All hung up with no place to go!

At least not for another week..so come on by either tonight or any evening after 8 pm this week to see a creative, QR coded art exhibit at Das Provisorium (Lindwurmstr. 37, near Sendlingertor).

Some experimental photography samples:

Perhaps you've noticed, I like photographing the Angel of Peace which is always there looking down at me after I turn the corner from my block onto Prinzregententsrasse.  I have experimented a bit in changing the appearance of how I see it daily.

Just hung this up this morning and it's already sold!

I froze a bit while taking these shots on my way home one night,
passing through the Deutsches Museum over this bridge (is it 'Dr. Brosch' bridge? Anyone know?)

Negative image of Sendlingertor at night.

Right across the street I live on, if you look left you'll see the Peace Angel. 
But once you've got 'Käfer' in your sights its hard to go anywhere else!

Recognize it?  One of the most beautiful buildings in Munich:  Müllersches Volksbad.

And some experimental work in mixed media (combining acrylic paint, photography, photo transfer, and schoolbooks!).  To see and read more about the process involved take a look here.

 Click on the image below to read (and see) more about what this is all about!

A close-up portion of a larger collaged piece entitled 'Contemplating the Truth about Aging' and personally relates to my grandmother who turned 102 this March.  Photo of my Grandma, 'Mildred' (left) and her sister, 'Gladys' (right)

 I have been somewhat captivated by moving vehicles at night as well lately.  At the show there is a mixed media piece also taken at this corner of Rosenheimerstr. and Am Gasteig.  I have combined the photo with acrylic paint on canvas.

Our flyer, for more details.  Come by tonight or anytime this week if you can!  (Tonight you'll receive a free drink from Yelp, our sponsor)

Mixed + Media Exhibition, March 13 in Munich

This Tuesday, the Munich Creative Group will hold another, hopefully just as fantabulous as last one, art exhibit consisting of a variety of mixed media artwork at Das Provisorium, conveniently located near Sendlingertor on Lindwurmstrasse.

 Everything you need to know..right here:

Some other fun things you should know:

** Visitors with smartphones will be able interact with the artwork on display via QR codes, which will bring up additional information about a piece, such as a written description of the artist's thought process or a video of the artist actually creating the work- how cool is that?!  We'll be able to help you with this if necessary!

**Yelp is our sponsor for this show, this means everyone gets a free drink upon arrival simply by checking in on the Yelp app or by filling out our feedback card.  Some 'Yelpers' will be there to help with this process too!

** In case you can't make it on Tuesday, 13th, fear not!  The exhibition will also be open to the public 14-18 March, evenings from 20:00.


I'll be showing some new experimental work along with 7 other international artists, this is an opportunity for all of us to try some new things but some of us will also show work of our typical mediums like painting, drawing, photography..a little something for everyone with a techie-twist to it all!
Hope to see ya!

Photoshop Fun!

Sometimes one can have just too much fun playing in Photoshop..and then one can wonder why one is not actually completing anything for their upcoming show but would have an entire, complete range of incomplete works if that happened to be the theme for one's upcoming show.  Well, it's not the theme (our theme is actually mixed + media, click here for Munich Creative Group's upcoming show, March 13) and I have always wanted to create some Munich, or other city, collages whether it be true mixed media or collaged in Photoshop.

I live near this monument, Peace Angel, perhaps you have seen it elsewhere on my blog as it is one of my favorite subjects to photograph (not only is it convenient but I think it's just beautiful).  You may also know of it as 'Friedensengel', which has a nice ring to it I think, whether or not you understand that it means Angel of Peace.

So here are my results from spielen mit the Peace Angel..should I continue down this path or get out of Photoshop and get my hands dirty with some paints, collage, transfers and who knows what else?!  hmmm...

Maybe its a bit too much like a graphic poster for something?

 If you look close enough you can see the text is mirrored..oops, I need to change this.  I originally thought I would do a photo transfer with the text.  Too busy?

OOOOOO fun in Photoshop...posterizing!  Somebody stop me...no, don't I'm just getting warmed up!

We're Having A Show!

Oh, do stop by!  The (in)famous Munich Creative Group will be holding our first 'Pop-Up Gallery' on Saturday, February 11 (see our Facebook Page for more details on this and about the group and to see the logo I designed:)  A variety of fine art photography, painting, mixed media, and more exciting stuff like musical performances and some creative writing from some very talented local artists.

I will be showing some of my photos from chilly early mornings and even chillier late nights (see my post on my other blog for a sampling) as well as a couple of abstract watercolors.

We are a diverse, international group telling a variety of stories through a range of media.  Some, but not all, of the art work will be for sale.  Come by between 2 pm and 8 pm to have a look, for more details, see our poster:

New Year...New Soup!

So I did mention that this year I would..eat more healthy, now on Day 5, I am ready to begin (burger, check..pizza, check..chilli, check...schoko muffins, tarts, check check)  Ready for some yummy and nutritional soup!

I love soup...ever since I moved to Germany about7 years ago.  I eat it more months out of the year than not here.  Takes a while for me to get tired of it but it certainly doesn't hurt to expand my soup repertoire once in a while.  Enter the sweet potato..why haven't I thought of this sooner? (Perhaps because I was inspired by a friend's soup recipe using sweet potato!  I'll have to try this sometime too!)  But for now I had to get by with what I had in my fridge:

• 1 large sweet potato
• 2 carrots
• 1/2 onion, finely chopped
• Chopped garlic (about 1 clove or 1 spoonful of pre-chopped)
• 1 parsnip (a key ingredient in most of my soups)
• Parsley
• Ground ginger
• White pepper
• Vegie or chicken bouillion
• About a cup of Lentils

Peel and slice the sweet potato, carrot(s), and parsnip.  Saute chopped onion and garlic until translucent, then add chopped carrots, sweet potato and parsnip.  Allow to cook about 10 minutes, or until soft (allow to carmelize a bit, but careful not to burn!)  Add herbs and spices (you can experiment with this, I did!)   Add appropriate amount of water for amount of bouillon, bring to a boil and add cleaned lentils.  Simmer for 10 minutes, or longer.  Add some salt and freshly ground pepper, and voila...
Of course, in Germany, we always serve soup with bread (not pictured here)...Guten Appetit!

You can leave it chunky...

...or puree it

Got a favorite soup recipe of your own?  Share it!

Practicing Photography in chilly London

 Happy 2012!  I'm back, with so many ideas for posts in 2012 I can hardly stand it!  I will start with my most recent photography lesson.  I've been practicing here and there for a while now.  I've always enjoyed it when I got lucky and managed to grab a great-to-good shot with my camera, never really having the patience to stop and try to be in control of my aperture settings in combo with shutter speeds, ISO, and all the other stuff one can play around with while the perfect shot is slipping away under your nose...but alas, those day are coming to a grateful (nonetheless challenging) end.  I recently snuck off to London for an instructional photography 'tour' with a small company called Hairy Goat as well as a Christmas Lights workshop that same afternoon...what a full, but fun day! 

I am only posting these photos as part of my own learning process, not because I think I achieved any extradordinary shots here, but this has been, and continues to be, a learning experience for me as I try to put to an end to the days of flying by the seat of my hosen (I was reminded often by my friend in London that 'Pants' are what you wear under your trousers:)  So here are some sample studies:

 Panning:  After countless attempts, this was the best I got with my nearly frozen hands at this point!  Doesn't make sense here to compare to any others since the settings were all about the same and the trick was 'simply' to move the camera in sync with my moving object, Corinna.  She did suggest in order to blur motion, to use a shutter speed of about 1/2 second (or slower).  So all of my panning shots were 1/2 sec, and ISO 100, f/29-f/36. 

Practicing 'pannig' with my morning instructor:  Corinna

Zoom bursts:  I thought this would come a little easier and would have stayed there all day determined to get one shot had it not been so cold, but this is all I got!  Daaaang, this was supposed to be a confidence-booster!  Oh well.  Maybe we should have set up the tripod for this one.  Anyway, it was fun and I really could have spent the rest of the day zooooma zoom zooming around town.

It's about time to wrap this up for now but I will continue analyzing some photos from this trip in another post.  As I begin to grasp more and more the individual settings, what takes me longer to process now is the relationships between these settings and the many variables involved each time and place you take the camera out. 

Couple shots from the Christmas Lights evening:

One interesting note was that the morning instructor advised using Aperture Priority settings (which has actually helped me learn and see the relationships between settings), but the afternoon instructor advised shooting entirely in manual and only in black & white for a while, while learning (reminds me of my graphic design days back in school...if something doesn't work in b/w it sure isn't going to work in color!).  Ok, I get that, but why not use the AP crutch?  Well, instructor #2 says because it washes out a lot of your contrasting highlights and shadows, hmmm.  One would be able to tell this more easily by looking at the histogram on your camera (which I never did on cameras, but have in photoshop so that made sense).  I just hope my subject isn't going anywhere for a while, because shooting in manual was taking me a looooooong time!

***Please, if anyone has comments, advice, or tips on anything I have mentioned above, or anything photography-related feel free to share! ***  Thanks!