Karen Strunks Professional Birmingham-based Freelance Photographer

A big thank you to Supercool Design

As some of you may have read in this post, my Dad passed away last month.

One of my Dad’s old school friends wrote  some words for the priest to read at out the funeral. He told the story of when my Dad was taking one of his English exams. At the end of the exam paper my Dad wrote. “PS The Rest Is Silence”. This is a quote from Hamlet.

O, I die, Horatio;

The potent poison quite o’er-crows my spirit;

I cannot live to hear the news from England,

But I do prophesy the election lights

On Fortinbras: he has my dying voice;

So tell him, with the occurrents, more and less,

Which have solicited. The rest is silence.

This story and those words have stayed with me and I had the idea of typing them out and putting them in a frame. I particularly wanted the font to be in a Shakespearean style.  Although I thought I knew what I wanted, I couldn’t really get it any further than the idea stage as much as I pondered upon it.

I got in touch, via twitter, with my friend Katie Parry from Supercool Design in Birmingham. She asked me to drop her an email and I gave her my vague idea. Soon after, this beautiful design arrived by email!

By Katie at Supercool Design, Birmingham

I must admit to shedding a tear or two when I saw it. It was PERFECT. Just how I imagined it, but couldn’t quite put into words. From the font, to the background colour, the vignetting and the important words ‘The rest is silence’, it was exactly what I had hoped for.

Thank you Katie for your instinctive, wonderful design skills, and for this beautiful memento that means so much to me now and will mean so much in years to come.

Proud owner of a Julian Kimmings Print

I made the acquaintance of the talented artist Julian Kimmings on twitter. I have always loved his work, and the wonderful characters he conjures up in his art.

From Julian’s website: Julian’s themes are born from a childhood consumed by sci-fi, comic books, cartoons, graffiti and boredom. Often conceived in varying combinations of aerosol, acrylics paint, ink, graphite and/or emulsion on various surfaces including canvas, wood, walls and board his images combine abstract portraiture and hints of pattern, implying a measure of illustrative prose.

I like to think that all the characters in his paintings inhabit a strange, slightly darker world than ours.

When Julian asked for my address I was naturally curious. The postman delivered a long cardboard tube, which I opened excitedly. I was blown away to see that Julian had sent me a limited edition print! WOW!

I LOVE IT! It’s being framed at the moment and will soon be hung on my living room wall and admired every day.

Not only am I the owner of a print from one of my favourite artists, it’s my first limited edition piece of art too! I feel all grown up now.

Pop over to Julian’s website and have a browse of his original and limited edition prints, and you can follow him on twitter.

So, it’s just left for me to say a huge Thank You Julian! I will treasure my picture.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Tis the season to be jolly! Whoops, I mean romantic!

I thought I would capture one of the iconic images of Valentine’s Day; the red rose.  Can you believe I had to buy these myself?! No, I can’t either!

The beauty of the blossom was definitely worth of a close up. I love the little windows of light reflected in the water droplets.

With our online, digital media, twittering world it’s even easier to send the object of your affection a little love message anonymously. I am reminded of a lovely little website call Tweelove by my friends Bostin Bloke and 383 Project, where you can send anonymous twitter greetings. Perfect for this time of year! Go on, be brave, make someone’s day!  btw, I’m @karenstrunks on twitter

I hope you have enjoyed my little tribute to Valentine’s Day and that you have a very romantic weekend!

I’ll be blogging about the 4am Project next, which is about to take over my life any minute……………..now!