New Phone but nothing worth to take pictures of

Now, would you believe it? I got myself a brand new iPhone two days ago, to get back into photography and use Instagram. But so far I haven't taken one lousy picture. When you started with Instagram, how long did it take you to post or even  comment?

Back to Leipzig for Pentecost

Is it already this time of year?! My, time flies. Anyway, I just booked my car (I live in Karlsruhe, here you use carsharing because with the craziness of building the underground and the public transport being this good it'd be madness and thrown out money to own a car.) since Deutsche Bahn is so expensive and unreliable (One week of strike!) these days. 

Anyway, I'm planning to make trips to the Moritzburg, Wörlitz Park and … Well, I will make the best of my freedom with the car. Besides it's Wave Gothic Meeting in Leipzig, so there are a lot of nice people and costumes to watch. Ooh, I'm soooo excited. 

What about you? Anything nice on your schedule? 

Minimalism sucks

It was a long time coming, but this is my point of view: Minimalism sucks. Architects and Artists alike have made minimalism the gold standard during the last century. If you ask me (and you do since you read this) I'd take rococo over modernity any day. 

Mind you I'm all for editing and I do have better things to do than to scrub and dust all my belongings with an old tooth brush everyday. But when I see those soulless new buildings or interiors I just want to scream of frustration. 


PS: I've written the above what feels like ages ago. But it still feels right to me now. And why does everyone has to have those Eames chairs these days. It's as if every blogpost on interior or every interior magazine article has one in it these days. I'm seriously bored with interior magazines these days.

Just saying hi

It seems as if a lot of my old blogging buddies have moved on from blogging to other adventures. And so did I. Real life took over. 

However during the last months, while I contemplated my life and my life's goals I realized how much I've missed to blog, to share my thoughts and art with the world. So I've decided to come back. 

Copyright-San's-Visual-Art,  Pfalz, Germany Fall 2012

A few weeks back I took a drawing workshop for designers at the Leipzig School of Design, which was amazing. My teacher T. recommended a book on visual principles, which you can only order at the library of a certain design school in Halle/Saale. And the book offers a lot of exercises to get a handle on those principles. I've decided to do those exercises and even to learn to carve in plaster. 

Why? Because I need to create something touchable to balance my work, which is mainly virtual. And damn I want some fancy 60s style sculptures for my apartment without breaking the bank. 

Anyway, getting my plaster workshop together will take a few months, since the tools aren't exactly cheap and I first want to see if I can snag a few from my fathers workshop. Until then it is photography and drawings. Which is more than I did for a long time. Now where did I put my cameras? (Just kidding!)

So, what have you been up to?

Breakfast at Tiffany's? Forget it

Breakfast at the lake in Neutraubling is much better! I stayed at the "Hotel am See" for a weekend of my friends wedding in July 2014. 

2013 foundation, 2014 refinement

This is in short how I see the year 2013 in hindsight. 

I haven't much done this year when it comes to artwork, photography or drawings. Mainly because I was occupied with my job and the set-up of my studio (it's "finished"). 

I did take a drawing class in May and I learned something in that class, but not what I was supposed to learn or had planned to learn for that matter. Instead I learned that I don't like to draw the world outside. I hate it when people look over my shoulder while I draw and comment. Nevertheless the class was good fun. 

So, for 2014 I have planned to segment it into project months. Every month I will look into something else, for example: typography, Adobe Illustrator, watercolors, illustration, macrophotography, etc. Except for January I haven't decided on the monthly topics. I think one month gives me enough time to get deep enough into a subject to find out if it is the right thing for me and to get at least a few decent results. 

So for January 2014 (I started a few days ago with it ;-) my topic is: TYPOGRAPHY, SCRIPT, CALLIGRAPHY. I always had a thing for fonts and pictures made of type. So I've got several books on that topic. Such as Type Image by Barbara Brownie (lovely book), Hand Job - A catalog of Type by Michael Perry and my newest acquisition is Hand to Type: Scripts, Hand-Lettering and Calligraphy by R. Klanten, J. Middendorp, H. Hellige. I love those books and I will have great fun trying out those ideas in them. 

What are your plans for 2014?

The "Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz"

Happy Holidays

I'm back in Leipzig for the occasion. Funny thing is: I don't feel at home here anymore. 

Nevertheless, I'm happy to meet and spend time with my friends, enjoying some christmas treats and winding down after some very demanding months at work.

I hope you can enjoy a few days of peace and fun and enjoy whatever holiday it is to you. 

Details of Wood 3

Details of Wood 2

Details of wood 1

A banana forest in the city

Hey there. Yes I'm still alive, but everyday life has gotten the better of me and this blog. Anyway, the forest you see is not far from my dwellings situated right in the middle of Karlsruhe, in the city's botanical garden. I love this place. 

Karlsruhe Castle in beautiful evening light

Hey there, still alive. Life got in the way of blogging. Can't promise anything but hopefully I'm back to it. Cause I've missed you. 

Floating aimlessly in space

This was how I felt the last weekend, when it finally dawned at me why I was in such a weird mood those last months. Because guess what, I've reached all of my goals I had so far. What goals?

Well, the biggies:

• Abitur (german version of the A-Levels) - check
• Vocational training - check
• Academic studies (Diplom-Wirtschaftsingenieurin (FH)) - check
• A well-paid job that I like and excel in - check
• A nice flat - check
• A washing machine - check
• Triathlon - not interested anymore therefore crossed off my goal list

Without realizing it I had reached my goals and I didn't know what to do with myself. Especially after work in the evenings, I'd come home and didn't know what to do with myself. Even watching "Friends" and "Big Bang Theory" had become stale. 

So, I used my weekend to ponder this and I came up with a new "big goal", which incidentally had already been there all along. Funny how things work out. And no, I don't want kids! 

Anyway, I feel centered again and that's exactly what I needed. 

Do you have goals?

Bliss

Yeah, I just love it!

Now I'm just waiting for warmer weather to go to the park with them. 

Spring is finally here (at the calendar)

Okay, so this is a vineyard in Rheinland-Pfalz last September, but it only takes a few more weeks and nature will rise like the Phoenix from the ashes. Only a few more weeks and it will be warm, sunny and green out there. 

I can hardly wait. And that is for two reasons:
1. I'm fed up with the bad weather, winter clothes and all the grey and brown out there.
2. I want to get back to biking and I want to use my new hula hoop outside in the park, to learn all the cool tricks (My flats ceiling is too low for that.).

Yeah, I just started hooping yesterday. It's fun and very good physical training/play. And I can do it inside and outside, without a partner or much preparation (as compared to swimming, weight lifting, etc.). I like it much more than yoga, running or swimming. It's inexpensive! (Well compared to Triathlon most sports are inexpensive ;-) In case you don't know what I'm talking about watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0he0ShHS20c
Looks like fun, doesn't it?

Back at the drawing board

So I finally got back to my drawing board yesterday and this what I came up with. After months of not drawing my hand is quite inflexible and my lines aren't flowing. definitely need practice  in drawing and clearing my head. I was thinking about way too much stuff. 

Nevertheless I did enjoy the sunny weekend outside and in my wonderful living room / artists studio. 

How was your weekend?

We had joy, we had fun, we had bikes in the sun

I wish you all a wonderful weekend. 

In Karlsruhe the sun will hopefully come out, all that grey weather lately has been depressing. However it is very uplifting to see, me and my blog haven't been forgotten. Cheers to all my friends out there!

Karlsruhe in Fall

Oh, I love these small garden houses. I don't know what they were originally for, but I'd love to have artists studio in one of them. The light and the view would be ideal. 

In other news; I'm still alive, I still work in my fantastic engineering job, I attended another drawing class and I finally did set up my drawing table.  Now all I have to do is to actually draw. ;-) Well, maybe tonight I will. 

Amphibian in the sun

It's been a long time. I know. Well, the new job, a broken MacBook, moving to a new city and testing different cameras (Nikon D90 lost the duel to the Canon EOS 600D ;-) took its toll. However I'm now back to my art (full of ideas, so you better beware), even though it has to share time and space with my full-time job (I love being an engineer).