Hello! And Welcome to Do Flowers Dream in Colour?

The Why, Who, What and How of This Little Newsletter

Why?

Do Flowers Dream in Colour? started as an antidote for anxiety. It didn't start in this format but as an action for getting outside of my head and for turning off the constant stream of noise and chatter that would echo and bounce around inside. In 2012 I was diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer, in 2015 I was in the thick of incredibly stressful family matters, and in 2017 I no longer had a job. That's when I discovered photography, and my whole world opened up and changed. But it wasn't until 2020, the first year of Covid, that photography showed me how it could help still my mind.

I live in Melbourne, and we had some of the strictest lockdowns in the world during Covid. We could go on daily walks, and I found that if I took photos on those walks, usually of flowers growing in gardens and along the footpath, the anxiety would slowly disappear and the chatter would quieten. I became more present in the moment, and those moments brought with them calm, ease, and often a renewed sense of seeing things clearly. I slowly learned that it was the joy of taking photos of flowers that particularly eased my mind, and I decided that it would be nice to share the photos and my own inner world of stillness, colour and joy with everyone.

So, I have collaborated with my son, Jed, The Artist to produce a weekly video newsletter of surreal photographs of flowers taken by me that capture moments of rapture and pause accompanied by a soundtrack created by my son. Each soundtrack is individually crafted for each of my photographs. They are in a video format approximately 5 minutes long, with the intention being that you will gift yourself five minutes of stillness, beauty and joy in an otherwise busy, overwhelming and hectic world.

Paid subscribers will receive a weekly newsletter on Mondays (a good way to ease you into the week) with a new video to watch and listen to, and free subscribers will receive a monthly video newsletter. Some weeks may contain some written thoughts or links to articles or websites that I think you might like, but mostly I envision the newsletter to be an uncluttered space for just you to be still and mindful in.

I really do hope that you will join me and my son amongst the flowers. Please enjoy the first video below. (PS - click on the Full Screen icon to feel more immersed in the photo and soundtrack.)

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