The Blank Page, Guest post with Cat MacBride

Today I’m pleased to introduce you to a special guest and long-time photography friend, Cat MacBride! Cat’s an amazing creative photographer and artist from Dublin, Ireland, whose work graces the covers of many books and magazines from all over the world. She celebrates her vision through a limitless list of subjects through photographs and other means, one of which she shares with us today. Read on to learn more.

Okay, I’ll come clean, I’m one of those people who has a few too many notebooks and a thing for stationery, paper in particular. One of my favourite early memories is finding a ream of paper in a bag from a well-known Dublin city centre stationery shop, on the side of the road, in our far flung city suburb, just before a shower of heavy rain completely destroyed it.

That block of clean crisp white paper was such a departure from my usual art supplies of colouring books and the backs of advertising leaflets that it was a creative shock to the system, with it I had weeks of fun: folding fortune tellers, cutting out chains of people, and helping snowflakes escape from those sheets of paper; it started a lifetime love affair with the stuff.

For me, the blank page offers so much. There are times it becomes the symbol of my frustration and lack of ideas–and all that goes along with creative block…

…and then again it has the ability to be anything from a simple abstract…

…to a spaceship…

…or a cabin in the woods.

The only limit is my imagination and, I must confess, on occasion my building skills.

As a resource it’s there to fold, cut, tear, shred, or mould into something to photograph…

…and with the addition of my lights I can give it presence and place.

The blank page has become a constant as a conduit for both my creativity and frustrations and a staple of my 365 project I started back in 2011, which has seen me take a photo, video, make an animation, or an illustration, every single day. I’m now in my 13th year and haven’t missed a day yet, in part due to the blank page. www.flickr.com/photos/catmacbride/albums

Catherine MacBride is a daydreaming doodler, creative photographer and paper artist from Dublin, Ireland where she lives in a house full of people, guinea pigs and a shouty cat and not enough storage space for all her notebooks. You can find her on the web at www.catherinemacbride.com