I culled images of myself from my 2021 image library.

I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to say about them.

They have sat in a folder on my desktop since.

Recently, an image that someone else took of me showed up in my memory feed. 

I finally felt like perhaps it was time to write this post.

My friend was going to a nursery and asked me to come along. On the way home I asked her to stop so I could capture this wonderful bit of yellow. She snapped this image of me and I absolutely love it. ( thank you Nancy )

I can't say this about most images taken of me. I usually don't like them. 

Another friend took an image of me on a day trip right before I left IL in 2015. It's another capture that I love of myself. ( thank you Ricky) 

What I love about them is that they are of me in my element. I am unaware that I am being photographed. Which is perhaps what makes me love them. organic and unfussy

Selfies are different. I might look in the mirror and not particularly care for what I see. I would say at this particular juncture of my life I feel pretty uncomfortable in my own skin. I know that there is an accept and love yourself movement out there but it's not happening for me. My confidence of self is pretty low. 

What the camera sees seems to be different. I could go a long while and not take images of me but now I am glad I have them, I am glad that I took the moments to photograph myself. 

Lately I've been taking a year and giving it a description. Like the year I turned 5. That was when my family moved from Canada to the US. Within that move we lived in 3 different places. I have a lot of memories from that year. My earliest memory was when my youngest sister was born. I was 3, and we all got the measles. This memory is very vivid. Some of these memories only recently found me. They were repressed. I have a long list of missing details in my life, mostly because my parents never filled in the blanks or falls into the category of the things we don't say. details unsaid. I am beginning to write down what I recall

In relationship to things 2021 one of my health issues included the disease Rosacea. There is little known about why this skin condition is what it is. It has a variety of forms in which it presents itself and mine was the icky large postule sort. When I had a an outbreak I felt like a leper. The nickel size undergrounders were very very painful. It took most of the year to get to the other side of them. A patient esthetician, a new gentle skin regimen and topical medications turned it around. I took images of when it was really bad but I can't bring myself to share those. I felt grateful for masks in 2021

It was additionally the second Covid year. In 2021 I left the house about twice a month. I stacked my days out and made multiple errands on one day. According to my records I left my home 36 times in 2021. When you put a number to it. It's sortof a dose of reality.

My laptop died in 2020. 2021 is the first full year of images in my new laptops photo library. I could go back into the archive I created for prior years of selfies but it's really a pain.

So, beginning with things 2021 - this is what I have to work with.

Perhaps annually I will see what the year of self offered me. 

Lots of images in 2021 are of my hair. I had decided to let it grow, but I didn't realize how horribly unhealthy it was. Sure it was getting long but when looking back and seeing this first image I realized that I needed to start taking better care of my silver threads. In the mirror with just my eyes I did not see how terrible it had gotten. I just saw long. Many regular and healthy trims plus a shift in hair care products helped me regain better health for my hair. This took time.

covid hairstyles. too funny

during menopause my eyelashes disappeared. sigh. the meds I am now on for glaucoma make the lashes grow. one eye has more lashes than the other. never would have seen that with just my own eyes.

I had a temperature of 102 after my second booster shot

Over the years I have taken many shadow images like these.

I like this self capture. 

It was an honor to be invited to present a solo show of my photography at Quick Silver Photo Lab. This was in 2019. A strategize session on Valentines Day with Cate in 2020 went very well, complete with a delicious slice of cake across the street at Pure Bliss.

But then, well...you know. Things Covid happened. 

So... here we are into 2022 and my solo show is now happening! 

The theme is Cutlery. 

While it is a revised version of what I originally thought I'd present, I am super excited about it

Artist Statement: Here is the game I play. One may wash dirty cutlery only AFTER the last clean spoon has been used. Allow said “wash me” cutlery to assemble ever so artfully on the bottom of reflective stainless steel sink. Pause occasionally to observe random, pleasant and rather artful arrangements of forks, spoons and knives. Post an image of “oh look at that.” observation on Instagram. 

I began social distancing long before the pandemic. I am very good at the blur of lost time and nothingness. I treasure home and it’s subtle visual celebrations. Is a collection of dirty cutlery at the bottom of my kitchen sink pandemic behavior? Not really. It’s more about me avoiding the task of washing them. It’s the quirky part of me. Or a little game I play to avoid tedious day to day tasks.

The work before you is a collaboration between myself and Cate at QuickSilver Photo. Our goal was to highlight similar themed photography with different types of photo processing. 

Bio: Karen Hanrahan found her way to WA State in her mid-50's after living most of her life in the midwest. She has grown children, a cat, she loves road trips, scratch cooking and anything made out of glass. She lives small in less than 300 square feet and values light, quiet and privacy. 

Karen thought of herself as a closet creative for most of her life. To her, that meant she wasn’t officially an artist.  As of late, Karen is out of the closet creatively and feels like an artist each and everyday! She is captivated by the image stories around her. This has her taking way too many photographs! Self taught, and utilizing a simple point and shoot camera, Karen works intuitively. Her image capturing style is described as organic, up close, and authentic. Most say that her images are narrative. She likes that! 

Karen also makes quilt like mixed media pieces out of paper. Her materials are gifted or found, which keeps her making very low cost and sustainable. While she has been a collage artist for over 25 years, it wasn’t until 2016 that she began to show and sell her work. Both her photography and collage work has shown in galleries all over the country. Karen teaches others the creative subconscious mind collage process. 

Below is how we decided to represent the collection:

Framed Poster - 20x24

Framed 11x14 on Washi Paper - More and more artists are turning to digital printing as a part of their production, and so are looking for more interesting surfaces to print on than the standard digital papers available. Washi can be that surface. The subtle liveliness of the fibre shows through the ink with softer results, and because washi is generally more absorbent than western papers the paper and ink appear integrated rather than the ink sitting on the surface. 

Shadow Box Framed - 8x8 Metal

4x6 Prints For Sale

I am thrilled to have been selected to participate in a group exhibit titled "Kaleidoscope Of Color" at Allied Arts Center.

I submitted a portion of my people project or the 8x8 stitched collages that I call Portraiture Within A Boundary.

Portraiture Within A Boundary:  Deconstructed faces are puzzled into a specific space. They assemble themselves accordingly. Often, especially after trauma, lines are drawn. A person may execute a divide as a method of self protection. This is my dynamic, this is how I portray myself, this is what I want you to see. Or this is what I keep to myself. 

The Technique: I apply crazy quilt style technique but with paper. I border each subject with 1/2 strips. I fill in the rest of the dimension with 1 inch strips. I then machine stitch in zig zag to secure design and to embellish the patterns. Each piece is bound. Much like a quilt is. No two collages are alike. It took me over a year to perfect this particular collage style. As things pandemic continued. I made art for the sake of the calm it provided me. I latched onto an 8x8 dimension for my work.  The limitations felt reliable and safe.
 

About the Artist:  Washington based artist Karen Hanrahan, works with found magazine pages to narrate the challenges of her life into a collage format. Her self taught multi-disciplinary work expresses her tenacious spirit by processing personal topics such as rape, loneliness, trauma and poverty. Karen’s work is acknowledged as organic, intimate and visually engaging. She has exhibited in Chicago, Seattle and Bellingham. 

How these hang when grouped together like a quilt.

The works of the other artists.