Sometimes Body Language

drives me mad, because I recognise something in it, a move, a gesture that is so sublime. Yet getting that point and doing it with just a few irrevocable brush strokes requires a mind that is at the same time determined and light. I hope I did it ;)!

C'est vrai

Because water colours cannot easily be manipulated.

Art Is An Essential Need

"... I took refuge in this peasant's hut, by which time it was already light and there were golden tones in the sky and the heathcock was calling. I fell asleep for a time and dreamed of my own bed in my own room: I dreamed I was sitting at my own table and telling my friends how I was nearly killed by a carriage on the Siberian highway. Then I woke and realised where I was. I had a good look around: it's quite charming. The peasant and his wife have decorated their walls with sweet wrappers and vodka labels, and someone's painted a tree on the door growing out of a vase, and some red flowers, and birds that look more like fish. The demand for art is here, but the good Lord has sent no artists. How can a peasant think about art? For nine months of the year he can't even take off his mittens and straighten his fingers, and when the summer comes his back aches with labour.
My first visitor was grandpa, very interested in me.

-Are you from Russia, your Honour?

-Yes, that's right, from Russia.

.....

-It's a crying shame because a Siberian's a good man. He's soft-hearted and honest and he doesn't drink - he's a treasure, not a man, but his life is wasting, like a mosquito, shall we say, or a fly. What's he living for, your Honour?

-Well, I suppose he works and eats and clothes himself. What more does a man want?

-Your Honour. A human being is not a horse."

(from Michael Pennington's  one-man-show on Anton Chekhov taken from Are You There, Crocodile? - Inventing Anton Chekhov by Michael Pennington - If you ever have the opportunity to watch it, surely do it ;) )

At Second Glance

This wasn't so bad, at least it got the immediateness
of some rough sketch, I surely like.

I'm Far Too (Roman) Catholic For This

This is a translation of an earlier German post.
Already while I was studying I was quite appalled by this constant indifferent blah blah, according to which everything can mean everything and everything is freely and easily interchangeable. What this would have to do with tolerance after all, was a complete mystery to me?! Thus I opted for the view stated in the title whenever I had to endure this folderol. Because: How could somebody who does not know who he/she is and which cultural background he/she comes from, somebody who does not observe any culture, call himself/herself tolerant, for heaven's sake?!
The more we agree to differ the closer we will always feel!

The R-Word - It's All About Reputation, Baby

Sometimes, while I was still studying, I've come across people, who have been cherishing an idea, a concept, a work of art for  a long time and have told me about it, but then when it came to finally realising it, they sort of backed down. One might of course conclude that there were some financial aspects troubling these projects, but nothing was further from truth. So I discussed my findings with fellow students and they answered: "It is all very well for you as a student to try to realize these sometimes daring projects, but they are professors and artists they have a reputation to lose."
Later on exactly this word "reputation" was also featuring in a book on some daring theatrical project
I've benefitted from, for I was lucky enough to attend a performance: The ESC "The Wars of the Roses", a staging of the Shakespearean history plays from Richard II to Richard III, all done in a row and sometimes at just one weekend, which they toured around the world. Here the word "reputation" almost killed the whole project at the beginning because institutions that wanted to support this effort were reminded that this just might endanger their reputation.
Thus I've come to learn that this tiny word is the obstacle to many a wonderful and daring work of art, and yet again the true artist reveals himself in exactly this moment, for he or she would not bother about his or her reputation at all and just skip it.
So thanks to all you lovely artists who don't give a damn about their public image and just daringly do whatever they feel compelled to.

"What Am I?...

...I'm a clown who's forcing to smile" ;) (Jean-Baptiste is the Howling Wolf, Absynthe Minded)