The Christmas Cafe Crem Competition

I´ve got a new idea!

“Oh dear”, you might think, “Miki is on a roll again!”

Yes, I am, the simple truth being that I can´t live without new ideas…

So here it is:

I am here announcing officially the Christmas Cafe Crem Competition. The rules are quite simple, and there is a big box full of Christmas stuff to win.
For more info and participation, please go to Café Crem, or contact me here...

Empty Pages

My niece visited me again on Saturday evening, her gentle way to help me through Kevin´s absence.. He was gigging in the UK, in a big venue in Brean on the West Coast, everybody attending in 70´s "Glam" fancy dress.
We wanted to have a nice dinner together -she should cook, I can´t!,- and to look at the film about Beatrix Potter. But once again neither of us had any idea that it was a festive day here, -one more!- and all the shops were closed!
So we had the last pizza that I had in the fridge, and instead of Miss Potter, I made NanoO pose for me. I suggested to her she should read, it would be easier for her, and for me. She took a book, I took my sketch pad, and here we are.
After a while only I noticed that she was reading an empty book. I asked
"Do you read an empty book because you can´t read?"
She looked at me with an expression of deep but resigned despair on her face:
"I read empty books because they are the only ones I understand!"
For a girl actually finishing her doctor thesis on Proust, quite worrying I would say....!

One Tiny Nothing on the Edge of Space and Time....

Perhaps I shouldn´t shout to the world how I feel when YOU are away
how lonely
how lost
how insignificant
how nothing
just one tiny nothing
or even two
on the Edge on Space and Time....

But I can´t help, even when I know that nobody hears me from so far away,
not even YOU
because when we are apart
YOU are
just another tiny nothing
or even two
on the other Edge of Space and Time....

Sad

Kevin sleeping yesterday afternoon... instead of rehearsing for his gig this weekend in the UK!
Yes, he is such a funny guy, my Kevin, even when he sleeps...
That´s all for today. Because he is gone and I am sad.

He gets Rumblies in his Tumblies!

Today I want to say a big big thankyou to my partner Kev Moore playing a very special role in my painter career, forcing himself to eat kilos of yoghurt every day -vanilla is his favourite, and straciatella is not bad either...
What has this to do with me as a painter, you may ask...
Very simple. In this way he provides me continually with the enormous yoghurt pots which I use to put the water in awhen I paint, especially with gouache or acrylics. I use a lot of them, because I am quite delicate with that, and hate to use a pot twice. Considering how much I paint everyday, one can imagine how many yoghurt pots I need ...
Sometimes, he really looks like a big bear eating honey, my Kevin..

Toro, Arte, Alegria and B.S. Wattenbuttel...

It seems to be done now, I will have in 2009 and 2010 a bullfight paintings calendar printed and published in 7 countries from Eastern Europe and Germany... and, what is very important for me, I have established a kind, respectful and fair contact to the publisher company. I have worked myself in industry in Germany, and I know how difficult it is sometimes, due to the competition in the market place, to keep fair and kind... so happy to see that it still exists!

And yesterday I made an appointment for a visit to my art studio from a Scandinavian art lover group, called "Arte y Alegria". Three of them came to me, loved the Studio and my paintings, and I guess we will have some nice hours together when they all come at the end of the month. We might even organise something for them, with music, and spoken poetry... Kevin has such a fantastic voice!

By the way:Kevin wrote a new funny poem yesterday, B.S. Wattenbuttel, illustrated with the following picture, which I adore!

A girly evening with Champagne

Yesterday morning Kevin drove to Valencia, to catch a plane to Germany, Lübeck, where he had a BC Sweet gig in the night. Before I met him, I didn´t really know how it is to fear for somebody when he is on the road, or in the air! Well, now, I know, and I can tell you; it is AWFUL! I can´t help thinking, everytime, that it could be the last time ...

Knowing of my pain, my beloved niece NanoO came to visit me in the evening, bringing a bottle of Cava (kind of Spanish Champagne) and a ready to cook pizza. Funny, with the Cava....
"Maset et Carpon",
was the name, obviously based on one of the famoust French Champagne called:
"Moet et Chandon"
hoping to catch some tourist or uneducated native... Knowing the French and their pride, I guess they would be gravely offended if they knew!

But my niece and me, both French, are quite relaxed with such things and just enjoyed the stuff and its tiny bubbles!
We had a lovely evening together, laughing a lot, and she was kind enough to pose for me for some fast sketches...
That girl is a beauty, as you can see, but don´t think twice: she is already taken!

Darkness in my soul...

Yesterday afternoon we mounted my exhibition in the Eye Clinic. The first painting I put on the wall, in front of the entrance door, was the biggest one, the one from Polop I presented in my last entry (but without the gay flag, of course!).
The reaction came at once:
"It is so dark and so big... don´t you have something else?"

Saying that, his face told such an horror story that if I were not so well-educated, I would have left at once, with all my paintings. Instead of that I humbly hung the painting where he said, on another wall which is most of the time hidden by an open door to another room. The other paintings, luckily, were brighter... although by one of them, the man said:
"I guessed Hamburg..."
and it was featuring a harbour here in Spain... 2 kilometers away from the Eye Clinic location! My fault I guess, as i painted it in northern colours...

I wanted to show you today some photos of the exhibition, But I was so fed-up that I couldn´t do any... and the rest of my day was spoiled! People sometimes are so cruel with us, artists. I don´t even believe they mean to be, and perhaps it´s only me who has such an extremely high sensitivity...

But don´t worry, I´m fine now, and all my energy is back.
I have just started the new "Give me a Title" competition on Planet Goodaboom. Feel free to participate and... there is something to win!
Here is the painting featured in the competition:

Gays and Guns and Roses...

And the story goes on...
Yesterday we had a good and funny lunch in Benidorm with my parents and other members of my family.
The same day as the Mayor was shot, I had dinner with my parents and I had spoken with my mother about the case. She was not as shocked as me, perhaps because she is older and wiser. She hadn´t even given the thing such an importance.

In the middle of the lunch the case came to mind again.
"By the way... do you know that the Mayor finally died?"
I asked her.
"Yes... and do you know why?"
"Well... There were some suspects at the beginning, a French couple and an English couple, all because of some property disputes around a new road...
"Nooooooo!.", corrected my mother, "the suspect French and English couples were not even there when it happened... no.... the Mayor´s wife, 5 years ago, after finding her husband in bed with a man, tried to commit suicide by throwing herself out of the window. She survived, but in a wheelchair, and they divorced. Now they say that it is only a story of jealous gays..."
I couldn´t believe my ears and almost choked on my food!
"How do YOU know that? from the TV?
"No... from Isabel..."
Isabel is my mother´s cleaning lady, an enormous 50 year old, local Spanish woman who always knows everything about everything.

As soon as I was home I made some research on the Internet and couldn´t find anything concerning Isabel´s theory. It seems that The Guardia Civil still hasnt´a clue what happened. But I wonder: if they had, would they say?

Now I don´t feel comfortable with my exhibition in memory of the Mayor, Not that i despise gays -I don´t care-, but a murder between jealous gays is surely not worth an exhibition of my work!

Anyway I don´t take any responsibility for the theory postulated in this entry!