on a …

Source: Antony Armstrong-Jones | Iconic Photos

First Night Design | Happy New Year! 2017

Take care and keep laughing!

“It is my deepest wish that photography…will be included among the arts.” – Art of Quotation

“It is my deepest wish that photography, instead of falling in the domain of industry, of commerce, will be included among the arts. That is its sole, true place, and that is the direction th…

Source: “It is my deepest wish that photography…will be included among the arts.” – Art of Quotation