Serendipity
Greeting card by @bloemen_and_blue (bloemenandblue.com)
We went to Scotland in the spring of 2019, a few months after I finished my last publishing job. Or as some might see it, after my last proper job. We were told about a fantastic fish restaurant in the local area, Kishorn Seafood Bar, so off we went. I quote from their website: “Located at the head of Loch Kishorn it enjoys spectacular views of Skye and the Applecross hills and is not to be missed for seafood lovers.” It is fantastic, and I want to go back immediately, but that’s not the point of this story.
At the till, we found some very special greetings cards, cyanotypes, and I was intrigued. We bought two cards – one was given to a dear friend, and I kept the other, unable to part with it. With my interest in alternative photographic techniques, and this is one of the oldest, I said, ‘I want to try to make cyanotypes’. So I did, and still do.
Almost precisely one year on from making my first cyanotype, I posted on Instagram one of my latest pieces. It drew a new follower – the very artist who created those greetings cards and who compelled me to try the technique. I was strangely overwhelmed, even tearful, but also filled with a sense of joy. I didn’t quite know what it meant, but it doesn’t matter. I guess I was so thrilled how my life has changed for the better since becoming an artist, and she played a part in that.
I wrote to the wonderful artist and told her the story. I thanked her for the inspiration. We are still in touch. It reinforced my feeling about the fantastic printmaking community.
If our friend hadn’t told us about Kishorn, if we hadn’t gone to the fish restaurant, if I didn’t pick up the card, if if if. I wonder if I would have tried cyanotypes at that point? It made me think of the lines in the film ‘Letter From an Unknown Woman (1948)’:
“The course of our lives can be changed by such little things. So many passing by, each intent on his own problems. So many faces that one might easily have been lost. I know now that nothing happens by chance. Every moment is measured; every step is counted.”
