Category Archives: Drawing

How to create miracles

As you probably know, I am a big believer in miracles. They do happen, all around us, in big and small ways.

Happy by Imke Rust (Ink on 250g/m2 acid-free watercolour paper, 14,8 x 10,6cm)

Very often we are waiting for that one big miracle to happen! Like winning the lottery or living in eternal bliss… And then we are upset if that never seems to happen.

That always reminds me of the joke of the guy who prays for weeks to win the lottery, until he really gets upset with God and vents his frustration about his prayers not being heard. Suddenly a voice thunders down from heaven, saying: Meet me half way – buy a ticket.

So, whenever I am waiting or hoping for a miracle to happen, I wonder if I have done my half? Have I bought the ticket?

Sometimes it is so very simple: I always wish for the miracle of being able to do what I want to do with total freedom. Just create whatever I feel like. Instead usually a little insistent voice in my head rumbles: NO – you can’t do that! That will not sell! That is too easy! No way, what will people think if you paint like that?! Now, really, do you think any gallery will take you seriously when you show stuff like that? Ok, that is pretty neat, I like that – BUT how do you think this will generate any money? Remember, you need to pay your bills…

And so it goes on and on, and sometimes I find a successful way to navigate through this and be kind-of-happy. Until I realise that I have more and more work, and still very little income. Then I work harder at doing things, which I think will be better suited to generate an income, improve my career options and become a successful artist. This usually ends up with me being frustrated and depressed. And feeling like lifting up my fist to the sky and say: I have done my part, now where is that miracle of total creative freedom without financial worries I have prayed for?

During one of those frustrated times a different, kinder and gentler voice suddenly popped into my head and matter-of-factly said:

Some miracles you just have to create yourself.

What? Me? How? (I have already tried all those little tricks which I have read about, such as visualisation, praying etc.)

And then I realised: Yes – I can!

Sure. Even if it is for short periods of time, I can just choose to be happy and do whatever I like. I will not starve immediately. No seriously bad things will happen if I take an hour or so of my time and create whatever I feel like… I just need to make the choice and do it!

And so I created this miracle. An hour or two of blissful and fun painting of pretty stuff and trying my hand at lettering – just because I felt like it.

Some miracles… 3 artworks by Imke Rust (Guache, ink and pen on 170g/m2 acid free paper, each 21 x 29,7cm)

Too often we are waiting for something outside of us to happen or change. From now on, I am committing to always find what I can do to bring me closer to create my own miracles. And do it. It is a blissful feeling to see all the potential miracles around me.

You might say: oh well, that’s too easy and not going to be a long-term solution. Granted, I have to keep repeating it. I think that would be possible, if I just choose to.

So here is another real big example from my personal experience.

Many years ago, I wrote down a list of things I truly wished for in my life. I read all about manifesting whatever you want and I decided to try it out. One point on the list was a real biggy. I had bad eyesight and needed to wear glasses. I hated that. And I wanted the universe to give me perfect eyesight so that I would never need glasses again.

You would agree – if the universe got that right, then I really would truly believe that nothing is impossible. It was on the list and so I waited. And waited. And waited. A few years later I found the list again, and ticked of some stuff, but the big wishes like the perfect eyesight were still unchanged. Nothing has miraculously happened. Maybe I just had to admit that it was a bit too idealistic of me to believe that it could happen.

I pondered about this for a few days until suddenly I had a small epiphany. I just received some money, which was owed to me for a long time, and I did not really expect to ever get it. I believed that it is not good to let money lie on a bank account, it would be better to invest it into something. But what? What would be a good investment for me? Something that would not depreciate in value? Something I really wanted or needed?

A few of my friends had done eye operations and were really happy with the results and suddenly it struck me that this money would be able to cover the cost of such an operation.

The miracle was there for me, I just needed to make the choice and buy the ticket.
I did.
Within a few weeks of preparation and five minutes of operation I had perfect eyesight. What a miracle!

My first public outing after my eye operation, celebrated with a visit to the Goodman Gallery in Cape Town. (March 2011)

I often thought miracles would have to come falling from the sky in some supernatural manner. There might be some that do, but most are pretty damn ordinary miracles. I mean, isn’t it just totally amazing that it is possible to laser your eyes and within 5min have perfect eyesight? Wow! I am still in awe and so incredibly grateful!

So, remember:

Some miracles you just have to create yourself.

And you can!

Panther Dreams by Imke Rust (Guache, ink and pen on 170g/m2 acid free paper, 21 x 29,7cm)

The Ink Oracle

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Girl Playing with Ink and Foxes (Watercolour 6 ink on paper, 20x20cm by Imke Rust)

It is a blessing to be versatile and enjoy working in so many different mediums, styles, sizes, themes and approaches.

Yes, neither you nor me are drunk, I DID repeat that three times.

I need to remind myself (and the world out there) about that. Too often, I get frustrated with the challenge of trying to explain who I am and present myself to galleries or other people who are used to people specialising in one thing. People love the simplicity of boxes, into which you have to fit nicely and which can easily be understood and stored…

And I understand…

I will never forget meeting the ‘plastic wrap artist’ in Beijing in 2008. He showed me several really thick catalogs of his work. All he painted was super-realistic renditions of people wrapped in see-through plastic. That simple. Nothing else.

Even if I do not remember his name, I will always remember what he does and if ever I need a painting of a person wrapped in plastic, I will know exactly whom to ask. That is the beauty of specialisation. And it is real easy and great for marketing and selling your art.

Every time I make art and do something different, I get extraordinary excited.
Every time I fall madly in love with the new work, the style, the medium and the subject matter. But, no matter how successful the work or how much fun I am having, I could never imagine doing thousands of those same different-similar works for the rest of my life. Or even for the rest of the year, or month…

You might have noticed that I have changed my ‘job-description’ from political artist to environmental artist to painter to conceptual artist or a combination thereof. I have never been fully satisfied. I am or have been all of that, but never exclusively.

I am all of that… and so much more.

So my latest change is to this description: Multi-Passionate Creative Being. For now that seems to be the best short description I can find. Even if it is probably not as easy to understand as ‘The Plastic Wrap Artist’.

In celebration of my versatility I would like to share a small insight into one of my current explorations. The common denominator: working in a small square format and on paper. Mostly in inks and watercolours, but not limited to that.

What makes these works really exciting for me, is that I have promised myself to work as intuitively as I can, i.e. paint the first thing that comes to mind and then just continue with what the artwork dictates. It is kind of like a dialog.

Wildly scary is the second aspect that I have challenged myself with: just draw or paint what I feel, without any judgement.

In other words: banning the inner critic. (Which feels like overthrowing the lifetime president…) And no labouring to get things to look ‘perfect’. Rather let them feel right and let them be.

Thank you for bearing with me and my ramblings and reading till here! Finally you can have a look at a selection of these latest works:

Holding Rhinos (Ink & watercolour on paper, 20x20cm by Imke Rust)

Shy Girl (Ink on paper, 20x20cm by Imke Rust)

Why Are We Not Wild? (Ink & watercolour on paper, 20x20cm by Imke Rust)

Giving & Taking (Ink & watercolour on paper, 20x20cm by Imke Rust)

The Horse is a Problem (Ink & watercolour on paper, 20x20cm by Imke Rust)

Untitled (Ink on paper, 20x20cm by Imke Rust)

Leopard (black & red) Ink & watercolour on paper, 20x20cm by Imke Rust

Leopard (black & red) (Ink on paper, 20x20cm by Imke Rust)

Winter in Berlin (Ink on paper, 20x20cm by Imke Rust)

Raven (Ink & watercolour on paper, 20x20cm by Imke Rust)

The Rise of the Phoenix

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Peacock Medicine by Imke Rust (Ink on paper, 20x20cm)

Many old traditions believed that a person is guided and protected by specific animals throughout their lives. Not only the American Indians had totem traditions, but all over the world people believed in the power of spirit animals.

Some of you might already know from my last blog post, I have been doing an online ‘Totemic Arts Apprenticeship’ course with the wonderful guide-ess and teacher Emelie Archer Pickett, discovering my totem animals and how to work with their lessons and ‘medicine’ in our lives. We cannot choose which animal will be our totem animal, they choose us, according to our life lessons which we need to learn.

Believe in totem animals or not, I really think that at least considering them and their messages in our lives can help us find alternative insights and solutions to problems and added wisdom. Long before I have heard about totem animals, I often looked at my cats and thought: what would they do in this situation? (Usually their advice was to lie in the sun, stretch and roll over occasionally, watch the birds and most importantly: stay calm – unless you are hungry, in which case you go eat and then return to the sunny spot – a huge life lesson for me!)

Ok, now I have found out that we have a foundational or main animal as totem, supported by a whole gang of 11 other animals. There are many different views about this, so just stick with me on this one.

I call these animals my gang or circle, and the leader is a rather shy, sometimes grumpy black leopard…

During the course I found out that the peacock is a possible member of my gang, too. Sometimes we have resistance towards certain animals, or we wish for other animals that are not part of our totem make-up, ’cause they seem so impressive. So even though some of the teachings about the peacock resonated with me, I was not really convinced. Resonance to anything is usually a good sign that you are on the right path and to start further investigations.

Or you can just ignore it totally. Which is what I did.

Some weeks ago, I felt stuck in a certain situation in my life and I looked to my black leopard for help, but as usual the shy lady was withdrawing into her cave instead of coming out and being fierce (which is what I hoped for from my totem or power animal). But I learned that black leopards are pretty elusive and misunderstood… and well, they are the smallest of the large cats, so they might sometimes really be safer off in the cave or on a tree. (You can see a picture of her snoozing in her cave here)

Ok, I could not tempt her out of that cave and I had to go my own way. Which lead me past the communal rubbish yard. In the corner of these eyes I noticed a large frame in between the bins.

I just looooove old, discarded stuff like that. Cool stuff which one can possible re-use or recycle, and so I went for a closer look. It was an original oil painting of a peacock. The painting was in a perfect condition, just the frame was damaged on one corner. (At least it seemed that the leopard has lend me her eyes to easily spot the prey.)

A peacock… well, well – animals have strange ways to make themselves noticed in your life. And as an artist, I could never ignore a painting like this!

Found Peacock Painting by S (or V?) Wolters. Undated

So I rescued the peacock and painting from the dumpsters and took it home, knowing I will now have no excuse to not look deeper into this totem animal. I also wanted to share my findings and excitement with the fellow tribe of people who are doing the course with me.

When I opened up our Facebook group’s page, the first thing I saw, was a picture of a peacock with the person who posted it saying: I just found out that my totem animal is a peacock – any other peacocks out there? And while I was writing about my experience, another person also shared that she found out the peacock is one of her totems. Three peacocks in one day… not bad. I just love considering this to be signs from the universe.

What is a peacock’s medicine you might want to know?

Here are some teachings: For one the peacock most resembles the descriptions of the phoenix, so it is considered a symbol of death and resurrection. The Peacock can also help you on your spiritual Path, and breath new life into your walk of faith and they can increase your self-esteem levels.

The bird is a symbol of integrity and the beauty we can achieve when we endeavor to show our true colours.

(Showing my true colours is the reason, why you suddenly get to read so much about totem animals and other magical stuff, visions or fun ideas from me.)

Because of the many ‘eyes’ on its tail it is connected to wisdom and vision – i.e. ‘seeing with a thousand eyes’.

Totem fun: Phoenix or the Peacock Eyes. (Ink on paper, 20x20cm. By Imke Rust)

Totem fun: Phoenix or the Peacock Eyes. Not exactly a thousand eyes here, but a start… (Ink on paper, 20x20cm. By Imke Rust)

You can connect to or use this animal medicine through meditating on the specific animal, wearing or surrounding yourself with images or objects of the animal or its colours, paint them or alternatively incorporate their lessons in whatever way makes you happy and feels right to you. There are no rules.

Even though most of the peacock lessons resonate with me, one stood out: the rebirth or phoenix aspect. Why? Since this bird (painting) got rescued from certain destruction, risen from the death and now has started a second life in our kitchen. A real phoenix!

Now he is playing with the other members of the gang, adding its strength and beauty to the mix. 😉

More totem fun (Imke Rust, Ink & watercolours on paper, 20x20cm)

Connecting the Dots

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I am on a mission to connect the dots of my life to finally figure out some important things. As part of that, and for some fun learning, I enrolled into an exciting course learning about totem animals and how they can help and guide us in our lives.

The course gives so much food for thought. Even though I initially I enrolled in the hope of ‘just some creative fun’ to add spice to my serious soul search for deeper answers, the course has completely drawn me in and provided such a lot of serious and exciting insights.

Between happily jumping into the fun world of the animals and wonderful kindred human souls who are part of the course or tribe and drawing back in resistance to so many different issues, I have managed to delve deep and hold on to this crazy ride.

I am trying to really let myself go with the flow and allow things to happen. And that is what I want to tell you about.

Black Leopard. Sleeping

Ok, so my main foundational totem is the black leopard. I guess I need to write much more about that at another time, but now I am onto something very different and more immediate. I had been thinking about how the leopard pulls its prey into a tree, to keep it safe from other bigger predators. Two other totem animals of mine move into trees (or live there) for safety.

Then it struck me, that I had a vision about myself as a tree two days ago and because it was so striking I made a small painting in my sketchbook about it.

I felt as if I was a tree growing from the top downwards, with the bottom trunk and roots missing.

The tree could not bloom or produce leaves until those parts eventually grow and connect it with the earth and its nurturing soil and water, its hold and steadfastness. A place to be.

Floating Tree (quick sketchbook drawing)

I took a photograph, in order to be able to share it or continue working on it in a digital format. When I downloaded it, I realised that there were still a whole bunch of other older photographs I have taken, but not downloaded yet…

Interestingly they were mostly of trees – treetops in the mist and a wire baobab tree that we got as a gift for our wedding. And of the bottom of my coffee cup, where the residue has left…. You guessed it: the shape of a tree floating in the air.

Coffee grounds in my mug: can you see the floating tree?

Wire Baobab Tree from Namibia – another photo found still on my camera

My favourite tree is the Baobab. So I looked up its symbolism. Its protective, nourishing and healing and can survive in harsh climates, because it stores water in its trunk. It is also a symbol of strength…

It is also known as the ‘upside-down tree’ – according to myth, the gods planted the tree upside-down in error.

Which reminded me of my initial version, of the tree growing from the top to the bottom and also about something I created just over a year ago, when I felt depressed and generally pretty lost:

Sometimes the world seems upside down

These are so many dots connecting and I will have to ponder about the lessons that entails. So I decided to write it down. While writing, I thought I could just as well post it as a blog. I thought that this is probably a bit too spiritual and way-out for my main art blog and I decided to post it first on my Baobabs, Magic and Art blog. And then it struck me that even the title of this blog adds another dot to connect to the mystical tree…

And it led me further to another poem and image, which I had made and posted on there in June last year:

Trying to grow new roots
In a foreign land
With my feet on unfamiliar ground

Trying to become grounded
Return to the earth
And feel at home

Drawing strength
From below
From belonging

I have no roots
Here
Yet

And hopefully I will eventually find or grow my roots so that this tree won’t be floating around in uncertainty anymore, but will find its place and grow into a big nurturing, protective, creative and healing tree. 🙂

Wishing you a beautiful start to the week!

When Angels Come to Town…

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… the mice are dancing on the roofs.

Another addition to the Hotel Deco Busting Series

Intervention Against Tasteless Wall Decorations in Hotels and Holiday Apartments.
Intervention gegen geschmacklose Wanddekoration in Hotelzimmern und Ferienwohnungen.
(Part 10 /Teil 10)
Since 2010 I have secretly been slightly altering tasteless or boring hotel or holiday apartment art whenever I had the chance to.

Recently we stayed at the Marriott Hotel in Frankfurt for two nights. You might remember that last year we were here too, and I made the piece ‘Love & Devotion‘ which is still one of my absolute favourites.

This time I came better prepared for working on artworks behind glass and with an idea for a new creation in mind…

And as life has it, I was surprised that they have renovated the rooms and added new and much more colourful and modern art (and my plans became obsolete). Now they had digital prints on canvas by some anonymous artist hanging on the wall. I actually thought the new art is not bad and really loved the colours, especially the deep reds. It works well in the room – compliments to the decorator!

But hey, even a good artwork can use some fun and magic…

This way it will stand out from the probably 50 exact copies of this print in the other rooms and hopefully add some sparkle to the lives of future guests who notice the small additions.

Without further ado, here is what happened:

BEFORE PIC (Digital print by unknown artist)

AFTER Picture – can you see the differences?

Since I actually thought this artwork is not bad, I did not want to make huge differences and decided on many small interventions guided by what the images suggested to me…

Mice are dancing on the roof... how many mice do you see?

Mice are dancing on the roof… how many mice can you find?

Angels descending from the roof

Balloons and fireworks all over town

Angels in town

New title of the artwork added to the bottom of the frame

I decided to add my new title on the bottom border of the artwork. If the guest has not noticed the slight alterations he or she might see this title when lying in bed and looking at the artwork and hopefully become curious.

If you ever stay in the Marriott Hotel in Frankfurt, you might want to ask for room 37-05 and enjoy the company of angels, mice and magic… 🙂

At work 🙂

Ready to Shoot

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If you are a regular follower of my creative experiences on my blog, you might have wondered what happened to the kudu painting. Yes the one that asked me to ‘Shoot it – if I can’. And as promised, here is an update.

If you have not read the other posts, you might want to just quickly return to them, to know what this is all about. Part 1- There is a Kudu in my Studio & Part 2 -Shoot Me!

Shoot Me – If You Can (Digitally altered painting)

When I finished the painting, I had to wait for a stretcher frame to be made, so that I could transport it safely and easily. Unfortunately it was Christmas time and the framers were just ready to leave on holiday, but they promised to make it as soon as they return.

That gave me some time to

Decide what I am going to do and
arrange everything necessary.

I kept looking deep into the kudu’s eyes, to try and decide if I could shoot her. And if yes, how exactly would I go about it. She was silent and I knew the ball was in my court. She asked me to shoot her, and I had to answer.

Finally I agreed. If that is what she wants, I will do it. Yes, I will shoot her. She will show me how.

For the practical part of doing it, I have talked to a dear friend, and after some hesitation he agreed to help me take the painting out to his farm and shoot it. So everything was set. Just waiting for the frame, so that I could stretch the painting…

I realised that shooting the painting stirred a lot of emotions and questions in me. Why was her request so unsettling? And, on the other side, intriguing? Shooting to me is about killing. So I would have to kill this painting. Why do I have such a problem with killing something that is not alive?

Oh, but wait. It is not alive? Who said that? To me a painting is very much alive. Artists are often asked, when they know that a painting is finished. I know mine is finished, when it suddenly feels alive, when it becomes an energised, almost breathing entity, when I have the feeling it has a identifiable personality that can survive on its own in the world. When it becomes separate from me. (I know this sounds strange, but that is what it feels like to me.)

Anyway, I could write so much more on the thoughts and emotions that I had, but I am afraid this post will get too long. I hope to still share my insights in some other form later. I think the main thing was to go through the motions, make up my mind and trust life to take its course. Who knows what will come from it.

So here I was, ready and well prepared to shoot. Honouring my part of the agreement. Shoot her – if I can.

I could not.

By some fluke the framers took longer than expected and the painting literally arrived back in my studio a few hours before I left to Europe. There was just no time to shoot.

She is save and I am relieved! 🙂

Preparation Sketch for the kudu painting

Leopard Sighting in the Forest

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Once again I have swopped the warm African sun for the cold, dark and wet winter in Germany.

As a reminder of the creative fun that can be had in the cold I decided to share with you a little sketch I did on an outing to our favourite forest last year.

There were lots of frozen puddles of water and I liked how clear they were, like solid three-dimensional piece of nature art. Feeling a bit homesick I instinctively decided to add some African imagery to it. Maybe something like rock-art on ice?

I happened to have a white Tippex marker with me and started to draw a kudu. I was moderately happy with that. So a bit further away I started again, drawing a person, thinking this might turn into a traditional hunting scene.

Kudu and man on ice in the forest

The lines I drew dissolved and moved in weird ways on the ice surface, so I did not have much control, and thought adding a bow and arrow would totally mess it up. I felt awkward and unhappy with both figures. It needed something interesting to happen to save it…

Along came the leopard.

Leopard and man on ice in the forest

Interestingly the leopard started to chase the person and not the kudu, who was watching from a safe distance.

Unfortunately I cannot tell you how the story ended, as it got so cold, that I rather put on my gloves again and walked on.

Last view of the scene with the leopard chasing the man into the distance

Wishing you a happy and playful week and the perfect weather for your creative expressions!

Imke

Film production almost completed

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An Inifinte Scream – The Documentary: Trailer

How did you make this? Where do you get all your ideas? Why are you working with salt? And what is a Tokoloshe Trap?

Did you ever wonder about these things when you see my art? Well, this time you are lucky and soon you will get some answers.

Documenting SubRosa IRust (c)

We have made a documentary film about my latest land art project ‘…and I sensed and infinite scream passing through the Namib’. It gives you a great behind-the-scene glimpse into the project and an insight how I work and think.

You can join me in the exciting journey from the making of the artworks, the thoughts behind them, the challenges along the way and finally the exhibition. It is a personal portrait as much as a film about the art and its role in society.

Until we can finally publicly release the film, you can already view the trailer and check out the film’s webpage. It will give you a taste of what to expect in the full documentary once it is released. Do not forget to sign up for the blog to find out when and where it will be screened. (I will also keep you updated here.)

A great thank you, to filmmaker and my partner Steffen Holzkamp for the excellent work and the super-cool film. I am really looking forward to sharing the full film with everybody soon.

Click HERE to view the trailer (1:36min)

Making the barbed wire stems for the roses © Imke Rust

Happy Easter Bunny!

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May this happy Easter bunny jump straight over the rainbow and into your heart!

Happy Easter Bunny (Ink & watercolour on A4 watercolour 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:

Collecting Easter water in silence…

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.

Happy Bunnies

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:

The birth of the Easter Bunny

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.

Secret ingredients for making rain…

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Ok, I have decided to share my secret list of ingredients for making rain with you 🙂 .

When we wish to manifest a different reality in our lives, we must firstly set a clear intention. Then we need to put the energy closest linked to that state into a creative act – such as art, music, dance or a ritual. Add a huge bucket of trust and stir in hands-full of patience. Regularly add generous amounts of gratitude and sprinkle with as much fun and creativity as you can find. Decorate with light-heartedness and celebration.

As you might have guessed, this is an update on my last post “Waiting for rain” and you are probably curious to hear if my little rainmaker was successful.

After I made my ‘little rainmaker’ and writing about it in my last post, nothing much happened for a few days. And I started to get doubts. Maybe the rainmaker was too small? Or maybe the stone which I selected, was wrong – after all, it came from the Namib desert, a place which seldom sees rain. Maybe it just had forgotten the feeling of rain? So just to be absolutely sure, I decided to remind the stone and myself of the feeling of water, by making it stand in water, and refilling the water every day, saying my thanks to nature.

There was some rain on the 4th of February, but not much. Just enough that I decided to re-draw the cloud image and rain drops on the stone, as the image has been washed away a little bit. Through doing so, I reaffirmed my gratitude for every little drop of rain that we are getting.

All the time I regularly thought about our believes and superstitions surrounding rain. As kids we were told that eating up your food would allow it to rain and I still say that to friends when they are over for dinner. In Namibia we also say that you must not run to take down the washing from the line, when the first drops fall, as this will surely chase away the rain…

So when the first drops appeared I rather took a picture of my washing and the drops, happy about every little bit of moisture and not worry about it getting wet. Quietly celebrating each one of the few drops which our sky managed to squeeze out of the promising clouds. Even if once again, the drops stopped coming soon after they started… (Note to self: the washing believe does not seem to hold water in either a literal or figurative way. 😉 )

Raindrops on my washing

First raindrops on the new rainmaker (7 Feb)

On my birthday, the 7th of February, maybe as a special birthday gift, we had the first real rain. (Another note to self: it really takes a lot of patience, trust and many little prayers of thanks to get it to rain, but eventually it will rain.)

Ok, I acknowledge that I hoped the little rainmaker would bring lots of rain within two or three days. But maybe I just need more practice and more faith. And at least making and nurturing the little rainmaker gave me a sense of being proactive and positive in a time, when many people are starting to be talking about the imminent drought that we might be facing this year with a doomsday face and spreading the fear.

I learned that even if we can (and should be able to) influence reality with the right intentions and actions a little bit nature still has a way of following its own rhythms, but it might also be reminding us of some valuable lessons. We have been blessed with several really good rainy seasons and we have started to take water for granted again. We have wasted water, used it without being conscious about our actions or without remembering how very blessed we are and saying thanks.

And even if my little rainmaker has not yet brought Namibia or my garden the wonderful rains which I hoped for, I still have faith that we will also survive this year and this season.And that the rain might still come…

Last, but not least the little rainmaker provided me with regular joy watching the wild animals coming to drink from my installation. In the very first picture is a wild yellow mongoose and below is a red-eyed bird. I do not know the scientific name of the bird, but I happen to know this bird personally, as I had the pleasure to share its life for the past few months. She and her husband have nested in my garden and I could watch them raise their young chick, teaching it to fly and celebrate life.