Okay, so I believe in simplicity when it comes to websites. (Why wouldn’t I, it just makes sense, right?) So, when Retha Ferguson asked me to build her a website I worked closely with her to build something that suited her taste and matched her personality, but that also kept it simple and elegant so as not to distract from the beautiful visual works she creates.

So, here is the result. Check it out: http://curiousgentlebreakthrough.com/

If you intend to comment, please consider doing so at the original location (A Curious Gentle Breakthrough), where I will appreciate it so much more.

Same old house where Retha is house-sitting has these massive muchrooms growing out of the lawn in certain parts of the garden. I quite like how the contrast on the Ilford C-41 black and white film turned out on this one.

If you intend to comment, please consider doing so at the original location (Lawnshroom), where I will appreciate it so much more.

Retha is house-sitting a great old house in Bryanston. It’s very old, and the plants are starting to take over.

If you intend to comment, please consider doing so at the original location (Fern takeover), where I will appreciate it so much more.

Retha and I thought a trip to the post office to send some mail would be a good idea. We had been giving out postcards the whole day, but had still to see their destination for ourselves.

On our way there.

We found a tree full of notes.

The post office was a busy place.

Once we left the post office it was time to head off into the distance.

Until we found a man made of straw. He couldn’t stand by himself.

If you intend to comment, please consider doing so at the original location (To the post office and beyond), where I will appreciate it so much more.

This is no easy thing in this culturally deprived society our dear fearless leaders are fostering, and as with so many things the onus is on us to do things ourselves, with our own resources.

So, with this in mind, I would like to encourage you to provide just a little bit of love wherever you can to help support an incredible artists who sneaks past hardly noticed right under your noses.

Retha had one of her cartoons published in a swanky South African online magazine called “Itch“. This is quite an achievement I think and I would like to encourage everyone who knows Retha to go to the website and leave a comment.

This would be a really great way to encourage Retha to carry on doing these really fun cartoons (A little encouragement goes a long way, hey.) as well as encouraging her to carry on creating art.

The page with Retha’s work can be found here. <– Don’t forget to comment.

The entire webcomic can be seen here, and here are all the characters so far.

The Dysfunkt website is still a work in progress as I don’t really get all the free time I need to do the modifications Retha wants. We will get there eventually. (A little encouragement here goes a long way too. )

Retha also has two other websites. The first, “Gentle Turbulence“ is her blog where she posts lots of interesting bits of this and that. Recently she published some great photos from the festival we went to near the Tankwa Karoo national park.

The second is “Curious Gentle Breakthrough“ which is Retha’s online portfolio where you can see some of her newer work and a lot of her older work. Again, comments are the best way to show your appreciation for a really talented up-and-coming South African artist. It’s a really difficult industry to crack in South Africa and any young local artists needs all the encouragement she can get.

So, if you have two or five or ten minutes spare I’d like to encourage you to make a comment on any of the pages on these websites, and if you can, send this email or some of the links in it to some of your friends and family who are likely to want to support art in SA and ask them to do the same.

If you intend to comment, please consider doing so at the original location (Some Retha Love!), where I will appreciate it so much more.

Super heroes wear masks, right? Lots of them also wear stripy clothes, or would that be criminals? (She’s a bit of both really!)

While I was playing with my Yashica Retha was trying to avoid onion eyes. I’m not sure if the swimming goggles helped, but they definitely provided me with a super cool opportunity for a great photo.

If you intend to comment, please consider doing so at the original location (Onion Hero), where I will appreciate it so much more.

Years ago when I first got a digital camera one entertaining thing for me to do was to run around taking pictures of television screens. I love the moire patters and curvature distortions. Of course one gets a bit bored after a while and the whole deal is forgotten about.

Last night, however, Retha and I were chatting about her upcoming exhibition and the work she’s doing for it. I mentioned the TV photography and we decided to try it out. We don’t have a TV any more, so LCD computer monitors had to do. The result is similar to using a TV, but I prefer the extra geekiness the LCD provides.

Also, I couldn’t leave the image alone, so it got itself an orange stripe!

Edit: 601 is a reference to my apartment number.

If you intend to comment, please consider doing so at the original location (A Digital Exploration), where I will appreciate it so much more.

Just off to the south-east of central Paris is the Bois de Vincennes, a beautiful and mostly wild park claimed by the Parisians to be four times larger than Hyde Park in London and three times larger than Central Park in New York. That, Retha and I figured, must mean that it’s just large enough for two South Africans to spend a whole day in. So we decided to go and see for ourselves.

A fairly quick trip on the metro the next morning, or at least what passes for morning when one’s on holiday, brought us first to the Château de Vincennes, a beautiful old castle. I convinced Retha to pose for a photo in the flowers. I quite like the result, but of course Retha’s finely honed artistic sensibilities are completely scandalised by my attempts at romantic photography.

After the flowery photo shoot at the castle we went on to the nearby flower garden, a beautiful yet mercilessly tended and pampered garden where we watched countless French children play on jungle gyms and climbing toys I would have killed for when I was 6. We spent some time there but soon became restless, and went off in search of the park proper.

We eventually found it. Miles of forest in all directions. The park is so large that when we got to the centre we could hardly hear any city noises. We spent hours and hours walking through the unfamiliar trees and plants. Every smallest detail was new to our eyes and we soon started playing around and getting more ridiculous every moment.

It must have been Paris getting to us. I swear it was.

Below is the photo I took of us at the castle.

If you intend to comment, please consider doing so at the original location (Bois de Vincennes, Paris), where I will appreciate it so much more.