“Be at War with your Vices,
at Peace with your Neighbours,
and let every New-Year find you a better Man.”
Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanac, 1755
With or without fireworks, I wish you all a Very Happy 2017. May it bring health, happiness and peace to everyone.
“He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ‘ere he drove out of sight,
‘Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!’”
Clement Clarke Moore, Twas the Night before Christmas, 1822
In Germany it is “Adventszeit”, in the U.S. “Holiday Season”, but wherever I am, it is certainly my favorite time in winter. While it is getting colder outside and snow finally decides to stay, we make it nice and cozy inside. Out with the Christmas decorations; let it be glittery, colorful, and kitschy. And I love Christmas cookies! And no matter how old I am getting, Mom’s are still the best. Christmas markets with more kitsch, too much food, and of course mulled wine. And music, don’t I love old-fashioned Christmas music. Oh yes, it is this time of the year again!
So wherever you are, I hope you enjoy the season as well and brave the hustle and bustle that comes along with it. All that is left for me to do for now is to join St Nick and Mr. Moore and wish you all a Very Merry Christmas!
“We can only be said to be alive in those moments
when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.”
Thornton Wilder, The Woman of Andros, 1930
This has been a challenging year for me in many aspects but also a very rewarding one in others. But whatever has been and probably will be, I feel blessed being able to live the life I am living.
Whatever your life has been like lately, I hope you have plenty to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. I wish you a wonderful day with family and loved ones.
“Some day I’ll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far behind me
Away above the chimney tops
Where troubles melt like lemon drops
That’s where you’ll find me”
Edgar Yipsel “Yip” Harburg, Over the Rainbow, 1939,
sung by Judy Garland in the movie “The Wizard of Oz”
The wonderful team at Agora Gallery has put together my artist page on the gallery website. I think they have done a great job, so check it out! You also find two pictures there that Angela Di Bello, the gallery director, has chosen from the photographs she had previously selected for ARTmine, Agora Gallery’s fine art sales website. These two pictures will be my contribution to the group exhibition „Emerging Visions“ from January 21 to February 10, 2017 at Agora Gallery, where you will not only find prints of my photographs but also other exciting artwork from some wonderful artists like Jian Jun An. There will also be an opening reception on January 26, 2017 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Should you be in New York then, please do stop by!
“Beauty is no quality in things themselves:
It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them;
and each mind perceives a different beauty.”
David Hume: Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary.
Part I, Essay 23: Of the Standard of Taste (1741-2; 1748)
A few days ago a friend of mine got me thinking. He said he would like my Skies, their romanticism and calmness. But, he added, he would miss the spectacular. He had me doubting. Are my Skies missing something? Are they too ordinary? Not beautiful enough? And what is beauty anyway? I guess that is what it comes down to. What is beauty?
Is beauty only in the extraordinary? Does something or someone have to be different or unusual to be beautiful? I do not want to get too philosophical here, these questions have been asked before and there is no single answer; everybody has to find their own answer. But these questions brought me back to where I have been before: I want to show the world as it is. I want to find beauty in everything I see. If I find something spectacular, fine. But there is also so much beauty in our everyday life! We just seem to lose sight of that, seem to overlook it under all the impressions that rain down on us every day. And maybe our sense of beauty has changed with all that?
My friend also said that after having looked at the pictures on my website, he had started to look into the real sky more often again, amazed at the beauty he saw there, surprised that he had forgotten.
