The Journey of The Fool

Yes, today is the big day, the day we all waited for, the day – ok, ok it’s not that important. I just finished The Fool. But first another photo of the picture as I worked on it:

The Fool - WIP again, but almost finished

 

And here the finished result. This pic is dedicated to Mugsy – a friend’s long time companion on four paws who just died – and all the other great fur friends who allow us to be a part of their lives. They are at times when needed the fools in our lives.

A Nightseajourney - The Fool

 

Size: 50 x 70 cm + net

Material: acrylic and glanzed paper on canvas, household string worked into a net, confetti and flowers

And now I am off to work on my next commission, my bears again.

Fool Again and Still Not Done

I have three little bears waiting for me to color them – another commission. But I want to finish The Fool first. So, I worked all afternoon long and finished the acrylic part.

The Fool (acrylic on canvas 50x70cm) - the acrylic part finished

Somehow the camera cut a little bit of the right part of the picture. Well, it was me taking the photo without visual check. But it isn’t important as you can get the impression.

The fool himself will be a collage of colored paper. It will be a sticky job I will start tomorrow. Oh, and I have a kind of play dow called air drying modelling material I will use for the things caught in the net. Using it will bring up nice memories of a long time ago.

The Fool Is Coming

Certainly, I am still watching a ridiculous amount of sports with the Olympic Games taking place in Beijing. Yes, I survived the elimination of the German BBall team. I mean it’s not like they were the top seated favorites of the tournament. Theirs was the Olympic motto: Participation means the world to them. And they did it. So, congrats to them and I let me be entertained by all the other events taking place.

Yet, I also started again on my new art series. I have teased you with it for a long time now. Therefore, here some photos of the work in progress first:

The Fool as it is right now, still far from finished (acrylic on canvas 50x70 cm)

The Fool with the net he was caught in

 Of course, as the name tells you already this series is inspired by the Tarot as Jung has seen it and as I see it. Yet today, when I worked at it I saw it in a completely different light.

I am an artist. But additional to this I work for my living as a PT. In a big city like Berlin being a PT means to be the play friend of children who can’t discover or develop their physical ability in an environment dominated by concrete and speeding cars. You are the family for lonely elderly. And you are the psychotherapist for many of the patients.

As I am not only a PT but also a lymph drainage specialist I am working with cancer patients or people recovering from cancer. One of my patients I treat now for more than a year twice a week has colon cancer. She is living with it now for years. Usually, she is on a constant chemo therapy on base of pills. Both of us know that we only buy time. Once in a while – when we are not laughing about my silliness or my obsessions with HP or sports - we talk about death and dying.

Today was a day like that. She had received very bad news and admitted to be afraid. Since six years have passed since the diagnosis she is far ahead on her path through the stages of coping with a terminal illness. Hence, her fear is not about the fact that she will be dead. She is afraid of the process of dying – the pain she expects to happen and, since she has metastases in the tip of her lung, the feeling of suffocating.

I hope I was able to assure her and make her feel better, at least for today. But for me it was straining, especially now that my energy level is very low. In moments like that I am thankful for my art. Dirk Nowitzki was fun and enabled me to shut out everything else that burdens me for short sweet moments. I hope he will see it one day and then he will like it and it will give him sweet memories.

The Fool and my conversation today made me think of time and anonymity. In my pic the fool picks out one member of the grey mass and challenges him to make his/ her life brighter and unique. We have only a limited time to do so. My patient is 70. She is very kind and sweet, intelligent and fun to be with. She has been a teacher, wife and mother all her life. And I think she made something unique of the time she was given and still does so. I hope at the end of my time I can say this as well.

I guess the fool has taken over in my life long ago. Yet, I still have much ground to cover to achieve what I think important for me to accomplish. And be assured that the art plays an important role in these plans.

Bird’s Nest in Bamboo Grove – Nowitzki’s Olympic Dream

OK, this American referee whistling Germany vs. China today will not make my Christmas card list. But I guess he wont realize it with millions and millions of Chinese adoring him now to no end. The quintessence is China eliminated Germany in a heartbreaker of a basketball game. It was the moment when I just finished the Olympic flame burning at teh Beijing Olympic Stadium. It took me some more hoursto let the bamboo in the grove grow. Funnily enough, it grew in the shape of a flying basketball player:

Bird's Nest in a Bamboo Grove - Nowitzki's Olympic Dream; Acrylic on Canvas 150x50 cm

 

OK, Germany has one more game ahead before the Games will be over for teh basketball stars. It should be a nice one for Nowitzki and Co as they play the USA. Nothing to loose but nothing to win either other than prestige and honor. But aren’t whose the most important things you can win at the Olympic Games?

Now, I shouldn’t forget that this is an art blog. Tonight, I will grieve some more for a game that shouldn’t be lost at all. Tomorow, I will return to the series I was working on before the Nowitzki idea came over me. The Fool pic is almost finished for posting and I promise it will be a real treat for you.

Olympic Dream – WIP

Like millions of others I watched the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Bejing. But for me it resulted in a stop of any other art project for the time being. I saw Nowitzki carrying the German flag and his happiness upon it and – boom, crash, bang – I had a new idea in my head. It will be the first entery into the still to be created category “My Heros”.

The Olympic Games were always my dream. And once it became clear that I am not talented enough to participate myself I continued to admire whose who were better than me (or not as lazy). As a former basketball player – I played in the SC High School League and in the German Regionalliga and even managed to become Berlin Vice champion in Streetball – basketball remained one of my favorites. And so I followed Dirk Nowitzki’s long fight for his chance to play at the Olympic Games.

He is a NBA pro, belongs to the Pantheon of world basketball players and has achieved more than any other German player before him. Yet, with all the money he earned he couldn’t buy a right to start under the five rings. He took the long way, believed he could do it and pushed the guys around him to their limits again and again.

This year, his dream came true. After 12 years of absence from the Olympic Games a German basketball team has started into the tournament with a win over the African Champion Angola. But, the most moving moment for me was when Nowitzki entered the stadium in Bejing at the Opening Ceremony with the German flag in his hand. He grined like a little boy who was given the best Christmas present ever. I got literaly goose bumps and had to watch it again late at night.

And then I had this picture in my head. Now, I hope I will finish it before the Olympic Dream will be over for Nowitzki and the other German basketball boys. This is just a photo of the picture still as work in progress and I had to make it darker as it really is so you can see something:

Nowitzki's Olympic Dream WIP

Contest Time – The Winners

I have not been here lately, giving myself a summer time break from art and blogging. But now I am back to business and here is something I still need to finish.

 

My contest Through the Trapdoor is over. The correct answer was: anthropos. Some people told me the quiz was tricky. What shall I say? That’s how I am. Still, I hope it was fun.

 

I thank everyone participating. My congrats go to the winners:

 

First Place: Annie

Second Place: Uwe

Third Place: godfreya

 

As where were five correct replies all together (my mother drew the lots with the winners) I decided that the other two shall have a prize too: zgirnius and PotionStudent.

 

Everyone else thanks again for participating, commenting and reading. I shall be back with my next project Nightseajourney soon. So stay tuned for more art and another contest once I am finished.