Archives for posts with tag: reflections

This character was originally called Vanity, but I have renamed her Socialite.

In conversation, she is the one constantly looking around to see whether there is a more important person in sight. If somebody shows up on the horizon, she drops you like a hot potato.  On the other hand, she is very worried about what other people might think of her. As an indication of this trait the back of her head shows other people’s faces.

Working on this puppet, and of course thinking of the upcoming book launch, I had an epiphany about what irks me with “social networks”. It is the terminology… For me social networks it is a contradiction in terms.

Network has a very strong business connotation. This might be my second language interpretation here, but any marketing 101 book tells you, you must network to be successful. I went to a business network meeting once, to see what it is all about. In my opinion it was the saddest affair I have ever been to. The people had their intentions plastered all over their foreheads and yes, fair enough, that was the purpose of the meeting. But I found it tremendously off-putting.

Therefore I resist using the word “network” in relation to my friends. In my opinion it excludes altruism, which I consider necessary for relaxed interaction between people.

bottle prop A good friend of mine gave me this minature bottle as a prop for the puppet show at the book launch. Pig likes it’s tipple – now that sounds like an old lady, I should say it like it  is – Pig likes to booze!

It is quite funny, my friend is a New Zealander, but she bought this bottle a good thirty, fourty years ago on her OE. And it says on the side of the bottle Produce of Germany. She bought it at a time when I didn’t even know New Zealand existed. The alcohol has long evaporated out of the bottle through the unbroken seal. When we talked about the puppet show she immediately thought of the bottle as the right prop for Pig and digged it out. I wonder what kind of memories she has, when she looks at the bottle.

It is amazing what people keep as mementos. I have a box full “useless” stuff. I started to photograph the items, as each of them conjures up lost friends and time past. I am not lamenting the loss by any means, I just know that every person along my tracks has added to who I am now.

That is what I really wanted to say yesterday about the hammer: we look at the same thing, but we interpret it differently depending on our previous experiences. For me that is the reason why people can never see things quite the same way.

Art contemplation is a little bit like a hammer. We know what it is, but what we make of it depends on how we use it. Destroy or create!

Two people look at the same image and can have a totally different experience.

I just bumped into Amanda, who I only met recently, when I picked up my book launch invites from the printers. Turns out she is a fellow blogger. Her blog is about things made from paper called  Love Notes. She told me she has written about the puppets and the Hermit’s Web book. Of course I had to check it out immediately and gosh it sounds really exciting!

This morning I’ve got round to photographing Devil’s Advocate. He looks very mellow and relaxed.

Like all my other work, the puppets are multi-layered, but what I particularly like about them is their interactivity. I love to watch people engage with the puppets. Let somebody get their hands on a puppet and they start acting with them. The least they do is wave… and this is a very friendly gesture, isn’t it? You don’t really need many words, but I can observe their reaction to my artwork, rather than just assuming their perception of it. I love that.

Looking back through my posts, it appears I have a rather limited and dull colour palette. Yes, I admit, I like earthy and subdued colours. But there are also times when I enjoy the bright and cheerful. It is not a contradiction.

More often than not I visit Germany in Winter. I usually arrive around Christmas and stay throughout January. This is the time when we in New Zealand have our long summer holidays. Everybody is on the move then.  However, it means that I am always in Europe, when it is cold and drab and miserable….

Last year I did a trip at Easter. I was there for the first balmy days of spring. The difference really hit me. These two tulip pics I took will always bring back the mood.

When I arrived back here, the wet and stormy autum had set in.

Modern Man

This is one of my favourites. For me, there is so much symbolism in it and of course I know the person depicted. Therefore I don’t think this work can ever have the same meaning for anybody else. I believe the viewer will find their own meaning in it, hence I don’t like to explain…

However, with this image I will describe how I technically put things together.

The original title of the work is: “Kaiser, König, Bettelmann” (engl. “Emperor, King, Pauper”). Broadly speaking, my intention is to show that any person can be (or should be allowed to be) any of these characters at times. Hopefully they will be well balanced. For a wider audience I would call it “Modern Man”. Now I really mean MAN, not mankind.

In all three parts of the triptych I used the same four photographs to create the background. Those four images are symbolic on their own

1) a close-up of stone wall and wooden door with flaky paint
2) a window looking from the inside out
3) a frayed lace curtain
4) an iron observation tower in the woods of on an Eastern German island.

The four images were combined to support the person’s poses (strong, balanced and weak).

It all developed from the balanced person’s photograph, which was a simple holiday snapshot and the other two people shots were taken to match what I had started.

energyI just realised, I am now blogging for one month. One can tell that I am still a newbie, as I am posting every day. I guess, when you are doing it for a while you will slow down. I have learned a thing or two in this first month, but I know I am still at the beginning of my learning curve.

Though, I am surprised how much I am enjoying this process. So far, I have never had the urge to show what I am producing to the world. There are gazillions of really good and gifted people out there… (A fact you become even more aware of, when you engage in the blogging community). The reason why I am really enjoying it, is that I am now sort of cataloguing my own work in my head. It is a retrospective of a non-exhibiting artist. What always seemed to me like a mixed bag, does actually have a common thread.

The puppets for whom I have set up the blog, appear to be the odd ones out. But only visually, only superficially.

The launch of my book is still three weeks away and I am going through all the expected emotions every day. I have finished the Devil’s Advocate puppet. The Procrastinator is still nowhere to be seen. But I have the feeling I moved forward tremendously.

One sentence I have read recently in the paper has lodged itself into my memory: “there is no art without an art market.” I stumbled when I read it, but continued on. Unfortunately I have forgotten the rest of the article and where and when I read it, so I can’t reference it. But this one sentence stuck. I disagree.