Art and Exercise

Of course, we're on the bikes again.

There's an exhibit in Delmenhorst at the Haus Coburg.  We've been there before (see here and here) more than a few times, and it's always a bit weird and much more than a bit interesting.

So, off with our favorite biking crew.

Right away on the other side of the river, we encountered a new piece of art on the way to see more art.  It's a cross to commemorate that the village is along a pilgrimage route.   Cows add to the atmosphere, but I don't think they make pilgrimages.

Werner and I are quite relaxed when we bike - lots of little pauses and stops to take pictures and have a sip of water or munch on some chocolate.  But not these folks, noooooooooo.  We pedal and pedal and keep on pedaling.  So it's a good ninety minutes getting to Delmenhorst, practically without taking a breath much less a chocolate break.

When we arrived we were more than ready for lunch and landed in a nice place situated on the outer dry moat of the old castle.  Nothing is left of the old castle, but there's a bronze sculpture with details of the old site.

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So, to the museum.  The title of the current show is "alles nicht sichtbar"  or  "everything is not obvious." Or perhaps "everything is not what it seems."  True.

A major part of the exhibit was the artist's copies of ordinary things.  But these are not copies from a copier, but rather exact, hand-made, hand-colored, hand-lettered original copies of the original print.  Like I said, they do some weird stuff there.  This was particularly mind bending.

This is a hand-made original of a book jacket from an old library book, including the little tears and worn places and sun-faded parts of the jacket. So, an original copy. What? Ane Mette Hol, the artist, must have the most incredible patience and the steadiest hand in the universe,

 

Original "copies" of gray cardboard.  Hand made, hand colored.

The other artist (Jan Schmidt) made this installation that was created by the machine he used to cut marble.  As he moved the machine along the floor, the marble dust from the cuttings made this pattern.  When the exhibit is over, they'll sweep it up and that art installation will be gone. Forever.

Art is not static.  Here, a close up of where some little animals walked across the marble dust.  So weird!! Interactive art!!

Here the artist covered the floor of this room with microscope slides.  DO NOT WALK HERE.

And finally, graphite sculptures.  These are at most 4 inches high, all formed on a lathe.  The shavings were used to make yet other art, spilled on paper to leave their traces.

I did not take a picture of our guide, a (very) young man who hopes to study graphic art next year at college.  He was so full of information and answered all our questions and because of him we could grasp what the concept of the artists was about.  And he had the most incredible eyebrows! Really! Someone should have drawn them.  With a lathed graphite stylus. And put them in the show.

Cultural Saturday

Several weeks ago the local museum sent an email asking if we'd like to take a day trip to an exhibit in Emden.  Sure.  I can be at the train station at 7:50AM on a Saturday, but I wasn't so sure about Werner.

But he was game, too, so we signed up and got up and went, along with about 48 other hearty souls.  (Needless to say, most of them had gray hair!)

The night before we'd gathered our things, made a sandwich, charged the phones, charged the camera.

On the train platform here in Vegesack, I got out the camera to take a picture - no juice!  What's wrong??  Well, no battery!!  Werner had packed away the charger not realizing the battery was still in it!  Oh well, at least I still had the phone.....

The trip is 2 1/2 hours by train, (at least 2 by car -- worth it), so we read the paper, read our books, looked out the window, talked with our fellow travellers.  The time flew by and we arrived in Emden. Please notice we had sunshine!  Blue skies!  But notice the shadows, too.  Our sun is still low in the sky.
 

"Kunstlerkinder" - Children of Artists - was the exhibit - artists' portraits of their own children.  Some were what you'd expect, some were rather weird (they are artists, after all), and a few even a bit disturbing.  The curators had tracked down the now older children in some of the more recent portraits to get their thoughts then and now on the art and that was interesting, too!  Most were perfectly OK with then and now.  Might as well.  We all know how our parents love embarrassing us...
 
I particularly like the one of the boy - MUST be a boy! - hanging over the door.  Hayden?  Hunter?

The black and white double portrait top left is by Picasso of his children Paloma and Claude, done entirely with his thumb - mostly thumb prints. Cool.

The guided tour was first class, we had a lovely lunch at the café next door, and a relaxing trip home.  This was our first such group tour and we will certainly do it again. It's so easy having someone else do all the arranging and so easy to take the train instead of driving yourself.

Yet another day to put in the bottle.

Sunday Outing - Weekly Roundup

The lens cover on the camera won't open.  I got some sand in there (don't ask!) and several methods of freeing it up haven't worked.  So we took the phone on our bike trip today.

Since we're a bit backward about phones (see the Italian post about NOT getting where we wanted to go), our phone camera has only 3 megapixels - puny by today's standards.  I remember buying a camera when Werner turned 60 and the owner of the camera shop said it was ridiculous to have more than 1 megapixel - who needs that, she said.  How times change......

But they're not soooo awful.  Take a look.

This greeted us on the front page Sunday morning - 75°, no chance of rain, sunny skies.  Gotta go bike!

So we biked to Worpswede for their annual Freiluft Galerie  (Open Air Gallery) where artists and artisans display their work outside.  It was 50K round trip but we got a long break half-way through

You can see how clear it was - blue skies and even with the puny camera, a pretty good shot.

In Worpswede, we were greeted by hanging art, colors, sculpture and even "Bremen" paintings.

And on the way home, we found some blackberries!  It's been so cool and often cloudy they've been really slow to ripen.  Now I have two little jars of jam -yea!

And BIG P.S.

We celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary on last Wednesday, August 8.  Quite a milestone - and 19 of those years spent here in Bremen.  I have never lived so long in any one place ever.  But things change, and nothing so much as hair and waistlines.  Here we were then, but we are just as happy now.

Re-Purposed Ties

Barbara, my dear fellow-sewer and lover of old linens, had asked if we might bring back a few silk ties from the US.  She's working on a quilt, from old ties that she has been collecting over the years.  But she cautioned, If you go to the Goodwill, watch out!  Don't pay more than $2.00!!  OK.  I can do that.

You can imagine, I'm sure, that it takes a lot of ties to make a quilt.  And you may be thinking at the same time, who wants to do that anyway?  But creative people just see things differently. (I seldom put myself in that category of persons, sigh...)

But back to the ties. I had a hunch that between my various male in-laws, there would probably be a little stash of no-longer-used, no-longer-wanted, slightly out-of-date or soiled ties in Barbara's color - primarily red.  And I was not wrong!  Larry and Barry, seldom needing ties in their retirement, had some lovely ones to donate.  Joey, since he's trying to get rid of the banker-as-a-guy-always-in-a-tie image, also had a few he was more than willing to part with. So we had quite a collection to donate.

And so we went to visit.  Back to the site of my accident!  Barbara and Charlie were forever saying Watch your step!   I do. I did. I will. After the obligatory Kaffee + Kuchen (yummy homemade treats from last summer's fruit) we looked a the quilt-in-progress. 

It's basically a log cabin pattern, but done with strips in the stripes and continuing on and on - it's one huge log cabin block.

She opens the ties and presses them and adds iron-on backing to stabilize the silk and then sews them together to make the longer strips.  There are a few ties with some history of course.  And interestingly, she's saved all the labels which will become the binding for the finished quilt. 

Then we had a painting lesson.  I had already done some fabric "printing" after our first visit, but having a lesson was useful.  She gathered some flowers and leaves and then we helped make a "sampler" to take home for reference.  Even the sampler is pretty!

Now to make some of my own for the craft show at the end of March.  I'd better get busy - there's not much time!

Biking Weekend

We've had this spate of wonderful weather and though there were other things calling (the sewing machine, the garden, the grass between the stones needing to be pulled), we didn't listen.  We got out the bikes.

Of course, we need to be in shape.  The big trip starts in just 2+ weeks. Yikes.
Friday the trip was around the River Wumme.

Where the Wumme and the River Hamme merge,  they become the Lesum which flows into the Weser which is of course just down the road from us. But it is a ride.  In fact, we cheated a bit and took the train to Burg Lesum to begin our tour.  There, we looked at the bridge over the Lesum that needs replacing.  What a mess.  It doesn't really look like it, but it is a suspension bridge, so they can't just take it apart where it is, otherwise it would fall into the river a make a mess of traffic.  So they have to PULL it to one bank and THEN take it apart!  It's jacked up but the pulling part has run into snags, so to say.  It is stuck.  Interesting.

 
We've done all of this tour one time or another and it is just so nice.

Cut hay drying in the fields.

The farmhouses.

 
The farmhouses! How idyllic!! Really, flowers and sunshine and thatched roofs and homemade bread and jams for sale.  It's right out of a picture book.  I cannot resist the goodies. We got two jars for Mutti and one for us. (Mutti eats a lot of jam!)

 
45 kilometers later, we got home to see the sun go down.

Saturday was market and taking care of Mutti and stuff around the house.  But Sunday?  Sunday, back on the bikes.

There's a nice little museum in Delmenhorst, just 15K or so from here, so we decided to check out their current exhibition.  First, we ferry over the river where we could stare open mouthed at the three LUXURY yachts being serviced across the river (two here in the haze). The largest is 240 ft long.  Words fail me.

 
It's always a chance - the shows at this museum - but there was a connection to Edvard Munch and the class we're taking at the moment, so we went. The artist had spent some months at Munch's house in Norway and many charcoal sketches of his impressions of the house were there, framed.  OK.  Ok.  ok. Werner could have done them all.  I could have done half of them.  Man, I want artists to do SO much better than I think I can do!

 But the setting is lovely, and just visiting the museum is a soothing experience. 

Afterwards, we explored the old industrial area near the museum.  Most of the spaces have been converted to business or school use, but some for townhouses.  These look great. Lots of character, quiet surroundings. 

Heading back home over tree-shaded country roads was the icing on the weekend.

As Werner says:  Darling, never forget how lucky we are.

We are.  (I know that's a repeat, but worth repeating.)

Art

Last week as the world knows, Harry Potter's final adventure opened and of course we wanted to go!  They make it easy here - order the tickets on line and pick your reserved seat from the automatic seat teller.  No rushing the door, no standing in line - except for popcorn. Great!

But we didn't want to go into town just for the movie, so we made it an Art Day.  A visit to the Gerhard Marcks Haus fit the bill.

As it turns out, the exhibit was on - Gerhard Marcks!  He is one of the most well-know German sculptors and the small museum showcases sculpture well.

You readers might recognize this theme of his!

Upstairs, they highlighted a contemporary artist who works with foam.  Pretty detailed and interesting and art, in my opinion - but is is sculpture?  The "sculpting" was done with knife and scissors, so not nearly as smooth as the stone.

 
Outside in the small gatehouse there was a lovely installation of spheres made of natural materials - handmade paper and wood.  It reminded us of the galaxy.

Afterwards there was time for some food, at the restaurant just on the other side of the moat.   Looking at this picture, it's hard to remember that it was warm enough to eat outside and that we've had sunshine lately.  It's been so cold and rainy.

And we did enjoy the last of the Harry Potter saga.  I've got used to no longer looking forward to the next book, and the end of it all was satisfying, but I think I'll miss him.

  

Not caught up yet ...

but getting there.  The kids and Michelle have been gone since last Wednesday, but the next day one appointment changed my plans to methodically clean and wash and put up.

I'm taking over two classes from a teacher who's moving back to Switzerland and she threw a few contacts my way, one of whom wanted a translation and NOW!  It's great work (sit at home in your pjs) but it was long and took more than a few hours - more like days!  There's the final tweak to do, but it's done, so now I can participate in the clean up, wash up, put up that Werner's been doing all on his own.

And get a Posting done.

In addition to keeping track of all our doings on the kids' blog, Werner made a record of the visit in his own inimitable way - a drawing.  Here's the result:




And of course a few things were left behind - hair bands and bands for the braces, 5 cents under the dresser, Hannah's little jacket she won't likely miss there in Florida.

And something else - a little surprise that had landed under the sink - a lock of Hunter's hair!  How sweet!

Open House

Once a year, Germany opens the doors to its historical buildings, all free, many not normally open to the public.  Yesterday was the day.  Since Sunday is still recognized as a day off, a day that obvious labor is frowned upon, I couldn't continue painting the exterior window frames, or hang out the wash, or do any hedge trimming or such, so we opted to take a bike ride after our late breakfast and check out a couple of the buildings open here in our neck of the woods. 

We went first to the Haus Seefahrt, a private group made up of sea captains and others who operate a home here for retired ship captains or their widows and sponsor a traditional yearly dinner in the city - since the mid 1500s or so. The gate was transfered here from its original site in Bremen after WWII and ties the more modern buildings to its much longer history.  In their meeting room the original coats of arms of all the board chairmen are displayed - a lot of history in a very small space.

The gardens are lovely and well-cared for.  This classicized statue represents "Brema" - our city!  Cute hat.

Next, off to Lesum.  Outside the church, there's a statue of Lady Emma of Lesum, traditionally credited with donating the grounds of the city park for the use of the citizens - our Bürger Park.  The church was open and walking the grounds of the old cemetery gave us a moment of reflection.

But not for too long - we had one more stop - St. Michels in Grohn, just around the corner from us.  This church is not so old - not even as old as our house - but we listen to the bells every Sunday and Saturday and today there was an organ concert.  Quite unusual - all the pieces were written by the performer.  He had an enthusiastic audience!

And to home. And to dinner. 

It's wild mushroom season and we were able to get some at the market on Saturday, hand-picked in the woods. W I L D. 

You can't be complicated with these wild things.  Clean them up, fry up some chopped smoked bacon.  Sear the mushrooms in the fat and add some cream.  Pour over hot Spätzle (German pasta, a bit heartier than the Italian sort) and savor, slowly.  It's another seasonal pleasure and worthy of its own historical designation.

And here - it's a sign!  A sign of what, I am not sure, but there was a pelican noodle on the plate.  Humm.  Interpretations, anyone?

Happy Birthdays

May 21, a double birthday in the family.  Lee is 40 today.  Quite a milestone.  

Mother is 90 today.  That's a milestone, too.

Lee's in Orlando.  Mother's in Atlanta.  I'm in Germany.   No chance of getting together.

But my thoughts are there and tons of wishes for a happy day for each of them.

The Garden Shed

It's been a year ago or more that I asked Werner if he could build a little garden shed for us. As you who have seen our "yard" can imagine, he said WHAT? ARE YOU KIDDING? WHERE? 

Of course I wasn't kidding, since I am a serious person and as is well known, have no sense of humor.  The pots and bags of soil and the few odd implements sat out in the way and weather and irritated my view.  Smaller tools and aids clogged up the storage room. Irritation is not one of my favorite things.  Besides, there was this idea in my head of a charming little shed with a window box and I knew we could do it.

Last summer our neighbors had their house re-roofed; the old charming (key word, here, charming) slate roof tiles were unceremoniously dumped into a container to be hauled to the dump.  Wait, wait!  The roof for my unrealized garden shed!  Werner dutifully salvaged tiles and they were stacked outside.

During the winter we chatted and sketched and Werner was gradually lured into the idea of a shed.  Then a friend started some home renovations and there was a lot of old floor boards that I thought were simply ideal for the shed.  Werner of course went to salvage the wood.

OK! We had a real start!  Just one more little push.  Werner does love a challenge and he scratched his head and did the calculations and got started.  It was really great, and as the shed developed, I introduced the idea of decorations.  GEEZE, he sort of said, do we have to?  He was quite skeptical, but I found some pictures of what I wanted and naturally he did an incredible interpretation.  And when my artist got into it, he had to be restrained.  The "glass" of the window "reflects" the back of the house.The "flower box" on the door looks so good that bees have been coming to visit!!

I love it! Thanks, Werner.  Don't we make a team!

Baubles, Bangles and Beads

Today was a craft fair in Bremen. Before Easter, a bit like before Christmas, there are lots of markets where creative people can strut their stuff. I fantasize about joining their ranks, but it is so intimidating! Ideas! Execution! Commitment! I seem to lack some of the essential elements to enter the craft market.

Nevertheless, looking is lots of fun and inspires me a bit to go home and do SOMETHING.

Our friend Ursel got inspired a few months back. She got a 5-kilo bag of assorted glass beads for next to nothing, all sizes and colors and shapes and all in a jumble. But she has a great eye and before long they were sorted and organized and began turning into lovely necklaces and then she ordered more beads and then she took apart some old necklaces of hers to add to the mix and, well, this is part of what happened.

Back to the craft fair. A young friend was visiting so of course they made a necklace but the center bauble just didn't quite get it. Wouldn't you know, a glass artist was at the fair and she had the perfect bead!

So back to Ursel's where she finished the necklace for Wiebke and then said:  Well, my dear Sharon, I think you need a new necklace.  And it should be turquoise. That's a good color for you.  Well, OK!  Let's make a necklace.  

First we chose a range of colors, then set up the row, then chose the smaller beads to go between, then found a much better center bead, then restrung it all and -- ta da ! a masterpiece.

 So, is turquoise a good color for me? I vote YES. Thanks, Ursel, it is beautiful!