i’m ill this week. nothing too bad, just a cold. it started with my nose running (got though 100 tissues a day) and i was very weary and sleepy… but i’m very glad to be taken care of so perfectly by my favourite person!
i tried keeping up with what’s going on and the new design of my newspaper, but i didn’t get very far. now after a couple of days i’m feeling better, though still with a sore throat and a little slow in my head and easily exhausted. but i’m beginning to wonder…
well… am i?
it’s the very last days of the documenta 14 in kassel! have you been this summer?
my personal highlights were mostly to be found at the “neue neue galerie” – like the canteen with plants above…
… or the amazing and funny typography-related collages by ruth wolf-rehfeldt!
another favourite piece of mine was the movie “the dust channel” by roee rosen that was exhibited under the roof of the palais bellevue (here’s a teaser and another snippet on HR).
at the end of two full days of busy impressions i also enjoyed the calm installation “byzantion” by romuald karmakar (a movie showing orthodox monchs from greece and russia singing “agne parthene”).
here’s some more highlights, including the very best of the permanent exhibition of the ottoneum (natural history museum) and some details from installations at the fridericianum.
other visitors. and a gherkin (this is not a sculpture by erwin wurm, but part of our breakfast).
about a month ago i was in munich, travelling there by bus (8 hrs).
here’s what i saw on the way to munich: my three lovely colleagues eva, juliane & wiebke around me on the signature blue & green seats.
a guy eating his burger right out of the paper and our stop at mcdo (there was no alternative where the bus driver took his break).
and on our way back: these guys in front of us (it’s a double decker bus), one is playing some strategic game on his laptop or complaining loudly about his company’s ties to north corea (wonder which company he was talking about?!). the other is talking on his phone or snorring. the window was actually covered in dead flies & bugs.
in munich itself i didn’t really dare to draw that much. i was busy working at a comicfestival. so i only drew these three pictures:
(1) a little dog that had appeared in my dream. don’t let it fool you – it looks really cute, but it’s actually a very well-made robot meant to spy on us and collect all our information (that can be used against us). just like a smartphone, but more friendly.
(2) this old bus i really liked in a cosy coffee break.
(3) this strange building right next to the wiesn.
i like munich a lot. i prefer travelling by train.
my blog had to take a little break, there was too much going on. but now i’m hoping to be able to get back to weekly entries again.
here’s some of my sketches from october – people on trains again. with the comic festival in hamburg and the book fair in frankfurt i was quite a lot on the rails that month.
i find drawing strangers is often easier than drawing people you know well (exception: him). but this is supposed to be my nephew (=best kid in the world). i wasn’t sure about the picture, but he approved: “oh, it’s me! i look so nice!”
just a bunch of sharp looking birds – who know they do. but who would blame them?
that’s just an awesome scarf you have there, pretty stork!
oh, beautiful peacock! noone can beat those complementary contrasts?
what a handsome gang you eagles are.. are you in some kind of club together?
i spent the last couple of days in drawsko pomorskie, poland, to celebrate the 101st birthday of my grandpa oping.
it was quite extraordinary, because he lives in baden-wuerttemberg (still in his own flat), has reached quite an age (see above), but is still mobile enough to travel to the place where he was born and raised at the beginning of the last century. maybe even more extraordinary: almost all of his family came together from all over to celebrate this day! so i went to drawsko, met my crazy relatives and spent some wonderful days in the beautiful west pomeranian voivodeship.
as the artsy part of my family it was my duty to think of something for the guestbook of the house that we were staying at. so i drew some stuff and wrote some words and this is what i’d like to share (as far as i remember the words):*
“last year we celebrated the 100th birthday of our father, grandfather, greatgrandfather oping (in his hometown in south germany).
at that time richard, one of his grandsons, suggested: oping was born in 1913 in dramburg (now: drawsko pomorskie) – why don’t we celebrate his next birthday there?
so he did some research and found this beautiful house, which could fit in 20 people (or more) for all of oping’s family to stay in.
and (almost) everyone came!
we travelled here from different parts of germany to drawsko pomorskie, stayed for a week, got guided tours by oping with stories about the places from the first 14 years of his life, played in the garden, hung out, celebrated and had delicious food! (it will be quite hard to top this next year!)…”
(and then there was some thank you to the people who supplied us with this place. if you ever need a lot of space in the middle of a nature reserve in poland: http://www.worowydworek.eu/de/ )
moving. that’s what it was. and fun! family parties appear to be a lot more fun when everyone’s on holiday (somewhere else than home).. 🙂
*please excuse the rather bad quality of the “scans” – it’s photoshopped pictures from my rubbish phone.
i’m currently working on my first book. i’m illustrating a collection of short stories by christoph bornmüller (in german). it will be published at parallelallee in berlin this spring or summer this autumn!*
this is only the cover, but you can get to know some characters in the next couple of weeks on this blog!*
*sorry! i started a new full-time-job in the meantime and i’m completely occupied. but stay tuned! it’s coming! (just a bit more slowly than i planned)
did i see a drunken hobo or a tired hipster this morning on sonnenallee? i can’t figure it out…
a couple of days ago i got this sms in the morning:
(gdmrng..and with this foul weather.. are those peanuts in my face eyes? oh yeah, might be. hopefully…)
…
gekritzel. 