I went to the gallery today to take home my two paintings that have been on display. As much as it pains me to not have anymore artwork in public view, I am happy to bring the paintings back and hang them on the walls they call home.
I don’t know much about the music artist Tori Amos, but I think at one point she referred to her songs as her babies. I can totally relate. I spend a lot of time with my works of art; as they blossom from an awesome moment on a snow covered mountain top into a photo, and then into a drawing. After the drawing I build the canvas, draw on the canvas, stencil the canvas, spray paint the canvas, and paint the canvas. The act of creating art is a spiritual and emotional release, but by the end of the process I can’t help but feel attached. The tumult between wanting to keep all of my work for myself and wanting to share it is so strong that even my husband, Phil, shares the same emotions.
Ultimately I will always decide to share. Sharing has many great affects; like it frees up space for new artwork and opens doors. For me sharing has opened the door to making new friends, both at home and in the art world. As you are already aware; the desire to share my paintings has encouraged me to join an art club in the German community. It’s called Brucke ’92, and we just recently had our member show. Before picking up my work today (as the show is over) I also spent some time in the gallery last week. On Thursday I sat for three hours as the greeter. As a receptionist for the afternoon I was hoping to encourage some American friends to check out a new German space, practice my language skills, and also encourage some non-artlovers to become artlovers. As in any garden of ideas; one of these hopes blossomed a bit fuller than the others.

PINGUINO by Jochen Sturm

As it happened another artist came to be an attendant at the same time as me. I don’t know if he got confused with when he signed up to volunteer, or if he was non-nonchalantly planted there to babysit me. At any rate; I was thankful for Jochen’s company. He, very patiently, spoke to me in German for upwards of an hour. We talked about quite a few topics ranging from vacationing in Morocco, to the hardest characteristics of getting-along in a different country. Jochen talked a lot about his artwork too; which I was curious about because I really like it. If you’ve been to the R3 gallery for the member show than you have seen his work. Also, if you have parked in the Reitbahn parking lot (in Ansbach) and walked through the tunnel (near Tam-Tam) than you have passed by his studio.
Jochen is a sculptor who works with salvaged and repurposed materials. Most of his sculptures (that I am familiar with) begin with a moped/motorcycle gas can as the body of a bird. He develops the rest of the bird’s body with other found objects; like hose, rebar, scrap metal, and wood. It’s impressive to me to see how much life these static creatures actually have. The variety of materials he works with can not be counted. His sculptures vary as well; they are not all birds. I hope I have peaked your interest and you visit Jochen soon. He is another friendly (and interesting) artist that I am pleased to have made the acquaintance of. He welcomes any, and all, to come visit him in his studio on Saturdays.

www.jochensturm.com

(For all of my American friends; he speaks plenty of English too.)