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News10 May 2013 The Vivian Gallery, Matakana: Elam Masters Graduates and The Auckland Festival of Photography. This afternoon, a group exhibition I am in for the Auckland Festival of Photography opens at The Vivian Gallery in Omaha Valley Rd (off the road between Leigh and Matakana). It's a really excellent gallery and worth the trip from the city. I have two pictures in the show and spent months getting them ready. Last year for a while, I was able to do a print every two to four weeks, so I got the prints done. In March, I decided I wanted to change one detail of one of them, so I reprinted it. The biggest job was getting them into the frames. I lie on my bed with the window behind me and a bedside lamp directed onto the glass, so I can see every speck of dust. All the same, my arms were dropping off each time after half an hour at most, so I just about drove myself nuts last month, getting the two prints into the frames. Whenever I spotted some dust, I'd have another go at getting the frame pristine ... but usually succeeded only in replacing the one speck of dust with two more by the time I'd run out of energy. So it took days and days to get them done, as my time and energy each day were in short supply. But I got there in the end.
Crowd-funded CFS Study I have sent the PDF letter below to my friends. It concerns a crowd-funding project to enable crucial research to take place on the effect of a B Cell suppressing drug on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, after a pilot study produced strongly favourable results. Please read it and forward it to your friends, as a lot of lives depend on this research being funded. I know that not everyone can afford to donate, but spreading the word is as important as making a donation, because if enough people know about this, eventually those who can make large donations will hear about it. The letter contains links (see also below) which give the background to this and the original 2011 pilot study. How the research came about is an interesting story in itself. Thanks, PDF Letter [Crowd-funding for Rituximab Study] Links Summary: [CortJohnson.org] 23 February 2012 I've started a new blog called Unintended Masterpieces. 7 January 2013 I've posted the first review on my EV+1 blog for a whole year - a good sign I hope, though I'm still house-bound and mostly using a wheelchair. The review is of Gwynne Dyer's excellent Climate Wars podcast, which is a three-part radio series from the CBC's Ideas programme. We all have to talk to our friends about this issue, because only a groundswell of public opinion will force governments to act. 24 October 2012 It's been a terrible year - I'm still confined to a wheelchair and can barely type, after a deterioration last May. However, I've set myself a goal of doing one exhibition print per week (instead of wasting time and energy surfing the web), so that I have my Gone Tomorrow essay printed by the time I get better - ready for an exhibition and book. I've got to pace myself carefully, but having a project to slowly work on is a positive thing to think about and gives me some purpose. 20 October 2012 A Fine Line Gallery: Running from 6-28 October, Voices is a group photography exhibition featuring a mix of local and guest artists. Exhibiting are: Carli Clark, Richard Collins, Barbara Cope, Garry Currin, Di Halstead, Sue Hill, Mark Leonard Kaneko, Hamish Macdonald, Ian MacDonald, Davina Monds, Richard Smallfield and Charlie Wrigglesworth. Charlies Gelato Garden 26 May 2012 A group photography exhibition featuring both local and national photographers is taking place in Matakana, at Art Matakana, or Auckland's 2012 Festival of Photography.
23 May 2012 My illness has escalated in the last week and I'm now very weak. It's all I can do to feed myself and do a little typing. This poem arose from today's feelings. Beneath these trees
22 April 2012 I'm been more or less 'under house arrest' since February 2011, due to a relapse of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, which I've had since 1988. In order to conserve energy, I have to lie down most of the day and use a wheelchair most of the time. I travel to Auckland once a week for an allergy injection with a close friend, whose kindness has been enough to restore one's faith in human nature - if it needed restoring. Living such a confined life is intensely frustrating, as I have things I want to work on (guitar practice and photographic projects) and half a dozen books lie beside my bed, waiting to be finished, ranging from cosmology to classical guitar technique, to jazz theory, to photography, to a Polish novel. So I make sure I never do anything unless it educates or inspires me, or contributes something to the community - hence, my blogs: The Developing Tank, Rodney Arts Notes and EV+1. I don't ever hope to achieve anything quickly. I'm always in for the long haul, often thinking in terms of many years, rather than months. Although I've not made much progress with healthwise, there are small signs, hopefully, that the tide is beginning to turn as I unravel the factors contributing to ths relapse and so manage my illness better; but it's a slow process. I've put three prints in frames for the next local group photography exhibition, Matakana PIctures 2012, which is part of the Auckland Photography Festival 30 Septenber 2011 I've updated my photo-essay Gone Tomorrow with the images that have been exhibited to date. [View] 29 August 2011 I've been working on establishing The Developing Tank Blog. Items relevant to the visual arts in the Mahurangi region, or of interest to photographers, will be posted there. [View} 16 August 2011 I've started a blog for reviews, called EV+1, which is where my reviews will be posted from now on, including: Book Review: Parr by Parr - Quentin Bajac meets Martin Parr - Discussions with a promiscuous photographer. [View] My YouTube Channel Because I've not been able to get out and about, I've had to find interesting activities that can be undertaken from the vantage point of the sofa. I was a late discoverer of YouTube and the amount of excellent documentary material contained in it, so resolved to make a channel of documenataries for the benefit of my friends who lack the time to find such material. http://www.youtube.com/user/RichardSmallfield 19 March 2011 Due to a relapse of my illness (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome), my activities have been brought to a temporary halt; but this year, I've been in the Mahurangi Group's Matakana 2011 exhibition (although I was not well enough to see the show myself). A group of us are also participating in a show called Coast for the Auckland Festival of Photography, at the Sawmill Cafe in Leigh, in June. |
