A couple of months ago, knowing that this would be a weekend without traveling and actually without my sweet other half (this time he was traveling)…I had signed up for a Collage workshop at the Hamburger Kunsthalle (art museum here in Hamburg). When the day approached I was almost ready to skip it…so much stuff to do – wouldn’t it be rather smart to stay home and just work?
Nope…I decided in the morning, after I had a nice breakfast…NOPE….I will go and enjoy this day!
Now, I can see beauty in this spider (my Australian mates may remember my fear of spiders ;) ) – this Maman by Louise Bourgeois ! What an amazing installation. Gotta go back before that exhibitions ends. Later in the day there was a couple dancing tango under the spider. It was a wonderful sight and very romantic.
Before the workshop started we all went through the museum and looked at the Exhibition which was called Exhausted Heroes. It featured the work of Ferdinand Hostler, Aleksandr Dejneka and Neo Rauch. The painting above- and no those cell phone pictures do no justice to those paintings, you have to see them in real live- is by Neo Rauch – love his work and color combinations.
We mostly looked at Neo Rauch’s Work as it is very figurative and it goes into collage painting. This above painting of him was the last we looked at and really inspired we made our way back to the museum’s workshop rooms.
It was amazing- there was no explanation needed on what to do, we had simply looked at those paintings, were totally inspired, nobody talked and we all just grabbed magazines and paints – and started working. Look at the first row of work….can you see how the last painting inspired most of us in the color choices?
It was fun to be in a total different place with different materials and just use what was there.
It was also very interesting to work on a totally different scale – this is appr. 12 x 17 inches.
We always talked about our work afterwards and it was interesting to see what the others had created and what they thoughts were. It was so inspiring and amazing.
For the last piece I forced myself to choose a different color combination from my usual ones…
And…shocking…hold on to your seats now…I love this one….yes I do …it makes me smile and I enjoyed creating it a lot. I call it “The American Dream” .Your interpretation to think why I chose this title- LOL.
And the moral of this story? Well…sometimes you need a ME-Day, relax, have a scrumptious breakfast, go out into the air, meet new people and do what you love in a different environment. I was in such a friendly happy mood when I came home – ahhhhh!!!! And it made working on sunday so much easier…I got twice as much stuff done then usual…so the “lost day” was actually well invested ;)
Looking forward to the next ME-day I penciled into my calendar.
What would you do if you had a Me-Day?
Nat
Comments (12)
france papillon
| #
looks like you had an amazing time, love the pieces you made! but the spider… with or without dancers… yuk!
i have lots of me-days lately, wish i could give some away to peeps in need! ;)
have a happy week, bereknuf!
Reply
Dolores
| #
You created some wonderful art. I’m glad you got a day away to play differently and be inspired. I think everyone needs to do that occasionally.
Reply
Rebecca
| #
Super work, glad you enjoyed yourself…and I know just what you mean about the ME-DAY we don’t dop it often enough. I went to a craft fair on Saturday and spent a couple hours yesterday (whilst my boy/men folk watched the football) playing with my new stash and felt a whole lot better for it :)
Happy Craftin
Rebecca
Reply
Martha Richardson
| #
FAb work…never skip a day when you can learn… I’ll let you know when I get a ME day…it’s coming soon!
Reply
Marsha.
| #
Love, love, love the yellow, teal, white circles! I’m hoping for a me-day (in another city) next week. I actually made an appointment to visit someone at the end of that day, as that will force me to go through with it :-).
Reply
nathalie-kalbach
| #
ohhh that sounds good- can’t wait to read about it :)
Reply
stephis
| #
So fun and cool work..love it! Thanks for the lovely inspiration you gave me in Stockholm , Sweden lst weekend. When I came home I made this one, inspired of your tequnique http://stephis-kort.blogspot.se/2012/05/mixed-media-karlek.html
Reply
nathalie-kalbach
| #
Beautiful work Stephis! It was gorgeous meeting you!!!
Reply
M. Carmen - Cuchy
| #
such a great idea to attend that workshop. Love the last collage.
My Me-day? mmmmm alone at home??? I droll over only visualizing it!! :)
Reply
Bev W.
| #
Nice work Nat!! I would find myself an artsy retreat that would take me out of my comfort zone. Always want to learn new ways to play:)
Reply
Birgit Kunte
| #
Ich liebe deine Sachen, aber das letzte Projekt ist der Knaller auch von den “anderen” Farben her. Mhh, mal sehen, an einem Me-Day, aufstehen, joggen gehen, dann Yoga, dann Frühstück, dann an meinen Scraptisch mit möglichst vielen netten Mitscrapperinnen. Abends ein feines leichtes essen und irgendwann in der “Früh” ins Bett fallen. :-) Liebe Grüße und eine schöne Woche, Birgit
Reply
nathalie-kalbach
| #
oh das klingt nach einem sehr schönen-Me-Day :) Auch Dir eine schöne Woche – knuddel – Nat
Reply