The barn next to the printmaking studio in Oppenwehe will turn itself into this bespoke gallery space again and art work from the past 25 years of printmaking will be on show: woodcuts, linoprints, broadsheets and artist‘s books. The historic printing press will be ready for printing and all visitors can have a go at inking and printing, getting a …
A property is found and in January we start packing, official documents are being worked upon. All of a sudden the other party in this transaction changes their mind, and they do not want to sell their house any longer. Since we have already terminated the lease for our rented flat, we need to improvise. I open up all packed …
We have started house hunting. In the years to come we will visit what feels like to be countless old pubs, former workplaces of carpenters or other trades and farmhouses. We will learn about how houses were built here, the region of Westphalia and Münsterland, which is so different to where we have been living so far, in southwest Germany. …
It is the end of winter and I am driving my husband Günter to Westphalia, where he will be based for work from now on. He will live near Münster and we are up for a long distance relationship (500 kilometres), until a new home can be found. We will move house and studio, hopefully in the not too distant …
On our way to the bookfair in Baruth, Brandenburg, we had planned to have time for a detour to Cottbus. My colleague Uwe is setting up a students‘ printing workplace at the local Waldorf school. He, like me, took over part of another Waldorf school‘s equipment last year. I chose metal type in cases that were part of the cabinets …
Ever heard of Archaea? Archaea are single-celled organisms. They do not have a nucleus, their DNA kind of floats in their cells without being enclosed within a membrane. They might be the most ancient form of life on planet earth, or carry some very ancient traits in them, for that matter. If the process of copying DNA had ever worked …
This year is all about the artist‘s book „Mir fehlt ein Wort“ (I am lacking a word), paying homage to Kurt Tucholsky 75 years after his death. He was an astute observer and remains a contemporary witness of the years that resulted in the Nazi regime in Germany, a power that swept across the whole of Europa and eventually plunging …
Every other year in January Norddeutsche Handpressenmesse, a well established book arts fair, is held over one weekend. It is organized by Heinz-Stefan and Wiebke Bartkowiak, who also publish Bartkowiaks ForumBookArt, a review and yearbook of contemporary book arts. This is my first year as an exhibitor at the fair which is held at the Museum der Arbeit with its …
The ice age cave paintings give evidence that for thousands of years man has known that one can paint with earth. At university I was studying soil science. When we had field courses we would paint the colours of the horizons in the soils with a sample of that exact soil itself and writing explanatory notes beside them. The shades …
This year burnishing is again on the menu, so to speak. An elderly lady, a former art and biology teacher gets in touch. While studying in the early post-war years, she made a number of wood etchings, and, due to the lack of paper, she could only print the copies for handing in to her supervisor, never having printed any …