Raison D’être

 

Welcome to a gallery of beauty. This site exists as a reminder of the beauty that you are, offering you a visit to a Botanical Garden of images. It invites you, embraces you, entices you, leads you down a path, around a corner, showing you one image of beauty after another, creating memorable moments, gifting you surprises, allowing you to breath, to pause, to see and to remember in silence, that beauty exists everywhere, that you are beauty. This is the ‘raison d’être’ and essence of the site. Enjoy.

How it came to be –

During an enriching visit to Sardinia at a time when most of the world was grounded, I began tuning into what I describe as a whisper, a pull to see something and photograph it, so I did. I didn’t ask questions, didn’t filter, didn’t edit, I simply captured the image and shared it on social media. People started messaging me and sharing how the beauty/peace/elegance of the images was helping them during challenging times. The images were lighting up their day, inspiring them to learn a language, take an art history course, go for a walk in nature. They too were travelling but in a different way, they were travelling into the images and into themselves. No train, no plane, no movement, just looking at the image right there in front of them. The essence of beauty was emanating through the screen and touching their hearts. I began researching what I was photographing – the archaeological sites, the artists, the sculptures – and this took me deeper into, through and behind the image. I knew that it was nothing to do with me, it was about beauty wanting to be photographed and shared to help people remember their own beauty and the beauty of the world and that it’s always there, in every moment, no matter what’s going on.

Nothing is ours to own, it’s ours to share.

Back at home during quarantine, the idea surfaced of organising exhibitions in collaboration with local non-profits, with the proceeds going entirely to them. The same will happen with images displayed in local cafes and every image bought directly from this site – all proceeds are gifted forward.

Community and collaboration are an important element of every creative project and your presence here gives life to this community. It wouldn’t be the same without you. Beauty is being seen, shared and remembered and local non-profits are being supported. It’s truly
magical.

A greater purpose is being fulfilled – the remembrance of beauty, inside and out. Thank you.

For the ‘gifting forward’ aspect of this creative project, I’ve chosen 2 local non-profits that light up my heart, are transparent, filled with love and play a super important role in society.

Cowichan Hospice. I first connected with hospice in 2013 when I arrived on Vancouver Island. In my volunteering with them, I lived one sacred moment after another. Every conversation, every interaction was so full of love, peace and deeply rich in humanity. It’s a privilege and an honour to be with people and their families as they’re experiencing one of the most profound and sacred times in their lives and I will be forever grateful for this opportunity. Death is the one thing that’s guaranteed and yet it can be ignored and almost desperately brushed under the carpet. When we embrace our dying, we can truly embrace our living. My gratitude for hospice and the sacred work they do, is my reason for choosing them.

 

Raven Trust. I came across this incredible non-profit around 2017 when I met Susan Smitten at a workshop I was running. As she described the work that Raven does for the First Nations Peoples, the room fell silent and my heart burst in gratitude. RAVEN: Respecting Aboriginal Values and Environmental Needs. ‘Raven is the only non-for-profit corporate charity in Canada with a mission to raise legal defence funds to assist First Nations who enforce their rights and title to protect their traditional territories and the environment.’ For me, that says it all. We can’t change past events but we can respect and honour each being for who they are. As a person of privilege – white, settler, educated, healthy – it’s my duty to be an ally and support a platform where others, whose voices were all but silenced, can be heard, listened to and effect change. I’m grateful for this opportunity and thankful to the powerful work that everyone at Raven continues to do.

I now invite you enter the garden of beauty. Please wander at your leisure, take your time, be with what is and know that your presence here is what makes a difference.……I wish you a beauty-filled visit.