090725 Ripples Blue 24″x48″ acrylic and gold leaf on canvas

After I finished Ripples Red I felt like painting another, bigger one. In the beginning I imagined it red as well but during the week it turned into a deep ocean like manganese blue. Like a wide deep blue sea inside.

Do you remember this movie “The Sea Inside” ( “Mar Adento” or “Das Meer in mir” I like the German title because it implies “within” instead of “inside”) by this oh so well-gifted Spanish director which name I always forget although I have seen all his movies ( maybe not all but a lot ) Alejandro Amenábar? It is about dying with dignity. I remember beautiful but empty, abandoned landscapes -  a cold Atlantic beach shore and a person with an unmovable body chained to a bed but free in spirit and another person that was free to go where she wanted but seemed chained in her heart. Galizier Ramón Sampedro is disabled since his accident 27 years ago but leaves in his mind to visit his beloved sea.

This painting is as true to me as the red one – I could do the magic twice. After I finished it, I felt dissolved and ready to embrace a little break from painting. Over the past weeks I spend much time setting up the new web page ( so you can actually buy my art work directly from me – here and now – and I ship it around the globe   ) and was simultaneously engrossed in painting – the little down time comes as a gift. Sometimes inspiration comes in waves and it just rolls over me – I accepted it.

Mucha, mucha blessings for this. “Wait for me” is  Moby in essence. It is sad, melancholic, nostalgic, multi-layered, simple, minimalistic, complex, carrying. What a beautiful journey. “Wait for me” is more than “Play” from 1999 than “Hotel” from 2005 which didn’t stick with me. Listening to the new album today was like embarking upon a voyage back in time when we were obsessively listening to his music. ( …IKEA trip,  squeezed between too many cardboard boxes in super-way too-small VW, shook by  fit of laughter…)

“Shot in the Back of the Head” next to “Ghost return” and “Wait for me” turn out to be my favorites. 1:13 minutes into the song I checked for the title. And after a little bit of research I found out- guess what – David Lynch, I just wrote another blog post about,  directed the video ( I like the stars all tangled up in doodle wires – see/hear below ). “Shot in the Back of the Head”  is entirely instrumental but this never has been a down side in my opinion. There are quite a few songs I like which are solely instrumental. ( Just thinking about “A warm Place” by Nine Inch Nails,  “Anji” by Simon & Garfunkel [ check out the vid!] or “Eple” by Röyksopp [...wait, those guys are instrumental for the most parts anyway....well yeah   ] )

In an Interview with the Edmonton Sun ( an absolute must read!) sober, vegan, spiritual and now 43-year-old Moby mentioned:

“It’s the first time in my life where I’ve accepted being normal. Before, being normal was horrific for me.”

“I started making music for the wrong reasons, to satisfy the industry. Hotel (2005) is the one I’m least proud of. I don’t like songs that are too polished, just like I don’t like that kind of person in life. My music has to be vulnerable and flawed.”

You are a great guy! Keep on rowing!

I was writing at this post when I started rambling about Viennese Artists and therefore decided to make a separate post out of it. There are three artist that immediately come to mind when I think about Vienna: Klimt ( and I am aware that staring at this painting over several extended periods of time had quite an impact on me and my art.  ) and Schiele. I adore him since I got introduced to him by my precious art teacher in High School, who for whatever reason happened to be in the same and most rural ( and friking boooring ) spot in Germany as I was ( I tell ya – trampling down  labyrinths in corn fields and placing coins on train tracks was THE afternoon entertainment).

Schieles reckless reflection of the world without trying to make it into something mystic stuck with me – until now.

And I guess my artist friend Alfredo Barsuglia wouldn’t mind to be named in my personal Viennese Painters list. He creates astonishing work and is a great person. I still remember the first time when a friend of mine pulled out one of Alfredo’s self-portraits, an acrylic on paper, from under his bed to show it to me. So authentic and with the attempt to be ugly but achieving the exact opposite by doing so – great piece. That was 7 years ago and I think I am safe to say, my friend and I are far away of being able to afford one of his pieces now. Check him out below.

Edit 1: Klimt on Artlust. So wrong.

Some favorites of mine: ” Random Event in Time Pt.2″ and “Tart” which is from the first album.

If you like it electronic, if you like distorted e-guitars, if you like it all in one track, if you like strong and powerful statements, if you like down beat and speed in a startling alteration, if you like house, if you tend to be the person that gets up, stops any conversation, cancels any orders at the bar to make it to the dance floor on time when you are hit by a certain kind of sound, if you REALLY like synthesizer sounds and you aren’t sure if you felt more drawn to the music or the pictures of all those Sci-Fi movies from the 80ies-  this might be of interest to you.

In this context I found some pretty sounds by Reactable.

Minimalism here I come. I was looking for this music instrument that was just a small black stick and would react to any approaching person by giving buzzing synthetic sounds. Once I saw a performance with it in the MAK in Vienna but I just can’t remember the name of the instrument. Something like muk, wuk,wok,mok,… three letters if I recall right. It was so fascinating. If you know what I am talking about please help me out.