animals abroad and at home

'Little Black Dress' 50x65cm

scans of a couple of recent pieces I made using my ipad, some of the detailing and colours get lost with the scan but making actual photographs is even trickier

'metamorphosis' ca. 90x150cm

'regurgitating' 50x65cm

'thought threads' 50x6cm

'carnival' 70x90cm

'don't be afraid of who you are'  ca.90x150cm

 

Monkey in a windowsill, G&T, sex in Prague

spotted this tiny hand on the pavement in Vienna, I do believe it belonged to a rat;

below just one example of a Viennese Hare, they were everywhere

My dear husband and me enjoyed a short road-trip to Prague and Vienna, two cities we have wanted to visit for a while now, looking at the map I realised combining the two made more sense than having to plan two separate trips (house with dogs need looking after!). Since we both enjoy driving we decided to go by car and add a couple of stops in Germany on our way. On our first night we stayed in a proper castle in the middle of nowhere: Wasserschloss Podelwitz, Germany; it was completely quiet and very, very dark in the evening, I can imagine staying there another time and hiking in those hills! From there we drove to Prague, which was slightly disappointing: too many tourists, I know we were too, but what I mean is the inner city was inundated by tourists and horrible shops, it didn't seem as if there were any Tsjechs about! It all felt pretty cheap.... so sad because there are of course many beautiful buildings and scenery around. Luckily I had planned to stay there first and then drive south to Austria. 

For Vienna, by contrast, was a real treat, an absolute eye-opener: we loved it, all of it and would really like to go back! So much to see and experience, the weather was absolutely fab for a city trip. It felt like it still belongs to the Austrians.  Vienna has so much going for it, not just the museums, cafés, architecture, parks and fine restaurants, there were Viennese everywhere: sitting outside in the sun, at tables next to ours sharing a meal, shopping, bookshops selling only German books (which I cannot read, but that doesn't matter, we popped into one and admired the beautiful editions and book-covers!), shops selling traditional Austrian clothing. There was just such a positive vibe.

It was only after our visit I learned something important about Vienna: the municipal government's housing policy is socially driven, what I mean by that is the amount of rent a tenant has to pay is income-related; meaning everyone who has a job in Vienna can afford to live in Vienna, no matter what your income the employer and the employee might live in the same apartment building, each pay a different rent. I guess this sense of people really belonging somewhere was tangible to us. Municipal civil servants from many other cities have paid Vienna a visit and tried to learn and implement this same system, alas to no avail.

Not that there aren't expensive places to live there, but you know what I mean. In f.e. Amsterdam ex-pats have driven housing prices through the roof.

We went to a ballet 'The Moon Wears A White Shirt'in the Volksoper, we were kindly requested to refrain from taking photographs during the performance, as it is 'a live experience' so this is all I can share, suffice to say it was Wunderbar

bought BOOKS at Shakespeare and Co. - another Dream Shop of mine - recognise this cutie?

saw the famous Venus of Willendorf, she's tiny 11,1cm at the NaturHistorischesMuseum

there are more images, but I'll leave it like this for now at least

bye