The line-up was impressive with rockstars Gilby Clarke (USA), Glenn Hughes (UK), Vernon Reid (USA),  Alex Skolnic Trio (USA), Uli Jon Roth (Germany), and Joe Satriani performing.

The New Zealand line-up included Kara Gordon Trio, Gray Barlett, Mathew Marshall Quartet, and Nick Granvill.

It was a week long festival and included performances to educate and inspire guitarists. Jam sessions, guitar clinics, discussion forums and midnight sessions were held throughout Taranaki. Subsequent Festivals were held through to 2010.

Please see here a few of my favourite photographs. I’m a Canon girl and was using an 85 mm f1.2L  and a 14 mm f2.8 lens for this occasion, and mostly with an ISO rating at 800.

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I love the ease of this medium, depending on the time I have available, I can listen to 8 minutes of news from ‘PRI’s The World’, or a fifty minute episode from ‘On Being’ with Krista Tippet interviewing philosophers’, composers and authors.

I mostly enjoy listening to other people’s stories, learning about other cultures and belief systems. Tuning in sparks my creativity.

I use the SoundCloud platform to listen to the following stations:

1. On Being Studios – Krista Tippett. Questions of meaning with scientists, theologians, artists and teachers. An episode that stands out as a favourite is Krista’s interview with Paulo Coelho (author of the Alchemist) – The Alchemy of Pilgrimage.
2. Off Camera – hosted by photographer / director Sam Jones. Long form conversational interviews with a myriad of artists, musicians, directors, skateboarders, and photographers. I particularly enjoyed Sam’s interview with Ethan Hawke – Off Camera -27
3. Modern Art Notes Podcast – hosted by Tyler Green. Features artists, historians, curators, critics and authors. I recently listened to a podcast on Bruce Conner –  an artist renowned for his work in assemblage, film, drawing, sculpture, painting, photography, and performance.
4. The Splendid Table – hosted by Lynne Rossetto Kasper. Explores the entire spectrum of food. I love the interviews that explore culture and cuisine.
5. The Story Collider. Stories about science, how science effects and changes us. I was fascinated by Skylar Bayer’s story: The Hummingbird of Doom.

Henry Ford once said “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.”

I’m always on the lookout for new stations to freshen up my library and I’d love to hear your recommendations.

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WOMAD an internationally established festival, brings together artists from all over the globe. The central aim of the festival is to celebrate the world’s many forms of music, arts and dance.

In 2008 over 300 performers from 14 countries performed at the ‘open air’ stages at the picturesque TSB Bowl Of Brooklands in New Plymouth.

Artist Lineup

This is a sample of the artists I enjoyed:

Cara Dillion (Ireland)

Beirut (USA)

The Monks from Tasha Lhunpo Monastery (Tibet/India)

Dengue Fever (USA/Cambodia)

Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba (Mali)

Kora (New Zealand)

Apart from singing and composing songs in several languages, choreographing her shows and designing her costumes, Sa Dingding also plays the 2,500-year-old guzheng zither.

Please see a photo essay of Sa Dingding’s performance at WOMAD World of Music, Art and Dance in 2008 at the TSB Bowl Of Brooklands – New Plymouth, New Zealand.

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KLPA is founded by explorenation.net, and organised by a team of dedicated photographers and project managers, based in the UK and Malaysia.

The Awards are held annually with a theme and open single image categories. Culminating in an exhibition which is well worth a visit if you enjoy portrait photography.

Coffee Date

I was heading toward Fahrenheit 600 for a shot of fine coffee and delicious cake, and was stopped in my tracks.

A large scale vibrant mural attracted my attention.  Graffiti artist Kenji Chai a.k.a chaigo was putting the final touches to his installation “Escape from the City” on the bnwmalaysia pop-up at Publika.

“Escape from the City” is about feeling relaxed and chilling!

A couple of photos to share Kenji Chai a.k.a chaigo’s installation.

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I met with Phil at Suspect Studio in May – 2009 to photograph his creative space.

He has an upcoming group exhibition at the Lysaght Watt Gallery – COLLABORATIONS celebrating collective creativity 9 August – 3^rd September 2016

4-6 UNION STREET (on The Square)
HAWERA 4610
SOUTH TARANAKI, NEW ZEALAND

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He sprung to National and international attention in 2006 when his painting “Portrait of Hans” –  Hans Kellet pen name of playwright Ryan McFayden – won the prestigious Adam Portraiture Award  at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery – Te Pukenga Whakaata.

I met with him at his Wellington based studio in September 2010 and captured this series of portraits.

For more about Freeman visit his site and Saatchi Art profile.

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Namely the Haiku Robots which at the time he was exhibiting at Puke Ariki Museum New Plymouth – New Zealand.

This is a series of photographs taken at both his home studio and Puke Ariki Museum in September 2009.

HAIKU ROBOTS: literally sends numbers to the computer, based on their changing location at the boundary of the project space. Numbers can be converted to text, just as a phone does. Over time, word lists are generated and these are searched through for strings of words that can be construed as poetry.

Visit Ian’s website to stay current with his projects.

A haiku robot word list:

hazy

pile

loops

top

DISTRICT OF LEISTAVIA: Hybrid micronation The District of Leistavia, where online response and voting forms were used to create the Leistavian Constitution and query cultural identification.

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I enjoyed hearing his narration of life thus far,  his interest in genealogy – my grandmother was Rubina Franzen (nee Churchward) and seeing his family photo wall – and the passion he exuded for his vocation.

Joseph is a master typeface designer, and through focused dedication to this art from a young age he’s created more than 690 hand-crafted fonts. Which include recognisable fonts in New Zealand such as the TV One logo, The Evening Post and The Dominion.

About 1938, when I was a young boy, the Samoan House girls who looked after me took me to the beach – they scribbled letters on the sand to teach me how to draw letters, the waves came and washed the letters away! I copied (the girls) and drew the same letters.

Throughout my life I’ve never forgotten the experience. I remember this when I use a rubber to clean pencil marks off my letters.

Joseph Churchward – Interview with David Bennewith – 20.10.2005

Joseph enjoyed having his photo taken and this is my favourite portrait of him while he’s focused on refining a new font at his home based studio.

For more about Joseph and his prolific life as a typeface and advertising designer I can recommend David Bennewith’s book  – Joseph Churchward

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