“We can only be said to be alive in those moments
when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.”
Thornton Wilder, The Woman of Andros, 1930
This has been a challenging year for me in many aspects but also a very rewarding one in others. But whatever has been and probably will be, I feel blessed being able to live the life I am living.
Whatever your life has been like lately, I hope you have plenty to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. I wish you a wonderful day with family and loved ones.
“Some day I’ll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far behind me
Away above the chimney tops
Where troubles melt like lemon drops
That’s where you’ll find me”
Edgar Yipsel “Yip” Harburg, Over the Rainbow, 1939,
sung by Judy Garland in the movie “The Wizard of Oz”
The wonderful team at Agora Gallery has put together my artist page on the gallery website. I think they have done a great job, so check it out! You also find two pictures there that Angela Di Bello, the gallery director, has chosen from the photographs she had previously selected for ARTmine, Agora Gallery’s fine art sales website. These two pictures will be my contribution to the group exhibition „Emerging Visions“ from January 21 to February 10, 2017 at Agora Gallery, where you will not only find prints of my photographs but also other exciting artwork from some wonderful artists like Jian Jun An. There will also be an opening reception on January 26, 2017 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Should you be in New York then, please do stop by!
“Beauty is no quality in things themselves:
It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them;
and each mind perceives a different beauty.”
David Hume: Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary.
Part I, Essay 23: Of the Standard of Taste (1741-2; 1748)
A few days ago a friend of mine got me thinking. He said he would like my Skies, their romanticism and calmness. But, he added, he would miss the spectacular. He had me doubting. Are my Skies missing something? Are they too ordinary? Not beautiful enough? And what is beauty anyway? I guess that is what it comes down to. What is beauty?
Is beauty only in the extraordinary? Does something or someone have to be different or unusual to be beautiful? I do not want to get too philosophical here, these questions have been asked before and there is no single answer; everybody has to find their own answer. But these questions brought me back to where I have been before: I want to show the world as it is. I want to find beauty in everything I see. If I find something spectacular, fine. But there is also so much beauty in our everyday life! We just seem to lose sight of that, seem to overlook it under all the impressions that rain down on us every day. And maybe our sense of beauty has changed with all that?
My friend also said that after having looked at the pictures on my website, he had started to look into the real sky more often again, amazed at the beauty he saw there, surprised that he had forgotten.
“Union gives strength.”
Aesop (620 – 564 BCE), The Old Man and his Sons / The Bundle of Sticks from Aesop’s Fables
Prints of a selection of my photographs are now available for sale on ARTmine. This website makes contemporary fine art accessible worldwide and is run by New York’s Agora Gallery. ARTmine only shows the work of artists represented by or affiliated with the gallery. It has become an important resource for private as well as corporate art collectors, art consultants, and interior designers.
Angela Di Bello, director of Agora Gallery and editor-in-chief of ARTisSpectrum Magazine, has selected 16 of my photographs for ARTmine. I really like her choices; she picked some of my favorite Skies. Take a look at my artist page on ARTmine to find out more.
“Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high
There’s a land that I heard of
Once in a lullaby”
Edgar Yipsel „Yip“ Harburg, Over the Rainbow, 1939,
sung by Judy Garland in the movie “The Wizard of Oz”
In Beijing again. It is still really hot here, but most of the time the air is clear and the skies are blue. I love Beijing’s temples, I feel transported into a world long gone by. Staying away from major tourist hot spots or visiting them at less crowded times, I can still feel a hint of old Beijing. I find myself a quiet spot, inhale the atmosphere, take a look at all the beautiful buildings, trees, flowers, and places of worship. And of course I take my camera and try to capture these moments.
Yesterday, I visited the Temple of Confucius (北京孔廟, Běijīng Kǒngmiào), which is more of a museum than a temple these days and also a wonderful place not only for people who want to learn more about Confucianism. We had walked there along the river, enjoying another wonderful summer day, and were in the middle of the compound when all of the sudden the sky turned grey with clouds, a wind got up, and the birds fluttered about nervously. Then there was thunder, some rain, and after a little while, the clouds began to disappear again. And when the sun broke through, we saw a wonderful double rainbow and the light casted a spell over everyone and everything.
