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WELCOME TO PICS & PROSE!

When I first began keeping websites on the internet, the world was a very different place. Y2K was fresh in the minds of people in many parts of the world. (I still have the candles I bought to deal with the darkness experts said would fall upon us when the new millennium began. When the lights go out in the neighbourhood today, those little lights of mine shine with a warmth that says ‘We would have lit your way then. We will light your way now. This darkness will pass.’)

Today, twenty years on, as I re-imagine my website and use wondrous new tools to bring it to life, I think about how far the internet has come since my first efforts were published on what was still widely known then as the World Wide Web. Now we are dependent on it for commerce and communications, education and enlightenment, comfort and counselling.

My first website was born in that time after Y2K and before 9-11. This one emerges in the world of Covid-19. Times were strange then and much stranger now.

However, one thing has remained consistent throughout these strange days and stranger things: many people enjoy creativity in its many forms. Making things, sharing things, reflecting on things made and shared have brought together people from across the world. ‘Isn’t that beautiful?’ ‘How was it made?’ ‘What was the creative process behind it?’ ‘How can I do that?’ ‘Where can I find more?’ These are all questions asked often when people look at artistic creations on the internet. (I will ignore the negativity that, unfortunately, also surfaces among viewers on the web here, except to say that such hostility, born of ignorance rather than constructive analysis, warrants neither acknowledgement nor reflection.) Sharing and admiring art, or offering genuinely helpful tips to bring refinement to future works from artists, should be what websites are about.

It is, I hope, what will be the function of Pics & Prose.

I want this website to be more accessible than its predecessors. I hope it can be open to constructive interaction and reflection among readers and viewers alike, for while I know I have something to offer in my work, there is so much more for me to learn in the process of creating my art. I am mostly self-taught, except for my period as a part time continuing education student taking a handful of courses at George Brown College in Toronto. I grew a lot in my time there as an artist. I also learned my journey- like that of many other artists- was, at best, only just beginning.

So here in these postings will be snapshots from my journey towards artistic fulfillment. Here is a travelogue, sharing my adventures and aspirations as I stride, stumble and stretch across time and creative space. Come with me, if you wish. I only ask in return that if you do choose to come with me, do so as a friend.

Christopher Seaman, 2020

You can also reach me now through my link to Facebook, found here: www.facebook.com/caseamanpicsandprose/