National Widow's Day

Alone, in the midst of a global pandemic. For my American "sisters in sorrow", this National Widow's Day is especially lonely. Although many widows find themselves virtually abandoned by friends and family at the best of times, this year, is unprecedented. Physical isolation has meant that many widows are completely alone.    

We're all experiencing a degree of the kind of isolation felt by widows every single day. Living day after day without human connection can be lonely. Many widows refer to this as existing, rather than living. There's always Facebook, phone calls and Zoom, to reach out and connect. For most widows, the very person they most want to reach, is dead. That number is not in service.

It is not unusual for widows to preserve the voicemail recordings of their loved one. There's something strangely comforting about hearing the voice of someone who is gone from this world. Somehow, their unique voice is more alive than a photograph. I remember the panic I felt when, a few days after Brande died, I could not recall the sound of his voice. Then, I remembered a phrase he used to say to me in French, "quelle belle femme", and I heard his voice in my head again.

Now, more than five and a half years of widowhood, I am happy. Very happy. So, this is being written to those who are still in the early, lonely years of being a widow. The grief journey is walked at your own pace, in your own way.  

One day we were a couple, together every day, the next, I was single. I had to learn to be alone with myself. I rediscovered myself in the most joyful way possible: through the music of my youth. Listening and dancing to Motown and 60's rock, struck notes deep inside of me. I remembered me. Me before we were a we. 

She never left me. That girl is always there, ready to come out and play. She is not alone, either...there are many kindred spirits out there!

Even if you are in lockdown, get out for a little walk today. Keep two metres (about six feet) away from anyone else, and wear a mask and gloves. The exercise, fresh air, and Vitamin D rich sunshine are all great for your body...and your soul. 

Photographs Copyright of: Ruth Adams, Widow's Endorphins Photographic Images Incorporated.

Earth Day Birthday

Happy 50th Birthday, Earth Day! April 22, 2020 is an Earth Day birthday like no other.  Tree huggers are totally embracing technology! 

Rather than day long celebrations and rallies, in parks and on the streets, millions upon millions of participants will use technology to gather virtually. The Earth Day Network, which describes itself as, "the world's largest recruiter to the environmental movement", with 750-thousand partners in 190 countries, says it has the collective power of, "one billion individuals mobilized for the future of the planet". One billion people in their living rooms, or seated at the kitchen table. The Earth Day Network says that while the corona virus has forced people to keep their distance, "it will not force us to keep our voices down." The environmental movement has never been silent.

In 1962, Rachel Carson's book, Silent Spring warned of the destruction of our water, soil, and air due to the use of pesticides. She raised awareness. Smog, oil spills, polluted rivers catching fire, and the American Eagle being near extinction, were reported on the evening news. Less than a decade later, the first Earth Day was held. On April 22, 1970, Americans took to the streets, arenas, and college campuses, in protest. Twenty million Americans, or, about ten percent of the US population at the time, participated in the event.

This is an Earth Day unlike any other. It's a year unlike any other! What we have witnessed in the last few weeks, is that we are coming together, while being apart. Technology has connected, and reconnected us. Earlier this month, Zoom, the online teleconferencing site, reached more than 200-million people per day, compared with 10-million daily participants in December.

Earth Day is believed to be the largest civic event in the world. This year, it will happen online. For 24 hours, the Earth Day Network, "will fill the digital landscape", with live-streamed global conversations, performances, video teach-ins, and calls to action. 

The Network says that no matter who you are, or where you live, you can make a difference. This year's theme is Climate Action. The Network says, "climate change represents the biggest challenge to the future of humanity and the life-support systems that make our world habitable".

The past few weeks of industry shutdowns, planes on tarmacs, and cars parked in driveways, has shown how dramatically the Earth heals, when given a chance. Clean air, pure water, and healthy soil, are not impossible.  

A final note...I created birthday cards for Earth Day's birthday. The images are a departure from my usual photographic style. Computer technology was used to create painterly, watercolour images from my original floral photographs...and I didn't spill any paint on the floor!

Anticipation

Anticipation: a feeling of excitement about something that is going to happen in the near future. We're all feeling it, as we imagine being with friends and family once more. We imagine what we'll do when the world is ours once again; when we're free to travel anywhere, dine out, or go to concerts. 

Springtime in Vancouver! I've been anticipating it for decades. The ribbons of pink cherry blossoms lining city streets, the Sakura groves in city parks, and private gardens, and even the petal snowfalls at the end of the season, have been on my mind for nearly thirty years. I was not going to let a global pandemic stop me from capturing the fleeting beauty of cherry blossoms.

 

I saw them way back in November 2019 BV (before the virus). Even with bare branches, the vignette of a small group of cherry trees overlooking Vancouver's False Creek, filled me with anticipation. I returned earlier this month, expecting to capture their beauty with my camera. I was too early. Their buds needed a few more days of sunshine and warm weather to open. Anticipation and patience usually travel hand in hand. 

A few days ago, I journeyed two miles along the seawall walk, back to the cherry tree spot. What a disappointment! Instead of full, ruffled pink blossoms framing the blue waters of the creek, I could only see gnarly, gangly branches through my viewfinder. Things don't always turn out as we anticipate. 

I chose to enjoy the experience...to be present to the beauty around me. It was magical. Worth the wait.

While we're physically isolating ourselves, anticipating the day when we can live more normal lives, be mindful of the present. Enjoy every moment of life. My walks along the False Creek Seawall are always filled with beauty, and inspiration. The journey is the experience. Sometimes, when you're open to the world around you, you discover something unexpected, that you didn't anticipate...  

 

Photographs Copyright of: Ruth Adams, Widow's Endorphins Photographic Images Incorporated.

I Heard It Through the Grapevine

I heard it through the grapevine that 5.13 Billion people have mobile devices.  That's more than 66% of the world's population!  The numbers come from the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSMA), and they should know, because they represent mobile network operators around the world.  

Most of us can't part with our mobile phones.  We grip them tightly, like we're carrying our brains in our hands.  Then, we stumble, and the phone does Cirque du Soleil style somersaults through the air, before crashing to the ground.  Dropping a phone could result in anything from loss of the mute button, to poor quality reception for the rest of the phone's life.  I've been having fun this week, designing mobile phone "crash helmets" to protect the brains of your constant companion.  

 I Heard it Through the Grapevine, is the perfect name for the phone cover above.  The grape leaves, and tiny blue Champagne grapes were growing along a rain-dampened fence, not far from my Toronto home.  Every colourful, and beautifully patterned grape leaf is unique!  

Hope the phone cover helps your phone last even a tenth as long as Marvin Gaye's Motown classic.  It was recorded in the Winter of '67, and released in '68 - which is over half a century ago.  Never get tired of it!  

I love the image of the metal ivy vines intertwined with the sturdy living wisteria vines, their weathered branches becoming one with the manmade structure.  As a phone cover, Interwoven speaks to our interwoven relationships, whether in our contact lists, or on Facebook - where many of us discover how many of our friends already know one another. 

The image also reminds me of family trees, and the bringing together of two very different families, to form one.  The most tight knit families I know of, call one another every day.  Every.  Single.  Day.  When was the last time you called your Mum, or Mother-in-Law, to in the words of Stevie Wonder, say, I Just Called to Say I Love You? 

Don't forget that other leaf...cannabis leaves are often overlooked in the world of fashion.  I love their graphic, elongated lines.  I've had fun altering their colours on the computer, such as this in image, Tropi-Canna Mint and Plum...

Maybe it's the British Columbian in me - I just love totem poles and telephone poles!  They are as much a part of the BC landscape as the mountains and sea.  When I returned to the Westcoast last July, after nearly three decades in Eastern Canada, the iconic telephone poles were still standing along older neighbourhood streets, and back alleys, and hugging the blackberry brambles of country roads and ditches.  ELO's Telephone Line, gets me every time, and I'm listening to it, as I type.  

Totem poles are found in public gathering places throughout BC.  Waiting for an early morning sailing to Nanaimo's Departure Bay, on Vancouver Island, I photographed a small portion of the late Tony Hunt's Kwakiutl Bear Pole, guarding the BC Ferry Terminal, at Horseshoe Bay, in West Vancouver.  The tall, weather-worn totem was carved from Western Red Cedar, and was one of 19 totems commissioned for the BC Centennial in 1966.  Not having had my first cup of coffee, it was as if I was looking in the mirror.     

Nothing takes the industrial edge off tech devices, like cover images of pink ruffled cherry blossoms and peonies.  There's something eternally sunny about these flowers, which brighten up rainy, or snow drift days.  In order of appearance:  Japanese Cherry Blossoms Blue Sky,  Cherry Blossom Branches, Wedding White Cherry Blossoms, and Cherry Blossom Impressions. 

Peonies are one of my favourite flowers to photograph.  They're fullsome blossoms with layers of ruffled petals, casting shadows throughout.  There's so much movement in the light and shadow!  These peony phone covers speak softly of everlasting beauty, romance and drama...maybe they scream just a little...Blondie's Call Me, meets the Big Bopper's Chantilly Lace!  In order of appearance:  Honey Peonies, Peony Drama, and Peonies and Ice Cream.

Being a floral photographer in Toronto has its disadvantages...nothing grows during the months of snow and ice.  It's never stopped me from taking pictures of flowers!  Supermarket flowers have been a source of beauty and inspiration during the dark days of October, November, December, January, February, March, April...and let's face it, even May.  These double carnations were in a plastic bucket at the grocery store, just begging to be "discovered" like a Hollywood starlet.  This phone cover is called, wait for it...Pale Pink Carnations! I tell it like it is.  No excuse not to remember that name.

Jeans and a t-shirt today?  Slip Jeans over your phone for a matching look!  I've always loved the look of faded blue jeans.  They're timeless.  These were photographed in a rural flea market, here in Ontario, and could travel around the world.  Jeans are universal.  The phone covers are slim fit too!

The phone covers are available in more than a dozen styles which cover the shape and layout of iphones and Samsung phones.  They're made of durable Lexan plastic, with embedded print, UV and scratch resistant finish.

To paraphrase Operator, the 1975 hit by the Manhattan Transfer:  Operator...information...how do you order these phone covers?   Just one ringy dingy...  http://bit.do/phonecovers

Fashion Show: Spring 2019 (and 2018) Collection

You'll forgive me for feeling like Cinderella these days.  There's something magical about taking a photograph of beautiful flowers, using the image in designing clothing, and seeing it come to life as an actual garment. 

One sunny day last week, the birds, bees, butterflies, and squirrels were excitedly gathered, while I was hanging the dresses and draped kimono for a tiny fashion shoot, under some of the very cherry boughs I photographed last year.

After photographing the clothing, I continued taking pictures of the amazing cherry blossoms.  Lost in the blissfulness of flowers and creativity, time just floated like a butterfly! 

The photographs are now the floral fabric prints for bodycon dresses, flare dresses, draped kimonos and peignoirs, available in my Art of Where shop on-line.  In the days to come, I will be adding more clothing.  For now, here are the links to the newest additions in my shop:

http://bit.do/AOWbodycon

http://bit.do/flare-dress
http://bit.do/drapedkimono
http://bit.do/peignoirs

I love this image of blossom covered branches reaching into the blue sky.  I've called this design - wait for it - Cherry Blossom Branches!  Laugh if you must, it sings of Spring!  I have introduced this design as a flare dress.  Other clothing designs will follow. 

These Japanese cherry blossoms look so much like an impressionist watercolour painting, yet, they were taken with my camera.  This series is called Cherry Blossom Impressions.  It is available in bodycon and flare dress styles, as well as a peignoir.  Peignoirs are very versatile, in that they can be worn in the bedroom, at the beach, over a pair of jeans, or over a cocktail dress such as the bodycon dress. 

This image is a new favourite!  It's called, Japanese Cherry Blossoms Blue Sky!  The photograph already looks like Japanese floral fabric.  I love the vibrant blue of the cloudless sky, and the abundance of pink blossoms!  So far, I have only designed bodycon and flare dresses using this image.  More will be coming!

This image, was taken last year, and is only now being used in clothing designs.  The series is called Wedding White Cherry Blossoms, and is available only in bodycon dress, draped kimono and peignoir designs.  Both the kimono and peignoir may be worn as light jackets over the sleeveless dress.  The peignoir belt and trim are shown in black, however, they are available in cream.

Photographs and Designs Copyright of:  Ruth Adams, Widow's Endorphins Photographic Images Inc.