Former Grove Academy pupil Laura Fitzpatrick was inspired by pandemic lockdowns to paint everyday foliage, shrubs and plants
Falkland exhibition: Covid-19 inspired Dundee-raised artist to paint nature
The POTR Letterbox Vase Uses a Centuries Old Hack for Flowers
Have you ever heard of this trick to keep fresh cut flowers alive longer? Just plop a pre-1992 1 or 2 pence coin from The Royal Mint, or a pre-1982 penny from the U.S. Treasury, into a vase of water. The copper is a natural antimicrobial that kills bacteria build-up in the water, allowing flowers to thrive longer. Or, you could grab your own POTR Letterbox Vase, whose design was inspired by the centuries-old hack that was used as early as the 1600s.
Designer Andrew Flynn, co-founder of Glasgow-based POTR Pots, learned from his grandmother. “I was in the kitchen with her one day when she was preparing a fresh bunch of flowers, cutting the stems, when I noticed she’d flicked a spare 2 pence coin into one of the vases. When I asked why she was seemingly throwing away her money, she explained the copper in the coin keeps the flowers alive for longer.”
The self-cleansing POTR Letterbox Vase harnesses the antimicrobial power of the material in its copper stem, reducing excess flower and water waste. The origami-inspired outer part of the vase is made from recycled polypropylene and high-grade silicone rubber, and the copper stem nestles in among the flower stems.
The vase has a flatpack design, ensuring it can be mailed and cutting the carbon footprint of delivery by more than 100 times. There’s no chance of it arriving smashed, it’s machine washable, and will bounce if it’s dropped on the floor. Able to hold a full flower bouquet and one liter of water, the POTR Letterbox Vase’s soft silicone rim even cushions flower stems to help prevent damage.
Flynn said: “A huge amount of energy is required to produce and then transport flowers in order to be sold in the UK and around the world. The majority of flowers sold in the UK are imported, often by air freight, meaning the carbon footprint associated with a bouquet of flowers can be relatively high. If not cared for properly, flowers will die prematurely, exacerbating the problem of wastage. At POTR, we understand the importance flowers can play in people’s lives – especially on special occasions – and therefore we want to ensure premature waste of flowers is kept to a minimum.”
The POTR Letterbox Vase is available in three colors. It’s flat-packed and ready to hold a bouquet of flowers as soon as it’s taken out of its recycled card envelope.
To learn more about the POTR Letterbox Vase, visit potrpots.com.
Graduating Chickasaw artist has realistic approach to art career
Levi Gentry was a busy young man in April of this year.
From Finance to Feathers: Retired Parkland Resident Captures Florida’s Natural Beauty, Wins Acclaim in Wildlife Photography
By Agrippina Fadel
Capturing a bird in flight or a predator on the hunt are some of the hardest feats in wildlife photography, yet Parkland photographer Lee Sussman loves those shots the most.
A Parkland Golf and Country Club resident for the past 11 years, Lee grew up in New Jersey and moved to Florida 40 years ago. A former financial advisor, he is now retired, giving him more time to enjoy South Florida nature.
While photography is a relatively new hobby for him, his stunning shots of Florida birds are already winning contests, being recognized by top wildlife photography publications, and even being featured in British newspapers The Sun and The Daily Star.
Lee’s photo of a Red-Tailed Hawk he took in Colorado last spring recently made the front cover of the Highlander magazine, and two of his shots won the Audubon “Florida’s Natural Beauty” photo contest this year. A shot of an Osprey with a fish in its talons took first place, and the photo of three green herons came second.
“It is nice to be recognized,” said Lee. “I see how my work has progressed in the past years, and seeing it in magazines is very cool.”
Photography caught his attention in seventh grade, but he didn’t pursue it seriously until his wife Linda gave him a good camera a few years back.
Lee’s friend, Jim Donnelly, a fellow writer at Talk Media, “showed him the ropes” and taught him how to use the camera and what to look for when taking photos.
He uses both the Canon R6 and the Canon R7 for his photography shoots.
Lee’s subjects are mostly colorful birds and creatures: from songbirds and ibises to alligators and river otters. “I just love the wildlife and the outdoors. I do landscapes too. My wife says I do lousy people, so I got to stick to the animals.” he laughed.
During the winter, Lee photographs wildlife in and around Parkland and often ventures out to Green Cay Wetlands, Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, and Peaceful Waters Sanctuary. Some days, birds come to him: Lee has a bird feeder in the backyard.
The couple, who also own a home in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, spends a few months out of a year there, where Lee photographs different animals and birds. Bears and bald eagles soaring over the snow are regulars in his reel.
Still, Lee says Florida is one of the best places in the country to observe and photograph birds. The climate that allows the residents to enjoy the outdoors all year round, the incredible variety of native species, and all the migrating birds create a perfect environment for a curious and patient photographer.
“I love watching the birds and animals in nature. But it is a challenge, too. A lot of the pictures I take are not easy to get. Getting a bird perched on a tree is easy. Catching them in flight, attacking, or eating something is more difficult, and that is what I like most,” Lee said.
A few action shots show native birds as they hunt, which he is particularly proud of. Some examples include a hawk with a snake in its mouth, another, a hawk flying with a rabbit in its talons, and the recent shot of an egret struggling with a field mouse.
“A lot of it is luck and timing and being in the right place at the right moment,” Lee said.
Sometimes he captures animals in a funny or cute moment. His photo of two chipmunks shot in Colorado last summer, where one has its paw on the other’s head, makes it look like a chipmunk is “blessing” his friend. While photographing a bear trying to get into a garbage can, Lee realized the angle made it look like it was taking out the trash – hence another funny shot.
Lee hopes his photos of local wildlife can help bring nature closer to Parkland residents.
“People always ask me, “Where did you take this picture?” There are so many places in Parkland and around South Florida in a hundred-mile area that have amazing natural habitats,” he said.
Lee enjoys sharing the beauty of nature with others through his photographs.
“A lot of people don’t know about Green Cay or Loxahatchee, where you can see the birds and other wildlife. I like showing people what’s going on in nature around us that might be unseen to them otherwise,” he added.
When asked what the future holds, Lee said he will keep learning and improving his technique, always chasing that perfect shot. He is also working on a professional website.
After taking photos of most of the native wildlife in the area, Lee hopes one day to capture the elusive Florida panther. A huge fan of the Florida Panthers NHL team, that accomplishment would mean a lot to him for more reasons than one.
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Author Profile
- Agrippina Fadel grew up in Siberia and received her master’s in journalism from Tyumen State University. Agrippina is also a writer and editor at Draftsy.net. She has been a US resident for over ten years and speaks English and Russian.
“Sky Ride” sculpture in Cass Park to be dedicated this week
This is a Community Announcement. It was not written by The Ithaca Voice. To submit community announcements, please send them to Matt Butler at mbutler@ithacavoice.org. On Thursday July 6th representatives from […]
Immersive ‘Beyond Van Gogh’ arrives in Virginia Beach, with new perspective on famous artist’s life and works
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – You’ve probably seen Vincent Van Gogh’s painting “Starry Night.” Now, imagine being completely surrounded by it.
That’s the experience a successful traveling exhibit is promising with its arrival in Hampton Roads.
Thursday, July 6, “Beyond Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience” opens to the public inside the Virginia Beach Convention Center.
It takes 300 of the 19th century Dutch artist’s works and projects them onto the walls, using music and words to tell the story of Van Gogh’s life. The so-called “Immersive Experience Room” follows the Education Room, where visitors can read facts.
“It’s really about breathing new life into the paintings you probably already know and love,” said Fanny Curtat, the exhibition’s historian. “We tend to remember the darkness of [Van Gogh’s] life: the ear-cutting incident, the poverty, the mental illness issues. All of these things that you don’t see when you look at his work. His work [is filled] with light, with color, with brightness. It’s about overcoming the darkness in your life.”
Produced by Paquin Entertainment Group, the show has sold more than 5 million tickets in exhibitions around the world, according to a release from Virginia Arts Festival.
The nonprofit says tickets are already selling quickly for the Virginia Beach stop.
“Especially during the summer months, what a great way to drive economic impact for the region and for the city,” said Dianna Starkey, Director of Marketing and Communication for the Virginia Arts Festival. “Normally, we are a performing arts organization, but we really like arts of all form. This is just another way for us to share great art with our community.”
“Beyond Van Gogh” runs through September 2 and is open Tuesday through Sunday starting at 10 a.m. Tickets start at $33.99 for adults and $23.99 for children 5-15.
For more information, including the schedule and tickets, click HERE.
Beau Beaus: Where your favourite rapper gets their coffee
In the last year Beau Slawn has appeared in the “Sprinter” music video with Central Cee and Dave, joined the duo on stage at Glastonbury, and given his parents the name for their new east London café, Beau Beaus. An impressive slate of work for a one year old.
Beau’s father is Oloula Slawn, the artist who started his career as a skatewear designer in Lagos and moved onto bold, graffiti-style pop-art, working extensively with the late Virgil Abloh and designing the 2023 BRIT award trophy. Slawn’s eclectic style gained him followers, but it was his outlandish marketing strategies that really got people’s attention – even going as far as making people brawl for his paintings. It was that rebellious streak that made the late Virgil Abloh take notice. Slawn was mentored by the multi-hyphenate, collaborating with Abloh on both Off-White and FREE-GAME, a website that offered free professional insight for people trying to build a streetwear brand.
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At Beau Beaus, along with his partner Tallula Christie, Slawn is bringing that spirit of collaboration along. The coffee shop, fitted out with muted mid-century furniture and original Slawn artwork, is a space for people trying to make it in the creative industries who might have felt shut out. Here they can talk over smoky jollof rice, an iced chai or the “I’m trying to learn from people”, Slawn tells me. “I want art, music, whatever, to not feel inaccessible.”
The buzz around the café has been steadily growing for months. It began with a video from Fabio Dessena, a TikToker known for his street interviews, who posted a promotion for Beau Beaus which has since hit nearly 250k views. The clip featured rappers M Huncho and Unknown T going undercover as baristas and receiving treatment in the cafe’s acupuncturist clinic. The video showcased a typical Slawn stunt for the opening: anyone who bought a coffee was entered into a raffle to win a moped designed by the artist.
In Surreal Collages, Julie Liger-Belair Explores Home, Interiority, and the Terrain of Dreams
“The Nowhere Plan.” All images © Julia Liger-Belair, shared with permission
“The house can be a symbol of comfort and refuge from the harsh world. A house, in other words, can be a reflection of everything we hold dear,” says Toronto-based artist Julie Liger-Belair, whose mixed-media collages often center on depictions of home. “But a house can also be a place of fear, oppression, and powerlessness,” she adds. “I’m really obsessed by this duality.”
Liger-Belair augments found photographs, historical portraits, botanicals, and patterned papers with a range of drawing media. During the pandemic, when quarantines enforced boundaries between interior spaces and the outside world, she started to consider what it means to do or show something “on the inside.” This led to incorporating motifs related to living spaces and enigmatic dwellers. Bodies merge with architecture, botanicals bloom from torsos and limbs, and otherworldly landscapes extend into the distance.
“Lost with the Dolls”
Drawing on an interest in dreams and surreal worlds, Liger-Belair taps into the realm of the unfamiliar. Each composition is founded on a sense of wonder, examining what we perceive as reality or fiction. She says:
I think that humans have always been drawn to the realm of the implausible, since it’s such a common theme in books, films, and artwork from many different cultures and times in history. I’d even argue that we can understand science as an attempt to discover or glimpse the implausible hidden or embedded in the real. I’m thinking here of microscopic views of cells or even photographs of distant stars. These strange worlds are tangible and are not just to be found in dreams.
Liger-Belair gravitates toward the accessibility of collage and the endless potential to imagine, arrange, and recontextualize new narratives. She often works in series, allowing themes to emerge intuitively. “While the overall storyline may not be totally obvious in any one piece, it’s important to understand that with every work, I’m telling a story to myself,” she says. “In some sense, unfolding that narrative is just as important for me—and perhaps more gratifying—than finishing individual pieces.”
Find more on the artist’s website and Instagram.
“Blue Vase”
“Headdress 2”
“When Two Mountains Meet”
“I Am Winter”
“Headdress 4”
“Sometimes to the Left”
“Beasts of Burden”
“Headdress 3”
Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article In Surreal Collages, Julie Liger-Belair Explores Home, Interiority, and the Terrain of Dreams appeared first on Colossal.
Photography & Poetry Workshop at Norwalk Art Space on July 8
Photography & Poetry Workshop at Norwalk Art Space on July 8 from 10am – 1pm.
Making and experiencing art helps us become whole.
A great way to do this is through photography and poetry, as both are incredibly accessible art forms. Led by Artist Chelsea Danburg and Korry Fellow Isabella Montenegro, this workshop is for ages 12 and up. Adults welcome! Please bring a printed photograph with you. It will be held in the main gallery and open to drop ins.
Learn more here
What Do You Do When There’s Nothing to Photograph?
Feeling uninspired or like there is nothing worth photographing can be a very frustrating place to be in, and it is not always clear how to find your creative spark once again. The truth is that there is always something to photograph, but often, the problem is how we are approaching things. If you are struggling with your creativity right now, check out this fantastic video tutorial that shares a range of useful ideas and advice for getting back on track.
Coming to you from T. Hopper, this insightful video discusses how to approach times when you are lacking inspiration. One of the best ways I have found to break out of a creative slump is to place limitations on myself. It does not really matter what the limitations are; they can be something as arbitrary as only shooting with a narrow aperture or a slow shutter speed. The idea is that by placing limitations on yourself, you engage the problem-solving part of your brain, and by coming to solutions, you find a new route to creative ideas that you might not have otherwise. Check out the video above for a lot of great advice and ideas from Hopper.
