• Home
• Tribal Thoughts
• Happy New Year from the Suncatcher

Happy New Year from the Suncatcher

January 16, 2019

---

Happy New Year you all. These are challenging times. A happy new year would be novel experience, indeed.

Sadly, it’s more likely that this new year will be similar to the last few. Extreme, unsettling, and mixed at best.

I intended to look around from here, the middle of January 2019, and comment on the year just past. My head started banging then my  mind shifted gear.

Music drowned out my thoughts. I recognised the tune – It was Pink Floyd, and they were screaming

What happened to the post war dream

All the way from 1982

Post War Dreams

Wars divide us. Post war dreams unite us. We want peace, harmony, housing and freedom, after all. Wars are a nasty business. The Dream prolongs wars and helps maintain high spirits in the ranks.

Wars cannot last forever. They end. Dreams are more fragile than wars. Post war dreams can be over in a flash. I wanted material for a new year post. I never knew what sort of information I was looking for, but was certain I didn’t want to think about war.

Headline Hunting (or Hinting?)

I trawled the news stories hoping to find fascinating facts about the past year. Headlines from 2018 included poaching, horror tales, forest fires, immigration, every phobia known to man, mass bombing, school shootings and oh – a few recipes.

Alright, I’m not much of a cook. I decided I wasn’t much of a news tracker either and was packing up when I saw them.

These pictures of the African sky just made life feel lyrical.

The Sun does Set in Africa

Bob (Dylan, not Mugabe) starting singing,

For the sky there are no fences facing.

A harmonious sound, all the way from 1965

Jane Dawson – Suncatcher

Jane Dawson is a photographer. Her favourite subject is the sun, which she loves to catch just as it rises or sinks.

All the photographs in this post are hers. They were all taken near Krugersdorp at sunset on the first day of the new year.

There’s something about the way Jane catches the light as it dances and prances at the start and end of each day – Something special. I know nothing about photography, even less about art in general. I haven’t been near a gallery since primary school but none of that matters.

Jane Dawson’s photographs talk to me. They talk to other people, too. Sometimes, they make me feel like singing a nursery rhyme. Other times, they make me catch my breath. There are times when clouds seem oppressive, and other times when they seem as comfy as a duvet inner. I know all I need to about art.

I know that a camera in the right hands can capture a moment in time and space. I also know that the image of this moment can resonate with people – Sad, happy, young, old, rich and poor people – Art crosses barriers.

Humans have always needed art. Good art meets people where they are and invites them to feel their own way out of their prisons.

Jane’s photographs speak to people who have sometimes simply run out of words.