The Studio in 2021

In early February the temperature all of a sudden plummets to minus 17 Celsius, totally out of character for the region where we live. The strong gusts sweep the snow off the roofs and pile it on top of what is on the ground already. We are snowed in. For one or two days there is hardly any traffic on the roads, doors remain blocked by heaps of snow even longer. Within one week this Siberian spell is over. In spring it will become apparent that this episode was not to the liking of all plants in the garden, the two oleaster bushes have gone all brown instead of green. And the big rosemary bushes in the raised bed have frozen back considerably. Against all expectations both oleaster bushes start regrowing in summer and next year they will be in bloom again. Their flowers open in late autumn and have a very intense scent attracting the bumblebee queens that are to hibernate any time soon. The rosemary recovers as well.

“Yellow Jack” or quarantine flag, my contribution to the OGP’s ABeCeDarium

I still systematically work my way through Henri Bergson‘s writings about time and duration. The new artist‘s book will be all about change, along the lines of Heraclitus and his idea of „Panta rei“. The illustrations to accompany the text will be windmills. They are symbols of change since change is the exact reason why they have been constructed in the first place. They change wind into power and with this they change corn into flour. Or tree trunks into planks.

The illustrations are another attempt to work with the forms of cubism in printmaking. This is a reference to the fact that cubism and the ideas of Bergson are present in the same time span. At the same time they pay homage to Lyonel Feininger, who was born 150 years ago. He is one of the very few who have tried to make cubist woodcuts. The title of the upcoming artist‘s book is „Nichts bleibt wie es war“ (Nothing remains as it has been). One story from the new book will be published separately as a folded brochure with the title „Mutanda“ with illustrations burnished from old stamps originally made for decorating fabric from Afghanistan. My mother-in-law handed her collection of these wooden stamps over to me when she moved into a retirement home not long ago. She assumed with me being a printmaker artist I‘d be the one who could put these stamps to good use.

The pandemic still renders a lot of arts events impossible. Prints and artist‘s books cannot be easily presented outdoors, they want sheltered conditions inside buildings. But with the ongoing restrictions and limitations fairs and exhibitions are almost impossible to hold.

Collaboration: The broadsheets for FPBA

In the course of a year two issues of Parenthesis are being published by the Fine Press Book Association (FPBA) for their members. The spring issue being edited by the British branch and the autumn issue by the branch in the North Americas. There is a deluxe edition which has a hard cover and comes with a portfolio of broadsheets printed by members volunteering to do this task and then donate the prints. For the year 2021 I printed „In Times of Pestilence“ a poem by Thomas Nashe written during times of the plague. I chose Liturgisch and Post-Antiqua as typefaces. In the coming years my contributions will be „Separation“ (2022) a poem by Walter Savage Landor, „The Secret of the Sea“ (2023), a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, for 2024 it‘ll be a quotation by Boethius.

Collaboration: With Annegret Frauenlob for HitBox 5

A couple of years ago Annegret Frauenlob started her project HitBox. She publishes a box each year with contributions by 10 artists. The prints are the size of the envelope or sleeve a EP record would be housed in. Each artist is asked to choose one song and turn it into a print or broadside. I went for Paul Simon‘s „Born at the Right Time“.

The new bed for the rhododendrons needs to be made larger. Additional space is needed for gorse, one Cretan zelkova, foxglove, wolfsbane and ostrich fern. This time round some 6 tonnes of building rubble will have to be disposed of. Elsewhere in the garden we planted service tree, whitebeam and European wild pear already in 2016. Last year some wild mirabelle bushes were given their placing in the new hedge and two standard apple trees came as an addition to the orchard. This year we plant a small group of European wild apples.