I am reluctant to put my paintings on this blog as they can be pretty scary. Painting is an amazing leveller of moods for me.
It’s not so much the outcome, but rather the process I am enjoying. I go through all possible emotions while painting. When I am reasonably happy, I have to hide the work for a while – otherwise it will get painted over the next day.
Last week was frantic and I am so looking forward to finishing one of my puppets today. The Sad Puppy. It only needs its skin.
For a period I explored chess pieces to work through a very unpleasant experience in my younger years. Needless to say, the black king featured very strongly. I came across one of the prints recently and was looking through my files today to find the electronic version. But they seemed to have disappeared. I think it must be good on ten years, and a few computers ago when I worked on this…
This image here will have to do. It is from the same period. I used this one in a book before, therefore it survived and was easy to find.
When I went through my chess phase, I began to wonder: How come that the queen is realistically the strongest piece on the board and can do all the moves… While the king, on the other hand, needs protection from all his men and is effectively very weak. He can only move one square at the time. Now, how old is the game?
A very nice side effect of this book project is: my skeletons seem to have moved on. I always thought I am good friends with my skeletons, but now that they are gone, I don’t miss them much.
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Okay, I have uploaded Hermit’s Web onto fishpond. But of course I haven’t read the fine print when I originally investigated how to sell the book. The title has to be included in the Nielson Book database, before it can be sold via fishpond. I have filled in the form for Nielson last Saturday and emailed it off. When I uploaded the book info onto fishpond today I read, that it can take up to f o u r! weeks to be processed by Nielson and then another two weeks before fishpond actually starts selling it. OMG, in this time I can write the sequel.
Back to plan B. I need to get our own web page up-dated.
The three images I have put up today are from a series called “Gallery of ancestral portraits”. They are layered and scratched on wood blocks and are sitting on my mantelpiece. When I am painting without intention I always end up with sad faces.
I have a couple of obsessions. Maybe obsessions is too strong a word – Recurring topics might be better – Barbed wire is one of them. (I am sure, a psychologist would have something to say about that. I haven’t asked one yet.)
Last year I had a few images on display in a cafe up the road. It doesn’t count as an exhibition in my books (and how it came about is a funny story in itself). It was put together rather quickly and the photographs were chosen by their mass appeal rather than artistic merit.
The feather was one of them. I personally like this photograph, as for me it has a specific meaning. I am pretty sure, if you search through a stock library you will find heaps of images of feathers on barbed wire, some better resolved than mine.
However, I have been asked countless times, whether the feather was already there or whether I had placed it there.
Does it really matter?
It’s late again and I am still at work. I have to think of my dad, who passed away a long time ago. He had this saying: “In the evening the lazy ones get busy”. How true!
However, evening is the quiet time, when nobody interrupts you and you get much more done than during the day. I have finished 3 of my 4 tasks. The one I haven’t finished (actually I haven’t even started) is the GST returns for the tax man. Why am I not surprised. Unfortunately that is the one task I really should have done and it means I have to come back tomorrow and do it. buggeridoo!
It’s Friday again and looking back at the week it wasn’t a particularly successful one. I’ve set out to do all these things and I ended up with half finished jobs, jobs not started, as well as having done things that needn’t to be done this week and also dealt with stuff originally not anticipated. To cut a long story short, my to do list hasn’t changed much since Monday, but I haven’t been idle this week either. I guess that’s life.
Today I have four things to finish on my to do list and I hope I will have completed them by tonight. So, let’s not procrastinate further and get on with it.
I was hoping, once the launch is over, I can slow down a bit. But I can’t. I have no idea what drives me at the moment and where the energy is coming from. I have two new photographic projects, I would like to embark on, though the puppets are still requiring all of my attention. I am currently putting a proposal together for an exhibition in a gallery and I am also about to send a couple of books to the mothership (that is the newspaper the puppets are made of). I will labour over that particular letter for a while, as I will have to write it in German. Even though German is my mother tongue, it won’t come easy as I haven’t written a letter in my native language for yonkers. I don’t even know the proper format anymore.
I still have to update our website, but I think I will capitulate here. Down the corridor is a company that does web sites and they will be able to solve the technical problems much quicker and more elegantly than I ever could. This will free me up to do things I really like to do. Time is an extremely precious commodity… But what am I telling you (:
I’ve noticed, that my posts don’t get many likes at the moment… Sorry if I bore you, what I am writing here is more like a diary, basically for me to remember in a year’s time what it was like. I am also writing for my students as they will have to put themselves on the line once they will have completed their studies. I hope sharing what I go through will help. As one artist friend of mine told me: “When you go out there and exhibit, you are nailing your heart to the wall.” I don’t know if these were his own words, but they stuck!
Devil
Here is the foreword of Hermit’s Web. Just to give an idea of my writing and what to expect when reading the book…
My friends and I go back a long, long way. All of them were bright young things once, making headlines. They sure were looked at in their heyday, and admired for their knowledge. I for one thoroughly enjoyed their companionship. Sadly, as they grew older they lost their attractiveness. You know how it goes: even great stories become old news as one makes new friends with new stories and new insights. So I shuffled them off to a rest home, where they desperately awaited my visit.
Isn’t it sad? All they had left was a life in anticipation of something that might never happen. Of course I was so busy, that once they were shuffled out of sight, my visit stayed pretty much a promise. Every time I walked past that place, I had a bad conscience and thought, I really have to look up my old friends. Needless to say, it rarely happened. Too many other things demanded my attention.
To cut a long story short, my friends experienced it first hand: our world, is a world of youth. Once you are past your prime, people lose interest fairly swiftly.
Then one day, I heard of plans to demolish the rest home. I was told all my old friends would have to go. I decided instantly to go down memory lane one more time. The next rainy day, I went to pay the old dears a visit. As soon as I sat down, Chance (normally not one to push in front and speak up) said: “If we want to have a new lease on life, we have to re-invent ourselves. Our situation won’t improve by just sitting around.” I am not sure whether they already knew about the demolition plans, or if it was an act of desperation, tired of waiting for some sort of attention. Anyway, the Devil, sitting next to Chance, and of course having no fear, held his hand up immediately. He said to me: “I know, I can do it with your help.” Admittedly I was flattered by the Devil asking me for help. How could I say no to him? So I gave it a go. The others watched suspiciously, but Devil turned out wonderfully and was invited out to dinner that very same night. In fact, he never returned to the rest home. Needless to say, the next day they all wanted to have a go. Now there is a long waiting list.
Of course we are not living in a fairy-tale world, are we? There is danger in re-invention. In the process their brains shrivel dramatically. They might still have a glimpse of who they were before, but more often than not, they become a totally new personality. But one thing they all have in common: they couldn’t give a toss about what’s going on in the big wide world. But why should they? They have been cast aside before.
I just love to watch them and think of my part. With all their imperfections, they are great fun to have around.
Translation for the less imaginative of my friends:
Of course I was talking about the pile of old newspaper in the spare room, and the dreadfully wet summer Christmas of 2011/2012, when I created all the hand puppets featured in this book. But this wouldn’t have taken up two pages.
I just noticed, its Friday the 13th today. It is now half past eight and I am still at work, waiting for a response from a client to finish an urgent job. Outside it is dark… moving towards winter here.
A couple of weeks back I witnessed this amazing evening sky. Unfortunately, by the time I had grabbed my camera, ran across the road into the park, it was only a shadow of its former glory.
Behind the trees is the sea and eternity.
Still waiting.
dedepuppets 