Birds, Fishes & Inspector Morse!

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Art Studio, Wenesday 31th January 2007

Time is flying by on Planet Goodaboom!


It is always fascinating to experience the relativity of time. Fascinating especially for me, who has studied the deep interconnection of time and the laws of physics ruling our universe.
But even being a scientist loving the abstract beauty of physical laws, as a person I hate to be their slave, especially to the ones concerning time, and I´m really happy to see that Goodaboom seems not to obey any of the laws of physics... or even any law at all!
Except one of course: THE LAW OF LOVE!
By the way, yesterday I got the Spanish version of the Apple Valentines advertising campaign. They were clever enough to slightly change the „Love goes global“ (see my last article about Valentines) into
„Amor para todos“
which means.
„Love For Everybody“
And THIS is really nice!

Also: Time is flying...
I didnt do it on purpose but what a nice intro to my entry today. I am actually preparing a new exhibition for a local eye centre (is there a more appropriate place for a painter?!) and considering the success of the "Parrots Tree" in recent weeks, i decided to exhibit there some of my watercolours „Nomads of the Wind“, a series I painted 3 years ago and never exhibited in public.


My sister-in-law Isabelle. a painter too, living in Paris, introduced me to the birds. In the past we spent some wonderful holidays together, watching, photographing and sketching the birds, the most notable being in The Camargue (South of France) two years ago. We had rented a landhouse by a lake, and we spent hours watching the thousands of birds there. especially the flamingos- Later, I holidayed alone to observe other water birds, to the Bodensee in Switzerland, to „The Domes“ in East of France, a wonderful place of thousand lakes, and to the „Ebro Delta“ in Spain.
One day I may make a birds photo album for Goodaboom, as it was really something very special.




I found the process of watching the birds itself fascinating, but I think that the deepest pleasure consisted of researching at home afterwards in the reference books, trying to find the birds I had seen and of course secretly hoping there would be a rare specimen in amongst them. I remember that I had exactly the same pleasure as I was diving, many years ago, I loved to observe the fishes, trying to burn their characteristics into my memory and later, at home, trying to recall, and identify them in the books.

Kevin "mentioned in his diary one day: We treated ourselves for Christmas to the complete series of Inspector Morse (A wonderful character by the way, and I am tempted to make a portrait of him...).
His career was his life, and as he had to stop working, he had to find something else to keep his brain alive. And see: he chose birdwatching! Of course, the search for a rare bird could not maintain enough activity in his brain and he died... I really doubt it was due to his fondness for Pints of beer!

Technorati Profile

Valentines: Say it with Goodaboom!

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Art Studio, Friday 26th January 2007

So, Audrey has been immortalised and is flying right now in a big cardboard tube to Belgium. I hope she will survive the flight, the weather is awful here, and I guess all along the flight path to Belgium too.
My clients, her grand-parents, were enchanted with the portrait and I hope, Audrey will be too, as it is a gift for her birthday.
We used this portrait for our new feature:
"Goodaboom´s Valentines gift ideas"
created some days ago.

Unfortunately the competition is not sleeping. I just received an advertising mail from Apple:

„Love goes global: This Valentine´s Day, say it with an IPod nano Red“

Love goes global? What does it mean really? That we are entering an era of global love, meaning everyone loving everybody and viceversa? Has it escaped from the Marital home and gone on holiday? Or have we regressed to Haight-Astbury with flowers in our hair? I feel we should be told....
For myself, I think that it means nothing more than an alliteration globalisation fanaticist justifying his pay packet!
But to be honest: whatever it means, it sounds important, nano important and global I would say. But surely not quite as unique as love should be!

Anyway: we were faster than Apple! Nevertherless I guess, they will be more successful than we are, modestly growing Goodaboom as yet not quite so well-known as Apple, and certainly not the subject of lawsuits from The Beatles! Furthermore, the idea of giving a portrait, a flower painting or a personalised song for Valentines has still not pervaded the lovers minds. But no doubt, it will!
It´s just a question of trendsetting and Goodaboom is working hard at it:


(....and you´d better believe it!!!!)

The Collective Soul Mood

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Art Studio, Tuesday 23th January 2007

Allow me to introduce to you the painting which inspires me to write about the collective soul mood today. It is an aquarelle which I painted about 3 years ago in the context of a series about birds and inspired from the wonderful documentary film:
„The wind nomads“
(I may present this series to you one day in the 3D Gallery). I called it
„The Parrots Tree“
In fact the parrots are not parrots at all, as a French woman informed me in the Street Gallery two days ago: they are rather „perruches“. I knew this, but „perruches“ are in French synonyms for silly women, so I prefer to call them parrots and justify it with my right to artistic freedom!

I noticed that this painting is suddenly getting very popular since the beginning of the year, and on many occasions quite close to be sold. I noticed in the past, since I have been exhibiting regularly in the street (by the way a wonderful field of social behaviour studies, above all here where 40 different nationalities are represented!) that paintings underly a strange phenomenon similar to a fashion. „The Parrots Tree“ is a fantastic example of this. The fashion suddenly arises, people suddenly concentrate their look and enthusiasm on just one of my paintings, and this without being in any way connected to each other. I have no idea how that works: surely one of the unresolved secrets of evolution!
I understand how it works with products which are shown on TV for example, or in newspapers. A fashion may just be the result of massive indoctrination by people who recognise better than others the actual need of the collective soul. But how does it happen with my paintings?
Is it the result of a season related mood for some kind of colours, of themes, or techniques? Is for example the „Parrot Tree „ a kind of announcement of the spring? The parrots a kind of symbolism for blossoms? Or is it the fact that one doesn´t notice the birds at the first moment, which attracts people? Is the collective soul right now in a discovering mood? I really don´t know, have not even any theory –normally my speciality- about this phenomenon. If YOU have tell me: miki@goodaboom.com!
Normally such a fashion ends quite soon with the sale of the painting, and in short order a new one becomes the star. I wonder now who will tame the parrots, and which painting will next take the stage!

Anyway, it was a sunny, windless, almost warm day today in Albir, quite ideal weather for the Street Gallery. Many people were taking a walk along the beach and due to the weather, in an open minded mood, which is necessary to take the time to stop, look and enjoy my paintings. It´s always fascinating to see how the weather influences peoples behaviour. I have lived for a long time in three countries each representative in their own way of different weather types, and I can tell that peoples social behaviour is exactly a mirror image of the weather. But this is another story...
I was alone today, Kevin being in Mojacar gigging and installing a new bullfight exhibition. So I had to do the whole social thing alone, and it resulted in my spending the whole day babbling around with old clients, young clients, and hopefully future clients. I got many compliments, and there would be a lot of nice anecdotes to tell you about, but well, I haven´t got enough time to write, I must go on portraiting two Dutch kiddies.
I just want to mention that I even got the attention of a policeman... Strangely enough, he came walking from far away, where the police here normally never seem to leave their cars. I naively thought if he came walking, he might be interested in my art. I was just speaking to clients as he interrupted me:
„Do you have a permit for all that?
„Of course!““
„Can I see it?“
„I haven´t it with me here... but I´ve had for three years already“
He started explaining to me that such a permit must not be taken as guaranteed, and that I should regularly „refresh“ it.
„But I know, I did!“
Admittedly, this may only be partly true. One of the painters who was exhibiting with me in the past did in fact renew the permit that summer, but I´m not quite sure for how long, and I may really be an outlaw now! So I´ll have to go to the town hall and check it out... so if you don´t see me „working the street“ anymore, then you can be sure, that it is not because the weather impedes it... it will be more likely that the local government have decided that I´m no longer contributing to the wealth of the collective soul!



Above: Kevin´s illustration to this entry. Please forgive the policeman for his grammatical shortcomings...

Still captured within the rainbow...

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Art Studio, Saturday 20th January 2007


No time to write these last few days... I have been, and still am, very busy painting 3 portraits on commission and preparing exhibitions. Yes, the dream of freedom will long remain a dream, I guess. But to be fair: what a nice jail within the rainbow!
The last portrait commission I got this week confirms the tendency I´d already noticed recently. People begin to prefer portraits in „black&white“, as I call them. By that I mean portraits painted in white and one other colour, black, brown, sanguine, sepia, etc. (like the Tahitian girl).
That last client put clearly into words what others –including myself!- may just feel. She said:
„You make the portraits so well, it´s almost like photography... the black&white are more artistic, somehow....“
I am not sure it is a compliment, concerning the colour portraits... making them „too good“ might indeed be a kind of mistake. One might miss the artistic, personal interpretation.... but well, I won´t worry too much about it, it is always a matter of taste and many people love my colour portraits the way they are.

But personaly, I also prefer the others. I find them indeed more artistic and romantic (and I am a hopeless romantic!).
But in the meanwhile I appear to be developing a style a portrait which seems to keep the „artisticity“ (!) of the black&white without completely abandoning the colours.

A very young lady called „Fleur“ inspired me to such a portrait some weeks ago. I had been commissioned a painting in the technique of the Tahitian girl, but in the creation process I automatically started to put in some warmer colours. I felt that it was necessary to transmit the light and the warmth emanating from Fleur.
Finally it became a portrait in white and 3 tender colours. The result was beautiful, and the clients were very happy. All the people who saw the portrait loved it, and my last client ordered her grand-child in this style.

It is almost finished now, as it was very urgent, my clients are flying home in some days for the birthday of the grandchild.
The portrait is again in a different style. I couldn´t help it, I had to let my inspiration work with the model and the idea I had from her, basing on what the grandparents told me about the girl. I´ll show you this new portrait in one of my next entries... if you deserve it!

As Kevin told it in his last entry, he was gigging and mounting exhibitions near to Mojácar (Almeria/Spain) at the beginning of the week. Unfortunately I was not there myself, but I saw some photos of the „Sport for All“ exhibition by Rolys, in Vera/Las Bougainvillas, and I am very happy with how it looks. My paintings are hanging in a nice, big salmon/green room with a warm atmosphere and well-enhanced by the numerous spotlights. Thankyou again to Mark for allowing this exhibition!

Identity Rape

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Art Studio, Tuesday 16th January 2007


„We published www.goodaboom.com on Christmas Eve, announcing it with the innocent arrogance of the youth as
„A New Star is born!“
We thought it could be a promising start and the name would last for thousands of years like the name of another famous guy born on the same date...
Of course we rapidly forwarded the website address to family, friends and clients and they visited the site with enthusiasm. But their numbers are limited, and certainly not enough to achieve our so timid aim: that Planet Goodaboom is spinning around everywhere on the Earth!

The time has come now to enter the SEO competiton. The ones amongst you who take their sites seriously know what I am speaking about:
„The Search Engine Optimisation“.

With Kevin not possessing precisely the kind of eagerness and patience necessary to enter the run, I got the job. On the advice of our webmaster I bought a big clever book promising me an unfair advantage on winning the search engine wars. But fair enough: the book is really fantastic, and I am theoretically learning the very interesting secrets of war, especially concerning keywords. Unfortunately the keywords I had in my mind for THE ENCHANTED ART are used by millions of people around the world, so these keys no longer open any doors! But I found a very promising, secret weapon:the blogs. They actually seem to be „the perfect formula for the ultimate highranking page in Google“
This of course is totally in our interest as our blogs have become- in a natural way as we both enjoy writing- the heart of Goodaboom. So I read how to harness the power of the blogs. Soon I found myself registering our diaries in lots of blog companies controlling millions of other blogs. At first I found the possibility of being connected to the whole blogging earth fascinating, but after a while, I noticed how I seemed to be losing my identity, my uniqueness, and little by little, to become an atom of the Whole, the Whole being a gigantic writing machine in which each atom is trying to win the ranking run. And anyway: I don´t really want my diaries entries to be read and commented upon by any other blogger in the world. They are private. They BELONG to the visitors of Goodaboom, and ONLY them.

So I took a decision: I definitely won´t send my diary to the ranking war! I prefer to trust in fate, which always served me well in life, hoping that it will now serve to help many people find Goodaboom. And If one day you can´t see Planet Goodaboom any more in the Cyberspace, you can be sure that we have won the war and just flied away from the big success!

Sport for All

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Art Studio, Sunday 14th January 2007


Tomorrow my new sports themed exhibition starts in Vera (Almeria). For this occasion, and with the intention of sharing the real exhibition with our visitors here, Goodaboom purchased a new, wonderful toy: a 3D Gallery ! I just hope you will be patient enough to wait till the end of the initialising, but if not, the paintings are available a to view online in a flat way!

To embed the 3D Gallery into Goodaboom was quite complicated, as the existing structures were not exactly compatible. In my fight to get it just right, I guess I have sent some webmasters of this world insane! But the hardest challenge has been for me to speak the welcome and a small message into the microphone, above all in English. I had never done that before in my life! The first trials were awful, as the moment I should start to speak I was convulsed with giggles. Each take ended in a riot of laughter, not only but also from my sound master. We had to give up. The next day, I was not in such a light mood and the recording was more simple, I needed a mere 3 trials. Kevin spent then a lot of time repairing the German „ist“ which I spoke instead of the English „is“. I didn´t care, but Kevin was categoric: NO!

Anyway: you can hear the result in the 3D Gallery. Thanks to Kevin´s wonderful music especially composed for this 3D exhibition, I may not sound too silly... But it is a strange feeling to know, that my voice can be heard around the whole world now!

As I normally have a good ability to represent movement in painting, I was asked some years ago to make a series about sport. I was quite successful with them. I exhibited twice, and then I put them in a folder and forgot them again. (as it happens to many of my paintings!). We were thinking of a theme for the new exhibition In Almeria, and Kevin thought they would be ideal for that.

There is a nice anecdote to the football painting: when the paintings were exhibited earlier in a restaurant here. One day a seven year old spanish boy came into the restaurant and said, that he wanted to buy the footbal painting. He had come before with his parents and stood a long time in front of it, instead of eating, the owners told me. They asked the boy if he had money, He smiled, opened his hand and showed... a 1000 ptas note (about 6 euros). They told him it was not enough.
„But I have no more!“
he shouted, quite sure that this was the right argument. But well, the business world is hard and he had to leave with empty hands... and tears in his eyes!

As I heard the story some days later, I became very angry with the restaurant owners.
„You should have called me!“
Honestly: I would have sold the painting to the little boy at this price... just hoping that it was not a trick from his parents!

Two heads are better than one!

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Art Studio, Friday 12th January 2007


I was about to to call this entry „Slave to the Rhythm -3-“ but I didn´t want to risk sounding unthankful.
Yesterday I received a commission of two new portraits from proud Dutch grand-parents of their grand-children, two nice kiddies with „really red hair“, as the lady said, giggling (I altered the photo a little to preserve their anonymity...). Funny by the way: they came to my Studio with their own computer so we could choose the photos together, and the woman revealed herself to be a real computer buff, while her husband´s job was restricted to simply carrying the computer!. She even told me, that my Internet Security System was very bad and that people in the street could use my Internet at my cost... thank goodness it´s a standard charge!

Anyway... as always, as I asked them when they should be ready, they answered:
„Yesterday!“
Normally my clients are very impatient to see the result. In most cases it is the first time that they´ve ever ordered a portrait and they are quite excited. I have the impression that it makes them feel as though they are personally contributing to the World of Art. And in a certain sense it is true: without them the paintings wouldn´t exist. This is one of the reasons why I am so thankful for a commission: it allows me to create a new painting forcing me to push myself.
But at the same time, I feel a deep sense of responsibility. Of course I don´t want to ruin their expectations. nor simply create a good work of art. Above all I want my clients to find the soul within the portraits. A hard task, as all painters know who ´ve tried it themselves. The slightest change in a line or in a shadow can completely change the expression, and transform the person into a stranger. As a mathematician I would say:
„A wonderful example of the Chaos Theory!“

I had a nice conversation with a couple of compatriots on Sunday in the Street Gallery. They loved the portraits I was exhibiting that day. I told them that most of the time, I get portraits commissioned to give as gifts.

„Oh what a good idea! We never thought about that! Of course, it is a fantastic gift... what a pity that we didn´t meet you before Christmas!“

This is true. Most of the time people don´t think about giving the gift of a portrait. What a pity indeed! And not only from a business point of view: a good portrait is an everlasting gift, and the effect you achieve is simply wonderful!
I asked the Dutch couple, for example, if they wanted the two boys together on the same painting.
„Oh no, of course not! When they are grown-ups, and leave their parents house, they must each be able to take their own portrait, without ripping the painting down the middle!“
It is already the second time in this young year that I´ve heard that: apparently people who order a portrait think very far ahead!

The Cumulative Carapace Effect

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Art Studio, Wenesday 10th January 2007


„The cantankerous clerical worker
Remarked with clarity and crude humour
That the office looked like a charnelhouse
Due to the cumulative carapace effect

Shoo bee doo bedoo........“

Yes, this is The Singing Turtle´s – alias Kev Moore - last song! But don´t think twice:
the lyrics are not the product of a random word generator, like it may sound!
They are the result of a trip into the depths of the English language.

As we created Goodaboom, I absolutely wanted to have a diary. But there was a big problem for me: the language! Although my native language is French, my first steps as a serious writer were in German. I wrote thousands and thousands of pages in German in the past, diaries, dream books, short stories, a book for children and even a novel. As I came to Spain, to this area where about 30 different nations are represented, the languages began to interface in my brain, French, German, Spanish, English, Portuguese and even Russian as I was working together with a Russian painter.
Well... I had no choice for Goodaboom: I had to write my diary in english. But as a mathematician –this is another story, another day perhaps- my language is normally very precise and I noticed soon, that my english knowledge doesn´t allow me to write what I want to: what a frustration! Impatient as I am, I even considered the possibility of abandoning the diary. So some days ago Kevin, scared I would leave him alone with the responsibility of our visitors literary entertainment and also fed up hearing me moaning about my bloody linguistic incapacity, decided to give me some lessons in English vocabulary. I accepted the idea with deep enthusiasm as I always loved to learn languages.
But of course I am a difficult, easily bored student and he had to find an attractive method. We agreed to choose for each lesson a letter of the alphabet, starting with „a“, and to learn betwen 5 and 10 words beginnng with this letter. He gave me the „a“ and „b“ lessons, where I learn some words like „blithering idiot“, quite useful sometimes... But I soon became bored, it was not fun enough. And anyway, too difficult to remember the words. So, for the „c“ lesson, he had the idea –not quite his idea, if I remember, a well-known technique to train the memory - to make a sentence out of the chosen words, and even to put it into music.
And so it transpired that Kevin composed the verse at the top of this entry. This method has anyway an attraction for him as a poet and song writer: the phrases are by definition full of alliteration!
The method works very well and I can really recommend it to people who want to learn new vocabulary.
But today, the „d“ lesson confirmed a problem that arose in the „c“ lesson. As I have a certain basic vocabulary in English, Kevin must constantly come up with lesser known words. He ponders a while and then, triumphant, comes up with such words as „carapace, cumulative, clarity, crude, etc.“ which inevitably leads to my even more triumphant exclamation:
„But I know this word already!“
You should see his face then!
„How do you know?“
„Easy... it´s a French word!“
I won´t bore you with the chauvinistic conversation following this statement. But the fact is, the most difficult words he wants to teach me exist in French!
Anyway.. he had to change his wordsearch strategy today. And we ended up with:

„The demonstrative man
Denoted the diatribe of drivel
As he dabbled in drudgery
On a dreary day“

I learnt this sentence and I guess I will remember it tomorrow, but to tell the truth. I have no idea what it means, and not only because it is nonsense verse! The reason being that I have only English-Spanish, English-German and English-Russian dictionaries at home, and in none of these languages I know such words as diatribe and drivel!

So don´t wonder if my language gradually changes in my diary and you sometimes don´t understand everything... me neither! It is the so-called „cumulative carapace effect“.



PS: But at least one thing is sure: even if I don´t understand what I am „babbling“ („b“ lesson“!) about, Kevin´s chances to beat me at Scrabble are becoming less and less!

Slave to the Rhythm - 2. Fighting the Bulls

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Art Studio, Friday 5rd January 2007


„Slave to the Rhythm“: what a wonderful title for a song! And what an appropriate title to convey these painful confessions of a painter on commission...
It is not so long ago, a week perhaps, that I dreamt of artistic freedom and was determined to defend it with all my brushes and pencils. Then came the incident with the big painting (see part 1. La Folie des Grandeurs), which I have, by the way, turned to the wall in the hope that some day I ´ll be brave enough to face it again!
Then, 2 days ago, I heard that my bullfight exhibition in Vera should be prolonged, which puts me in conflict with the one planned in Mojacar. Therefore I now have only 2 solutions: either I postpone it, or I paint some new bulls.
But to tell you the truth, I have got a certain kind of bull allergy. Not that I get red when I see some –although I must admit that I would make myself scarce if a real one suddenly appeared in front of me and I´d certainly get red from the exertion! No, you see, the thing is, in the last two years I painted many bullfights, and sold almost as many. Little by little, people seem to steer me into the job of a bullfight painter. Even my father, an active animals rights campaigner, was quite disgusted as he saw my first bullfight painting. So I couldn´t believe my ears as I heard him saying, some days ago:
„I hope you are painting some new bullfights!“
Curiouser and curiouser. He just loves the colours, the movement, and, last but not least, the success I ´ve had with them. Something similar occurs with my clients. When I ask them:
„So, you like bullfights?“
they immediately answer, almost offended:
„Not at all!“
but hastily add with a guilty look:
„But we like how you paint it!“
Anyway... I am currently in the middle of my own bullfight, rebelling against the fate of becoming a bullfight painter. Trying to find a solution, I decided to change the themes, not always in the expected tradition, but a slightly different view, like the bull in the picture above. I didn´t like it at all as I finished it some time ago: I missed of course the colours, and above all the man in front of the bull. So I hid it and forgot it.
Some time later I found it again, by accident. Kevin saw it and said, it was wonderful. I found it to be better that it existed in my memory, so we decided to present it in the Vera exhibition: it was sold within one week! Hard to believe for me, but my agent had a smug grin on his face!

Faithful to my character always trying to reach the impossible – we have in french a kind of proverb saying: „impossible n´est pas francais!“ -, I tried this week to recover some of my, and not to mention the bulls, freedom within our slavery of the rhythm. Put simply, the glorious freedom of a herd of bulls in the wild!
The price of freedom is high: A difficult theme! I thought I would suffer. But I am quite happy now with the result. I will exhibit it tomorrow in the Street Gallery and see how the people react to it. And then, I guess, the herd will make its way to Vera, to fill the vacant places left by the ones who are gone (not dead, no, my bulls never die).


PS: The rhythm slave in me will go on hoping that the spanish animals rights league will succeed in banishing the bullfight from spanish life!

Slave to the Rhythm - 1. La Folie des Grandeurs

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Art Studio, Wednesday 3rd January 2007


First of all:
„Happy New Year to everybody reading these lines! And let me pass on to you the words of my friend Graham –currently springing from wall to wall in Australia...-:
„KEEP THE KULTURE!“

I spent the whole month of December painting on commission and working on the creation of www.goodaboom.com. I loved doing all these things, but it was hard work and I really missed my artistic freedom. I missed sitting in front of a blank sheet of white paper with a brush in hand and lots of beautiful colours on the palette, without any idea of what would come out, just following some unconscious inspiration. So I promised myself to start painting for ME right from day one of the new year, whatever happens
I had painted in 2006 new works in gouache, kind of abstract, and many people who saw them loved them. I was asked several times if I had paintings in that style in acrylics or oil, and above all on big canvas. The last time was on Sunday in the Street Gallery, an english man with a minimalist flat and a fear of frames. He was after bold colours and big frameless canvasses to avoid the possibility of clashes when redecorating. And no, as yet, I haven´t such big paintings..

As a result of these people insisting, my agent Kev Moore (looks more like a secret agent, doesn´t he? ) made pressure on me. I refused.
„Why?“
he asked, obviously determined not to let go of the bone.
„Well... I don´t feel like that... it is so dirty!“
I must tell you, that the way I paint, everything on and around me is full of colour, even if I am painting a miniature... so imagine when it´s a big one!
„But Miki, it´s normal... what do you expect, it´s painting!“
Quite funny to explain me what painting is ...
„We will see....“
I was thinking of my freedom, and I exactly knew I had lost it even before I´d recovered it.
He smiled, aware he´d won the skirmish.
„What will it be about?
„Don´t know... must be yellow!“
„Why yellow?“
„Well, I feel like yellow... and a Spanish woman told me that my colours, especially my yellows, make people happy!“
„This is indeed a good reason!“
Yesterday morning, first thing, I took the biggest canvas I had at home and started painting. I spent hours at it and at the end it seemed that the art work was everywhere except on the canvas: my atelier, my clothes, my german boots and my laces (see ) were covered with acrylics!
„Can I see it?“
asked Kevin, quite excited and impatient as he saw how artistic I looked myself..
„NO!!!!!“
If looks could kill... He didn´t insist. I think he mentioned it in his diary today...


I dont dare to show you the whole work, but this detail view to the left is quite nice, I guess.... unfortunately it represents about 1% of the whole surface! If I could only apply the mathematical laws of fractals to it!

I often notice that tiny parts of paintings – and not only mine! – are much more beautiful that the whole paintings, a quite interesting but frustrating observation, believe me!
I must ask:
„Why the hell paint the rest?“
but I already know the answer... La Folie des Grandeurs!

The Price of a Father´s Hand

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Street Gallery, Sunday 31st december 2006


Always a great feeling to see a man kneeling in front my art! I don´t know why, but it often happens that people take some strange positions in front of my paintings... I imagine that the most pragmatic amongst you would say:

You might be right, but often I have the feeling that people are trying to enter the pictures.
„it´s just because your pictures are tiny and laying on the ground!“

An Italian woman told me one day:
„Your paintings... they´re not quite reality... more like a dream... but a dream which one wants to enter, to go deeper and deeper inside! And at the end it is very hard to leave, it´s like a spell!“
It was one of the most beautiful compliments I have ever received! Anyway... I wonder above all how elastic old people still can be when they want to!

It was busy today in the Street Gallery, I would say: vibrating! Before we set up, I was not quite sure, it made sense to be there, thinking the people had better things to do on New Year´s Eve than to admire my paintings. I was wrong. I got a great deal of attention, many compliments and as a result, some sales are expected this week in the Studio.. .
My first wishes for the New Year came from a german painter. He said, that my prices are much too low, adding that his own prices are higher, but well, in Germany... We are in Spain here, and some articles are still expected to be cheap. Paintings for example. But perhaps only because there is much competition, as I mentioned before... (read december 2006, There are 50 ways to leave your Lover). And also because of these studios scattered around Spain, where hundreds of east european painters are working on a production line for the big chain store „El Corte Ingles“, producing 3000 times the same original painting for 30€...

There were a couple of interesting moments in the Street Gallery, Kevin talks about some of them in his diary today, but the most touching one for me was created by a spanish woman. She looked intensely at my new picture from the series „Hands“ and spoke to her friend about it, It is always a delicate situation when people are commenting on my work in private. Most of the time I am not supposed to understand them as they all speak in different languages, but unfortunately, I myself speak and understand most of them. Anyway whilst I am trying to respect the intimacy of their thoughts, guiding my ears to the „ bbzzzes“ of the wind or the „rrrssshhhes“ of the sea, I am only human and human it is to listen when some stranger is speaking about you!
I heard the woman say to her friend:
„Well, I go to the artist now... I must always speak to the author of what I admire... see if I can speak to this girl...“
and she marched bravely towards me. En passant: thankyou for „the girl“, senora!
As the woman realised that I understood spanish very well, I noticed a certain concern... but well, her conscience was clear, all I´d heard from her had been very positive.
She asked me to come with her to the hands, and remarked:
„It´s fantastic what you have done here... painters normally paint mothers with babies, and especially mothers´hands... you have painted the hand of a father... it´s amazing how you could evoke what a father IS, only showing his hand!“
I told her that 2 weeks ago I had sold the hand of a grandfather holding the hand of his grandson... A great idea, she said.
And of course she then asked the price of the hand. As I told her, she was very shocked and the magic was gone: so much for the idea that I am too cheap!!!!