Sleepy Eyes
rainy skies
sleepy eyes
watching
over you
and me
(c) Imke Rust
I took this photograph on a rainy day just a few days before the great floods in Meissen, Germany. The Elbe, the river running through Meissen was already filling up more and more at that time… Now large parts of the old city center are under water.
So I am posting this thinking of all the people who are affected by the great floods in Germany at the moment.
We are living in on the top floor of a multistory building, which means we are often using the elevator and spend the longest time in it. Just like the building, the elevator is neither pretty, nor very welcoming. I guess, in general elevators are usually not the nicest places.
Often on my way up or down, I am thinking of how the elevator is actually like a life-vein of the building, moving tenants and their guests up and down. And it is a central, small space which almost all occupants share and use on a regular basis. It is a pity that it is so bland and uninspiring.
Inside view of our elevator, once you enter
I decided to change that…
The door is busy closing…
The door is completely closed, revealing the full message
As usual I made sure that my intervention is not permanent or damaging somebody else’s property and it can easily be removed 😉
A temporary intervention in a public space by Imke Rust.
Digital print on photo paper and sticky tape.
Tread softly
in the world
let your feet be
carried
by butterflies
and the earth be
caressed
by the gentleness
of your touch
(Imke Rust)
I have a confession to make.
It involves hotel rooms, bad art and a developing compulsive (dis)order.
It started about 2 years ago. In a holiday bungalow in northern Germany…
I realized that every time I looked at the wall and the poor excuse-of-an-artwork hanging there, I became nauseous and my rebel soul escaped from its chains. It does not happen very often, but it has since become a serious addiction with a recognizable pattern.
Have you ever noticed the crap they hang on the walls in a room which, for a brief amount of time, is supposed to be your comfortable home away from home? A room which you usually pay a substantial amount of money for? And in my case, this money is hard-earned by producing and selling enough good art to be able to afford an occasional weekend away.
Ok, you might have not noticed. But that shall be forgiven, because usually it is so bland or so bad, that you might not even notice or remember it. But I started to feel really insulted. Usually the art they hang looks cheaper and more tasteless than the carefully selected rubbish bin in the same room.
Anyway. I just returned from a brief visit to Frankfurt. I was invited to attend the glamorous Live Entertainment Awards 2013 and accommodated in a nearby fancy hotel.
There it happened again.
Recognizing the pattern, I thought this time I rather confess straight away.
Our room on the 32nd floor was decorated with a digital print of some kind of old engraving, possibly showing an early view of Frankfurt. (There was no signature or any other information provided to trace the artwork to its original creator.) It was paced behind glass in a big golden frame and securely fastened to the wall with screws. Yes, screwed, as if the hotel worries that somebody will want to steal it?!? Ok, granted, the white pass-partout might have some kind of value on the recycling market for some poor artist…
The decoration in the hotel room… (or the “Before” picture)
I had to do something. Usually I never go anywhere without a small selection of essential art materials and tools, but this time I just grabbed a few pens and my sketchbook, not expecting much free time for creative adventures. Limitations often tickle me to become even more creative and soon I had a rough plan, fitting my ethics of doing as little harm as possible.
The unsuspecting hotel staff agreed to lend me a pair of scissors large enough to cut creative designs into the curtains. The hotel also provided me with a complimentary copy of a glossy magazine. Lastly I got a piece of double-sided tape from the team preparing the Frankfurt Festhalle for the LEA awards. Addicts like me, just know how to get their fix 😉
I am still not ready for the ‘show and tell’ part – please bear with me, this is not an easy confession, but I promise, it is serious fun.
Looking out of our window, we had a great view of Frankfurt am Main with its huge skyscrapers housing several large financial institutions and banks. Frankfurt a.M. is known as the financial hub of Germany, I am told. If there is something that gives me an even worse allergic reaction than bad art, it is the whole financial industry with their dubious systems and the way they rule the world.
Frankfurt am Main morning skyline view from our room
With the banks in the back of my mind (even literally when I turned around from the window and looked at the artwork in our room), a magazine at hand, scissors and tape I was ready to spend the afternoon happily in our room. Much better than shopping or sight-seeing!
Selecting pictures from the magazine – trying to find images that suit the original artwork in size and which add some thought-provoking content. Glad I found this one in a mag that mostly features fashion
Using the huge scissors to cut out the tiny figures was not an easy task
The images were backed with double-sided tape
and then carefully positioned and stuck onto the glass. That way, it can easily be removed and I will hopefully not have to face a ‘Destruction of private property’ charge.
Hotel deco-busting collage ‘Love and Devotion’ by Imke Rust (or the “After” picture)
Limited by the available images, materials and the fact that the decorative ‘artwork’ was behind glass and fastened to the wall, this was a great challenge, but I really like the result and think it worked out perfectly. (Thank you, dear universe, for always providing me with exactly what I need! 😉 )
Detail: centre of image with title of art work. Because the images are stuck onto the glass, they cast a shadow and the whole artwork gets a nice three-dimensional feel.
Only two images really worked for me with this picture, considering the size, colours etc., so I ended up with Chinese military procession and some models dressed in futuristic, Asian inspired fashion. While the soldiers looked quite informal, the models posed in an almost threatening and powerful way. So this work seemed to be headed into the direction of a subtle confrontation or battle. Possibly between the female and male powers? Or Europe and Asia? I was a bit apprehensive about displaying a battle or aggression, so I wanted to add some relief to this tense situation.
Detail of the deco-busting collage ‘Love and Devotion’ © Imke Rust
I found a speech-bubble with the text “We don’t want taxpayers having to save banks” and thought, that this statement suits my view, it would be a perfect cause for these ladies to protect and it would give the artwork a comic feel, making it a bit ‘lighter’, but still with a serious message. I also decided to give the work a title and place it in the middle of the pass-partout, like it was often done with old prints. From the limited text phrases available “Love and Devotion” seemed to be a perfect choice.
Detail of the deco-busting collage ‘Love and Devotion’ © Imke Rust
I then decided this should be a dialogue. If the female part is allowed to say something, then the male part will also get a voice. I found a tiny empty speech bubble in the hotel brochure and drew a heart in it and placed it above a smiling soldier…
And some more dialogue happens when you open the curtains and can see Frankfurt’s skyline with the building of the Deutsche Bank (amongst others) reflected on the image…
Reflections of the modern Frankfurt skyline on the altered image
I love adding fun and value to the ‘artworks’ and decoration in hotel rooms or holiday apartments, and have done so on several occasions. I wish I could see the faces of the people who notice the interventions and know what they are thinking. I also wish I knew how long it takes the hotel staff to recognize the interventions and see what they decide to do about it. Hopefully it will put a smile on some people’s faces!
I plan to share some of my previous similar interventions with you too and hope that I can visit many more hotels or holiday apartments in the near future.
Blogging makes you meet all kinds of interesting artists and fellow bloggers – at least virtually. Recently I have read about an initiative by the artist collective Theo: Tauschrausch (German for something like barter buzz) and decided to participate.
I love the idea of exchanging artworks instead of selling them. Exchanging my artworks for services or goods produced by somebody else, or alternative for artworks from fellow artists is such a cool idea, although not always that easy.
Theo has a offered a collection of their handmade cards and I decided to present them with the postcards of my recent land art works.
The deal was done and I received the most beautifully packaged edition of postcards:
Beautifully packaged postcards by Theo
Postcards by Theo – old fashioned black & white collage style – very cool
Thank you very much Theo! One cannot find a more beautiful excuse to take up a fountain pen, write an art postcard and send it of into the world…. (or on second thoughts maybe just to just keep them all to myself 😉 )
Have a look at more of Theo’s work here and find out who they are.
I could never really afford luxury things, such as dying my hair. So when my hairdresser told me that she just loves my artwork, but cannot afford to buy it, we quickly decided that we can fix two problems in one go with exchanging art for beautiful cuts and amazing colours. Following is one of several works, which I have exchanged with my wonderful and very talented hair dresser (Heidi from Heidi’s Hair Studio) in Windhoek.
Yin & Yang from the ‘wo-man’ series (Ink on rice paper, 70 x 70cm by Imke Rust) © Imke Rust
Stunning colours and cuts by my favourite hairdresser in return
I received this 2-piece artwork by Bremen artist Edeltraut Rath in return for one of my dog images from the Power & Politics Series in 2006:
Untitled by Edeltraut Rath from Bremen
The two painted wooden blogs are just beautiful and can be hung or displayed standing in a variety of ways. I just love the warm and sunny colours. (unfortunately the photograph is not the best)
It would be great if we could exchange real things and services with each other more often, instead of using money as a form of payment!
Tell me – have you exchanged or bartered things before or could you imagine doing it? And what was exchanged for what? Did you experience any problems or wonderful surprises? I would love to know more stories about this.
Wishing you a great week!
If you can’t beat them, join them…
I guess that applies to the weather too. If you cannot beat the cold – play along.
So that is what I did for Easter. As I already mentioned in my previous Easter post, I am not really into the whole Easter thing and much to some people’s despair I only ever follow rituals or parts of them, which seem like real fun to me, when I am in the mood for it or if they make some other kind of sense to me (and that does not always need to be the rational kind of sense 😉 ) .
Since we were invited for an Easter dinner and I recently read something about freezing water in balloons, I decided to create some frozen Easter eggs, suitable as an ephemeral gift for the host’s garden and the icy cold weather.
I filled water into balloons and hung them in the freezer. After the water was frozen, I peeled off the balloon.
Now I boiled some beetroot peels (the rest of the root was turned into a yummy raw salad) to get a natural and environmentally friendly colour for the red egg. Only at this stage I remembered to take photographs of the process. I used commercial food colouring for the other two eggs as I ran out of time for being more creative in making my own colours.
Boiled beetroot peels create a lovely red colour…
…which I used to paint the frozen ice/egg
The eggs were stored in the freezer and then transported in a padded cool-box to our dinner hosts.
Easter eggs stored safely in the freezer
Then the Easter bunny (i.e. me) could not decide, where to place the eggs, to get the best visibility – these eggs were not made for hiding after all. After trying the pretty white snow blanket of the back yard, I decided it is best to place them right in view of the front door, even if there was not an ‘all white’ dense snow covering as I had wished for.But they would be in plain view of everybody leaving or entering the house.
The Easter eggs in their full glory
Easter Eggs viewed from the top
Much to my joy, they were well received…. 🙂 And we were treated to a delicious meal and lovely evening.
The bunny left some frozen Easter eggs at the front door…
And if they have not melted, they might still be there today…
Wishing you a great remainder of the week!
Just a brief update, on two of my previous posts. Let me start of with a quote, which is very central to my understanding of what this is about:
Gratitude in advance is the most powerful creative force in the universe. (N.D. Walsh)
Some time ago I posted two stories about ‘calling the rain’ in Namibia, “Waiting for rain” and “Secret ingredients for making rain“. Namibia has been really dry and many people were/are afraid that this will be a year of a disastrous drought…. (you can read more of my thoughts about this at ‘Where are the clouds?‘).
Now, finally the rain has come to Namibia!!! Whoohoo…!!!
Besides being really happy about this news, I had to smile to myself, as it just proved to me, that the sending out positive intentions with the rainmakers is really working.
We just have to be patient and keep on believing. Even if it takes a bit longer. Trusting that everything is the way it should be and it is good. Just wait without fear, knowing that everything that is is a blessing. Our prayers will be heard, our needs will be taken care of! So count your blessings (really do) and praise each one of them.
Over the past few months I have made several different ‘rainmakers’ to remind myself to keep on believing in the rain and that it will come, no matter how bleak the forecast looked or how many people exclaimed their fear and worries. Each time I make one, I consciously imagine the rain falling and saying thank you to the universe that it has always provided me with everything I needed.
It does not need to be an elaborate artwork, Sometimes I even think the easier they come and the more fun they are, the better. It makes it easier to feel joy and gratitude in my heart. And I think that helps to focus the energy and my desire for rain and not on getting a ‘perfect’ piece of art out there.
Here are some of my rainmakers:
Another ‘Rainmaker’ which I have made in January in Namibia ©ImkeRust
‘Seeing the Clouds’ – a digital artwork of superimposing a raining cloud onto a satellite view of southern Africa/Namibia by Imke Rust ©
‘Cloud with the Flower of Life’ – digitally manipulated photograph by Imke Rust ©
After the first good rains we all hope and pray that it will keep on raining, till we have enough to overcome the next dry season.
Some friends have liked my rainmaker idea so much, that they have decided to make their own rainmakers and that surely played a big role and contributed to making it rain 😉 . Here is an photo from a rainmaker, which my brother’s girlfriend Amanda has made:
Amanda’s Rainmaker ©
What she wrote about it: it has alot saying and meaning to it. If you look close.
A. Clouds bonding. B. Protection for Our Solar System, The Sun C. At Full Moon there is Poaching, so I created the Stars and Moon, with a Cross that Protect the Wild Animals, there is an Oryx. D. Grass should Grow very High. E. Flowers for the Bees. F. Enough grass for the Cattle. G. Enough Water from the Clouds, going Left to Right. And it has worked somehow.
How cool is that?
It feels great that my ideas and work keeps on inspiring others, and they come up with their own unique and beautiful artworks or rituals.
Thank you, dear universe, for all your blessings and sending rain our way! By the way, I am still eagerly awaiting spring/summer over here in Berlin… 😉 – but I am sure you have already made a plan for that too! 🙂
Happy Easter Bunny (Ink & water colour on A4 water colour paper + digital text added) by Imke Rust ©
I do not really celebrate Easter and have always found it quite odd how the Christian story of Jesus’ death and resurrection was combined with colourful eggs, chocolate and cute bunnies… But I guess as long as it has meaning and importance to somebody, it is cool, and it is good to have rituals and reasons to celebrate.
Possibly my inquiring mind too often asks ‘Why?” and is not easily satisfied with the ‘normal’ answers if they do not make sense to me. And I am puzzled by how many people never even ask this question, or are just too easily satisfied with the often superficial answers or reasoning.
Actually I do like rituals and the whole original idea behind them. So I thought to share with you an Easter ritual which I found quite cool:
A few years back I had the privilege to celebrate Easter with some friends in Germany who had a very special ritual. We had to get up some time before sunrise (a real challenge especially in the cold weather) and go to the forest to find a natural spring. All this time nobody was allowed to talk or say anything – which made me be very aware of everything we did and contemplate the energy of the spoken word. Somehow it felt really sacred, and I think that it focused the attention strongly on the intention, instead of dispersing it with too much ‘mindless chatter’. I do believe that words are a strong creative force and whatever we say has an impact on our reality.
At sunrise everybody collected some fresh water in glasses which we brought along and took some of the water to sprinkle over us and wash our hands. The water which was collected is called Easter water and will be kept in the house for the whole year as a kind of protection and blessing – it is supposed to stay pure and fresh for the whole year. Only once the water has been collected and the sun has risen, everybody stands in a circle, hold each others’ hands, say grace and blessings and wishing each other a ‘Happy Easter’. Somehow I really liked that.
For today I decided to share with you my ‘Happy Easter Bunny’ to bring you a smile and some happiness. And to remind us all, of how grateful we can be. This bunny is the weirdest looking creature, rather ugly in a way and surely not able to hop along in a graceful manner with those legs – but still, it seems to be so happy and full of lightness, radiating warmth and love and not caring a single bit about the outside circumstances. I wish that he may pop up in your minds and hearts whenever you feel down, lonely or insecure and remind you look for the beauty and blessings in even the darkest moments.*
So, wishing you all a very happy Easter bunny and enjoy the weekend and celebrations – remember, there always is something to celebrate 🙂
* For everybody who wonders how I work or come up with the images:
Often I just put my pen to paper and start drawing whatever comes to my mind – in this case I saw an image of an owl and started to draw the eyes. Then I am guided by the drawing and somehow it tells me what to do next. I do not consciously think about it, but just follow what feels right. Being very rational, it is often really difficult to let this happen, because my mind tries to tell me stuff, like: ‘you drew owl eyes, so this must become a bird’ or ‘this is really ugly, you can’t do that’, ‘this is not the kind of legs a bunny has…’. I try to ignore the critical voice of my mind and just follow my heart and eye and am often really surprised by the outcome and the insights I get from the process and the final image. It is as if a kind of dialog happens between me and the creature that I create. If you are interested to read even more about my art making process, you might want to look at one of my earlier posts “…and sometimes they tell me their names“, which is still very popular and insightful.
Hello summer – where are you?
On Friday this was the view out of my studio:
View from my studio – it is snowing…
So I decided to cut a stencil to welcome the summer… (as you can see, I am still struggling with the weather here in Berlin…)
Stencil – Hallo Sommer ©ImkeRust
Just to make sure that the welcoming note will be understood in Germany, I have used proper German, even though I liked “Hello Summer” better. Guess I am still more comfortable thinking in English…
And Sunday my boyfriend and I have planned to get out of the city and drive to a tiny forest on a tiny hill which we have discovered some time ago, the Lindenberg. I love these outings, as I can always find something fun to do, to interrupt the long walks my boyfriend loves to take. As you can gather, I am not that fond of endless walks…
So here are some photos of what happened when we were not walking:
Hallo Sommer (Dark soil on snow) © Imke Rust
Hallo Sommer (Dark soil on snow) © Imke Rust
I took along the stencil and decided I wanted to use eco-friendly materials. Fortunately I found some really dark earth from mole heaps close by to make this.
Hallo Sommer (Dark soil on wood) © Imke Rust
Trying out the stencil on a dead tree, which was more difficult because of the round shape…
I brought some Curcuma powder along from home, just in case I would not find any other suitable materials to use, and because of the warm yellow colour. So I had to try that out too. I was not all that happy with the result. Unfortunately the wind had picked up a lot making it difficult to pour the powder without spilling over the edges. The sieve which I used to add the dark soil in the previous pictures also did not work for this one, as the powder was to fine… and so to much powder plopped down… Anyway, I still like the warm colour 🙂
Hallo Sommer (Curcuma on snow) © Imke Rust
Hallo Sommer -Close-up(Curcuma on snow) © Imke Rust
And finally, a picture of me taking pictures of another work, which I hope to share at another time. Hint: I am the one hiding beneath all those layers of clothes…
Me, packed warmly, taking photographs © Imke Rust
Wishing you a wonderful week!
After a brief appearance in Berlin the sun and warmth have disappeared again, making way for cold winter temperatures and a thick layer of snow.
So this is my official call for the sun to return. And my goldfish once again helped me with the task, by reminding the universe of the shape, colour and fun the sun can bring.
Goldfish, sun & snow ©ImkeRust
And since my family and friends back in Namibia are still desperately waiting for the rain, I thought I just send over a some clouds which I have collected some time ago (knowing that they might be in demand soon 😉 ). And I have asked them to take along all the clouds from Berlin and other rainy friends which they encounter along their way. Common clouds – the party is happening down in Namibia, so get yourselves over there in a hurry!
Cloud#1389 ©ImkeRust
Cloud#1394 ©ImkeRust
Wishing you all a happy week! Filled with sun or rain – whatever you need! But mostly filled with gratitude and love for that what is…
Imke Rust 