There will be no way that you can see today’s little things without immediate coos! Tracy Whiteside designs entrancing photography and today she shares with us her baby photoshoot. The cuteness of these little lovebugs along with her artistry makes for nothing but happy hearts!
EnchantmentWe All Got Crowns
Photographer:
Tracy Whiteside is an internationally published Chicago-area photographer specializing in creative images for humans and things that go bump in the night. Her work can be seen in over 60 different publications in just the last year. This is a bit of a departure from her usual style but being unable to work in the studio as much as she would like has made her a bit stir crazy.
Follow:
Check out her portfolio at https://www.tracywhiteside.com/. A photographer for over 16 years, Tracy works in many genres. You can enjoy her irrational mixed bag of images on Instagram @whitesidetracy
Alan Bern boldly takes the simplest of items and finds a way to express the preciousness they hold! His photographs and poetry inspire that everything has value.
Artist Statement:
Photographs often capture and present moments. To collect these moments and for the great good health of body and mind, I take walks— yes, I walk my neighborhood streets and also beyond— and I capture moments, sometimes with the camera on my phone, sometimes with a few words, and sometimes with both. Snap snap. I regularly walk in my neighborhood where I have lived for 95% of my life. And, yes, it’s often awfully familiar, but there is always something new to see. An empty paper cup among the plants; plastic-wrapped newspapers posing as footsteps on a rock stairway. Snap snap.
Poems, too, can capture and present these moments— especially short poems such as haiku and haiku-like poems. I capture and presents such moments in both my photographs and my poems, and sometimes I combines the two in what are called photo-haiga.* At other times I merge both into longer narratives that may tell a story, but more often present a flow of images and words that magnify and transmit thoughts, feelings, and dream-traces.
*”Haiga [paintings] are typically painted by haiku poets (haijin), and often accompanied by a haiku poem.” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiga— with Alan’s photos standing in for the paintings.
Artist:
Retired children’s librarian Alan Bern’s poetry books: No no the saddest and Waterwalking in Berkeley, Fithian Press; greater distance, Lines & Faces, his press with artist Robert Woods, linesandfaces.com. Alan has poems, stories, and photos published in a variety of online and print publications from which he has won awards. Recent photos published: unearthedesf.com/alan-bern and https://wanderlust-journal.com/2020/07/01/around-the-few-blocks-nearby/. Alan performs with dancer/choreographer Lucinda Weaver as PACES and with musicians from Composing Together, composingtogether.org.
Ann Privateer shares with us an intimate moment with all of the sting and beauty that accompany it. She also fills her life with many styles of art and gifts us with some of her artwork and photography! Go take a look below!
My Father
Had a heart attack One night when I Was 16. I ran bare foot Across The street to get Our doctor neighbor I can still feel the gravel It was too late, an ambulance Came and took his body. For one year Mama left His work clothes on the hook Where he hung them. Sometimes I’d go into Their closet and hug His clothes, breath His scent and cry.
Artist:
Ann Privateer is a poet, artist, and photographer. She has been writing poems since her college days, has received Photography awards, some of her recent photos have appeared in Third Wednesday, and she enjoys painting once a week outdoors with other artists.
No matter what pulls at us in life, there are images all around us that are small gifts to our spirits if we take the time to look. Sandra Nguyen captures this so perfectly in these photos. It’s the easy to miss beauty that is available to us, if we only take the time to look.
Rainy Days
I love rainy days. It makes me drop everything I do at the moment and just listen to the rhythm of nature and reflect on life. The photo was taken in mid December last year…..looking out of my bedroom window
Little Roses
I received these two roses from my little nieces, age 4 and 2. They picked out the flowers themselves, although their parents paid for them. But I think the gesture was really sweet. The roses remind me of how delicate and beautiful life is. For a moment they add color and breathe new energy into my life….just like my nieces. The photo was taken in early July this year. The glass vase stood on my black nightstand and I took the picture looking down at the roses.
Artist:
Sandra Nguyen is an author of literary fiction and poetry. She has been published in anthologies and online. She lives and writes in Sweden.
Martina Rimbaldo brings art that truly shines from Croatia! Her photography and poetry come together and fill the soul with warmth and reverie. I encourage you to bask in the ray of light that she brings!
The light created us so we are light!
Light within = Hope within
We all own a light within us just sometimes the light hides behind a robe of darkness doe to dirty words of others, of realistic critics they do not know the dreams of idealists like us…We are Aliens to each other I can not cling myself on reality it, is too cruel and what we call a reality is not a reality we do not live in it as it is reserved for the afterlife. All that surrounds us is a dream. We create our dreams first we need to know who we are, Only by knowing who we are we can not be broken by other peoples acts towards us. Mind develops by experiences good and bad. If you had bad experiences it will form negative thoughts, you will print a negative pattern to yourself and others too.
You need to let go of your mind and open your heart ,and develop self awareness in order to change that negative print.
We have everything we need in us, do not let others interfere with their venon,
You are strong, good enough.
Every person is unique and nobody needs to be corrected for being different as none of us are mistakes even if you make one you are not that mistake!
You, me, them, are valid human beings, you have a right to follow to create your own life path.
You are your own person ,individual no one can remove you from you!
You know what is best for you ,nobody lives inside your skin but you!
You have control over you, you can make it happen!
Hope
Stuck inside your souls core
do you see the dark walls surrounding you?
Your inner child is lost
your inner women has no dignity
Your inner man has no voice to speak, no arms to fight
Who do you have left?
There is still the light of hope
silent wispers to your heart that no other can hear
Do not give up
He still needs you here
but the demons are evil
playing with your mind
mind does not need your heart
your heart does not need your mind
brake trough the pain
there is always light
it will be ok it all ends the same
While you think you are the only one
thousands and more stars just as broken as you
moan to the moon
knowing the end will not come so soon
the only thing one can do is to endure
temptations, trials, pain, suffering
it is not easy but it is the only way to stay here
and move on no metter what it takes to get to the goal
do not let others interfere
even if for them you are a zero
in your life you are a hero
Fear& idealist
Fear= safety – step out of it! allow yourself to live and breathe You are going to suffocate in here dragged, drowned in your own mind-created fear
When idealist abandons his dreams & ideas dreams become bullets ideas become guns They commit the crime. Broken mind is the most dangerous kind.
Artist:
Martina Rimbaldo is a 29 year old women who lives and works in Croatia. She always wears a pen and a notebook in her purse in the case of a sudden inspiration in order to write it down. Her work is published in Nightingale &Sparrow, Oddball Magazine, The sage cigarette magazine, Spillwords.com, Thruly you,The Street Light press websites, and her artwork is published at weekly blog of Royal Rose Magazine, her photographs are published in Bleached Butterfly and Anti heroin chic. Loves to paint abstract painting, read religious books, watch horror as well as old movies with Audrey Hepburn, Sharon Tate, Brigitte Bardot who happens to share her birth date and (over)thinks specially about death, what some people find morbid but not her, it is a part of life too. Her goal is to be a good person.
Looking at the simple beauty of the world around us is something that this pandemic cannot take away from us. I always get excited seeing Daniel Pravda’s work because he captures the stillness in a way that feels alive. Take a look!
TruckInClearCutFalseCapeScapereclaimStarfishYoga
Artist:
Daniel Pravda takes photographs of beautiful decay. He lives in Virginia and drives to the farmlands of eastern Virginia and North Carolina. He finds countless abandoned farmhouses, barns, trucks, tractors, churches, etc., and many broadcast beauty to the open-eyed. More personally, seeing lovely decay helps him deal with our own decay.
Reminisce about the beach with Maggie Shaw! She paints the picture of serenity that we can hold onto while we wait for the pandemic to pass.
The Beach I know the sand still meets the sea. I know the gulls still soar. I wonder if they wonder why we don’t come anymore. I used to do the four mile walk that ended by the dune. The lighthouse where I used to sit, will not reopen soon. The old man who would fly his kite, the children all in line, are staying safe inside their homes as I stay safe in mine. I miss my walks along the beach and solitude is fair, but still I long for rippling waves and all the people there. I do not know when I’ll return to feel the sun’s warm rays. But as for now, I’ll close my eyes and wait for better days.
Artist:
Maggie Shaw
I am a poet, photographer and retired educator. I live on Long Island.
May is here and we have a power packed month full of artists! I was blown away with the amount of participation for this series, and I am so excited! We even have two artists a day for some of the days!
As Covid-19 has brought the world to quarantines and lockdowns, causing the world to shift, there is some things that it cannot take away, our creative spirits. Our mediums may have to be altered, as well as our subject matters, but life prevails through art.
Our hearts go out to everyone fighting the illness and the ones in the frontlines. While they fight the sickness head on, the artists encourage and inspire, which keep up the spirit and validate the hardships. All of us taking the small part we have in this world to work together as a team.
This month is some of the work people have been doing while they’ve been in isolation, and I am in such awe of all the accomplishments despite the tribulations.
We are still here, we are still fighting, and we are still shining.
The bee buzzing of A well-lit life A flagrant smile Harnesses the light The fluorescent hanging lamp obviates the need To see As it glowers back at me The hallucinogenic halogen bulb wires my mind To feel A fake incandescent soul Made of bricks and hard lumps Walking the surface easily Giddy A hand stretch leads the way to the inside The soul is damp to the touch But brick by brick The heart was built.
Artists:
Photography by: Carl Scharwath
Carl Scharwath, has appeared globally with 150+ journals selecting his poetry, short stories, interviews, essays, plays or art photography (His photography was featured on the cover of 6 literary journals.) Two poetry books ‘Journey To Become Forgotten’ (Kind of a Hurricane Press).and ‘Abandoned’ (ScarsTv) have been published. His first photography book was recently published by Praxis. Carl is the art editor for Minute Magazine, a competitive runner and 2nd degree black- belt in Taekwondo.
Poetry by:Shanti HarjaniWilliams
A lawyer by training, my full time job is being Mummy to my three amazing kids Ryan 17, Abby 14 and Shane 9. While home alone in the days, I would find the urge to write and began posting faith testimonies on Facebook on my personal page. This led to my prose writing also surrounding my Christian faith. Now I write in prose and poetry daily on my page as well as on other poetry sites. The areas I write on are faith, self awareness and growth, romance and world issues. I live and breathe my poetry and most of my work reflects my own daily experiences and life generally. I have been posting my poetry on my Facebook page for about 4 years.
