Curled Up Woman (Ink on paper, A2) (c) Imke Rust
Today I am sharing a new drawing of mine with you. I am busy with writing of applications and organizing to have an exhibition at the end of the year in Namibia, so I do not have time to write a long blog. Hope you enjoy the picture instead 🙂
As long as I can remember I have been intrigued by the underlying patterns and relationships between people, things and events.
Waffen kaufen wir in den USA © IRust (Tippex on magazine page) (Translation of the title: We buy our weapons in the USA)
I have always been trying to get a better understanding of what life is all about, as the normal explanations, which our society has to offer, seldom seem convincing or desirable to me. Since childhood I have been convinced that there must be better ways for us to do things (all kinds of things). Surely there must be a better life out there for all of us?
If something does not feel right and makes me really happy, I just do not want to accept that this is how it is supposed to be, just because people say so. I do not care if their arguments are based on religion, social rules, scientific research or other dogmas. I have been called stubborn and insubordinate, but at least nobody can accuse me of being a sheep, and it felt good to go ahead and do something which I was told I could not do or find my own better or more efficient way to do things.
I believe that there is more to life and living than what we commonly accept to be true. The world is not flat, no matter how many scientists have said it is. It is not OK to kill somebody, no matter how many religions supposedly tell us that we have to fight wars in the name of some god. It is not acceptable to place the profits of a few over the health and well-being of a whole community. I refuse to accept that millions of people live in great poverty and hunger.
I guess that is why I have become an artist. Artist in the widest possible sense of our understanding of art.
Art as a creative tool – creating a new or better reality. A tool that can access the world of the soul. A tool that is rooted in imagination and vision. A tool that is based on colours, forms and materials just as much as it is on ideas, hope and dreams.
Art, which shows us something, which we have not seen before.
Art that opens us up to possibilities and new thoughts.
Art, which reminds us of who we are.
Preparation sketch for a painting
And I guess, that is the reason that I am interested in alternative healing and living methods. Once again, I talk of healing in a much wider sense, in the sense of wholeness. This wholeness is not limited to being whole (or healthy) in our physical body, but also in our spirits, our ways, our actions, basically in our whole being. Being whole also means to be part of the whole – of everything there is. Understanding that we are connected to every other being on this planet, including ‘things’ we do not consider to be alive, like water, soil, rocks or energies.
Unfortunately, I do not know the answers or have a no-fail solution, or am able to live my life in the perfect harmony which I wish for, but what I can say, is that I will continue to ask the questions and keep on searching and keep on using my art as a vehicle to express my questions and thoughts, explore the possibilities and try to find a better way.
I have shared these thoughts with you, as I believe that they are fundamental for understanding my approach to my art and my life. I think it might be a good introduction to the next few articles, which I will be posting about my current work. And another selfish reason I do this for: sometimes it is good for me to take stock and get back to the basics, in times when I am facing obstacles and frustrations and need to remind myself why I am doing what I am doing, so that I find the courage to continue and do not give up.
Today I do not feel like writing, so instead I will just post some of my recent sketches for you. Enjoy!
Pencil on paper, A4
lying nude sketch, ink on paper, A4
Sketch of my friend's baby, pencil on paper, A4
In the last weeks I have painted and sketched, played and observed, dreamed and created, and steadily I have filled my mind with so many new images and my small studio with numerous new artworks. I feel so blessed to be able to follow my dreams. I feel grateful for having a space to create and for finally coming to a stage in my life where I can focus on my own art again and it is a wonderful experience. There is nothing as exciting and invigorating as being in the flow of creativity.
This is also the reason that I have not updated my blog as regularly as I have hoped to… I hope you understand and forgive me, especially when you see all the new artworks that I have created. Unfortunately I cannot share them before the exhibition in April 2012 – a real test in patience for me.
Well, it is almost Christmas and the end of the year. It has been a busy and productive and very creative year for me, with many big and small transformations. I look back with happiness and gratitude and would like to thank everybody who has helped me along the way, who has supported me, who has cared and who has read my blogs and posted comments. Your encouragement and interest means a lot to me and keeps me going.
If you celebrate Christmas, I wish you a merry and blessed festive time, free of the mad consumerism that has taken us and the event hostage. And for everybody else a happy and peaceful last few days of the year.
Here I have a special little creature to accompany you through the end-of-year madness.
Ink, marker & watercolour on paper, 29x 21cm (c) Imke Rust
Everyday waiting for the bus or the S-Bahn I witness one of the most intriguing phenomena: the careless-flipping-away-of-cigarette-buds.
In most smokers minds’ cigarette buds do not seem to be classified as litter. No, I do not hate smokers, I just do not understand this part of their actions (and yes, I do feel a bit offended by it). Has it ever occurred to you that cigarette buds are litter and belong into a bin or ashtray and not on the public floor?
It is not as if the person looks around for a rubbish bin, then cannot find one or thinks it’s too far to walk to, and then decides to rather drop it on the floor. It seems to be a totally unconscious act. Maybe somebody can explain this to me? It is a mystery to me. I assume, you do not just drop the buds on your floor at home – or do you?
I salute the few smokers who carry a portable ashtray and use it to store their ash and buds or those who are conscious enough to make use of public rubbish bins.
As I found this so intriguing, I thought I have a bit of my own fun:
Smoke Victims
Drawing
Smoke Victims (close up)
Yellow Heart - Yellow flowers and moss on a rock
As a Namibian desert girl I recently had an interesting and exciting time in the very green and lush mountains of South Tyrol. All the dense vegetation was amazing, the little mountain creeks with their clear water fascinating and I especially fell in love with the soft moss growing everywhere. I was reminded of childhood stories of dwarfs, fairies and elves living in the forests and sleeping on beds of moss, carrying sweet forest berries as decoration and giggling under red and white mushrooms… as a child I did not know these things and wonderful places and my imagination ran wild. Now I walked through such magical forests in awe and wonder like a little child, eating some forest strawberries and making some art. I did not see any elves or red-capped dwarfs, but still I had lots of fun with the invisible spirits of nature and art.
Ok, I do not want to bore you with long stories, but rather just share some pictures of my small interventions in nature. So, here they are:
Location: Oberperflhof, approximately 1,500m above sea level, close to Katharinaberg / Monte Santa Caterina – in the Schnalsvalley (Val Senales), Italy.
Date: July 2011
Yellow Heart (close) - Yellow flowers and moss on a rock
8m garland woven of small cedar branches
Sprial on stone wall (8m garland woven of small cedar branches)
Rock, branch & grass
Light, leave tips and wood
Lline of Leaves by Imke Rust, Bochum
Golden Leaves by Imke Rust, Bochum
This week a handful of guests from all over Europe are discovering Berlin as part of a film workshop entitled “Berlin Stages” funded by the EU and organized by Frameworks e.V.. The invited guests have a chance to experience an artistic Berlin with a HD film camera, as they will be meeting and filming Berlin artists and are getting some hands-on opportunity to create their own art together with these artists. I am one of the artists that they will be visiting (tomorrow) and we will be doing land art in the Lankwitz Community Park (my current studio till I can move into a ‘real’ studio with a roof in middle of July hopefully). I am looking forward to an exciting and fun day in the park tomorrow and keeping my fingers crossed for good and dry weather. If you are in the area, come by and share in the fun!
The results of their workshop will be shown on Thursday, the 7th of July at 20h00 at the Holiday Inn City East. Everybody is cordially invited. Hope to see you there!
More info about the project can be found below (unfortunately only in German) or on www.frameworks-berlin.de
Mit „Berlin Stages“ ist dem Berliner Verein FRAMEWORKS e. V. gelungen, aus einem der begehrten EU-Fördertöpfe Geld zu werben, um Gäste zu einem Film-Workshop nach Berlin einzuladen. „Das bunte Programm und die Chance Berlin aus der künstlerischen Perspektive zu erleben hat die Teilnehmer von vorneherein beeindruckt“, weiß Thomas Nagel, 1. Vorsitzender von FRAMEWORKS e.V.. Der Verein hat sich die Themenschwerpunkte Kultur und Bildung auf die Fahne geschrieben, und so können die 14 Gäste aus Europa Anfang Juli filmend in die Kunstszene der Stadt eintauchen. Landart, Pulp-Painting, Tonstudio und Museumsbesuch stehen ebenso auf dem Programm wie Improtheater und Modenschau. „Das Projektmanagement von der Konzeption bis zur Durchführung eines solchen Workshops ist eine Klasse für sich“, lacht der 1. Vorsitzende. „Wir freuen uns mit unseren Gästen über die individuellen Erfolge und Entdeckungen“, so Nagel.
Am Donnerstag, den 7.Juli.11, zeigen die Teilnehmenden ab 20 Uhr im Foyer des Hotels Holiday Inn City East für einen Abend, was sie im Rahmen des fünftägigen Workshops in Begleitung von Berliner Künstlern und Kulturschaffenden erarbeitet haben. FRAMEWORKS e. V. und seine Gäste laden zum Austausch ein. Zu den Spielregeln von EU-finanzierten Grundtvig-Workshops gehört, dass die Teilnehmenden 18 Jahre oder älter sind und für den Workshop ihrer Wahl mindestens eine europäisches Grenze überwinden. Alle drei Jahre können Erwachsene unabhängig von ihren persönlichen Budgets so auf den Spuren des dänischen Erfinders der Volkshochschule Grundtvig reisen und im Austausch mit anderen Europäern ein Themengebiet ergründen. Die Reise-, Unterbringungs- und Workshopkosten werden voll finanziert. 2012 werden europaweit Workshops rund um den Erhalt von Gesundheit angeboten. Infos:www.frameworks-berlin.de
Für Rückfragen: Workshop-Hotline: 030/67922763
Thomas Nagel, 1. Vorsitzender FRAMEWORKS e. V. (mobil: 0151/22832281) Renate Nuppenau, 2. Vorsitzende FRAMEWORKS e. V. (mobil: 0177/8076693)
Many years ago, back in my early student years, I had this really fun idea. Some found it a bit morbid, while others gave me worried looks… but I am used to that.
For some reason, I cannot remember exactly why, I chose to use shoes as my subject matter. Shoes as packaging of the human foot…. and packaging which eventually shapes its’ contents. Not being the biggest fan of high heeled shoes, I developed the idea of the high heeled shoe eventually shaping the foot, very similar to the old Chinese tradition of keeping women’s feet small and childlike, through tortuous means. (Ok, now I remember the reason…)
So this is how I imagined your foot would look like if you would continuously wear the common high heel shoe:
Sketch of horse-shaped foot by Imke Rust (c)
Different stages as documented in my sketchbook, eventually turning into a kind of horse-like hoof. (Mind you, horses are very elegant, so maybe nothing wrong with women striving to have feet like them?)
I even worked the idea into a life-size clay-sculpture (one of my first objects done in clay) based on one of the imaginary middle stages of the deformed foot:
And now the reason why I dug up these old sketches and the sculpture for you and why I am writing about it in my blog today: Recently I found this in the newspaper:
found in The Namibian 18 March 2011
I always like it, if I find that somebody’s thoughts, somewhere in the world, are similar to mine. Isn’t it amazing? And often with a tiny little envy I wonder why their thoughts make it to the newspapers, great art shows or into designer shops with huge price tags, and mine don’t….?
And I know the answer: because my sketches stay safely tucked away in my piles of sketch books, my sculptures are catching dust on my windowsill and my personal confidence still needs a lot of nudging and pampering and support before I can truly believe in myself and take my ideas and art work to the next level. And I also know: the idea was cool, but far away from resolved, my sketches were fun, but not great and my sculpture was a beginner’s object, which got damaged before it could ever be shown… fortunately I have come a long way since that horse foot idea.
Besides: the designer horse shoe idea is cool – but honestly: have you ever seen somebody walking around in those? Or are you secretly wishing you could afford such silly designer hooves yourself? Or know anybody who does? Naaah – me neither, but I know quite a few wonderful people, wearing comfy, good-looking shoes, who have my art on their walls or at least know somebody who does. And hey – you are reading my blog and not theirs! Da! ;o)
Thank you for your support of my art and ideas! And if you enjoyed this post or if you like my art or ideas, please subscribe to my blog and please recommend it to your friends. It would make my day!
Summer has arrived in Berlin, with lovely warmth and sunshine. So it is the ideal time to get out and make some art outside. As i still do not have a studio, working outside is another great way of being creative.
There is a small community park just around the corner from where we live, so while the others played Badminton I kept myself busy with this…
For a change, not so much text and rather more pictures. Enjoy!
Untitled land art intervention by Imke Rust.
(Gemeindepark Lankwitz, Berlin, 7 June 2011)
There is something begging me
To give it a life.
A face.
A form.
Something it can relate to
So that it becomes part of our human world.
Again and again they urge me.
I know they need me.
I hear them calling, begging….
But often I am too busy with less important stuff.
Or too scared, doubting if I can do them justice,
Too scared of trusting the process….
But when I allow myself to follow their calling
Opening myself up to their wishes
Having enough faith to just get going
Having enough peace to listen to their soft voices
Speaking in no language known
Trusting what I do not understand
And following even the faintest notion,
Then they guide me softly, intensely
Telling me about the exact way
In which they would like to be made manifest.
I follow their instructions as best I can.
Sometimes we are finished after a few exciting moments
Sometimes they keep me waiting forever before each new step
Occasionally it seems so simple, so obvious
At other times it is a long struggle
But in the end we always agree.
Now they have a chance to meet you
Talk to you
If you care
To listen to their soft humming.
In a deep inner dialogue
I am standing in front of them.
Amazed and intrigued.
Grateful that I could help them to come to life in our reality
Giving them a shape to be recognized by
Or a line, a colour, a texture…
However much or little they need.
I am humbled to be their midwife.
Mystified actually.
Although they tell me many of their secrets
I still cannot grasp them,
Or fully understand their complexity…
Yet they are part of me.
They tell me all I need to know
and sometimes they tell me their names…
(c)Imke Rust
(Thoughts on how my artworks come into existence)
Imke Rust 
