As humans we tend to look for patterns and perhaps see shapes in clouds or faces in objects. I'm definitely a human who likes to organise and categorise and edit.
Back in January I had that fresh, free, new year reset feeling and kind of went a bit mad on the New Year Resolutions. A lot of this list was about developing habits because a habit is less draining and more sustainable in the long run.
So one of the 'creative' goals was to run a little photo challenge. Each month I'd photograph things of a certain colour and then mash them into a little video diary using the 1SE phone app (1 Second Everyday).
The spectrum started with the seven basic rainbow colours, beginning with blue just because it was an unusually clear and sunny New Year break in Wales:
- Jan – blue
- Feb – indigo
- March – violet
- April – red
- May – orange
- June –yellow
- July – green
After July, I started looking for white, black, silver/grey and other shades.
The seven shades of the rainbow turned out to be a blunt tool for colour and the project has since morphed into one featuring many, many, many more colour variations. The chronology has also had to be rewritten in favour of the colours blending and slowly shifting.
So here's my 2019 visual diary sorted into colour order, roughly: turquoise, cyan blue, sky blue, indigo, violet, pink, magenta, red, brown, gold, vermillion, orange, saffron, yellow, apple green, leaf green, grey, white, beige, silver and black. (Video below, or the flattened version is here.)
Some of my favourite things that happened in 2019 and are worth looking out for with some context are:
- the other-worldly reflections of the Cregennan Lakes, south Snowdonia – a lovely kickoff to the year
- investing in proper ballet shoes – spot the Birmingham Royal Ballet studio for a public workshop later in the year
- a Christmas gift of Speedo swimming aids – these have made the pool a lot more fun
- four collages including a rat singing 'I will always love you' at sunset – Birmingham Collage Collective has been a big thing this year
- Pete building a Buckminster Fuller geodesic dome in the garden and introducing Bunminster Fuller the rabbit to his namesake (sort of)
- many bunnies, sunrises, sunsets and four visits to the UK seaside.
Can I say I'm an artist who works with multimedia and autobiography now?
Hire/commission me: fiona [at] fionacullinan.com