Dasha + Sasha

Daria and Alexandre (Dasha and Sasha for friends and family) are getting married. Today. In fact, as we speak (or shall I say: as I am talking to myself here) they are having a hellova  of a party. 

Dasha is a little sister of an old good school friend of mine, and as I was in the area visiting my family, they asked me to make their wedding pictures. Unfortunately I had to fly back a couple of days earlier, so I offered them a "prenuptial" photo session.

I was torn apart between colored or monochrome version, and finally decided for monochrome: Their raging youth and the rampant late summer verdure just couldn’t fit into the picture :-). No, really, the colored version came out very dynamic; but I prefer this one,  it’s a little more romantic and nostalgic.

Love,
AB

Happy Valentine's!

I think I am seriously in love! Her name is Annie and she is 11 months young, a little “Fish” just like me. She came with her parents to my Showroom a few days ago, well not exactly came, rather she has been carried in – like a little princess :-) 

 Annie's parents married on Feb 14^th, it was the only available date, they explain, but we know better, don’t we? So hearty congratulations to all couples who celebrate Valentine’s Day!!!

And a Happy Birthday to my blog. I started to put my thoughts and feelings on the blue screen on a sunny St.Valentine’s Sunday morning one year ago, and it turned out to be a true adventure. I made new friends and have discovered a lot of things about myself along the way.   

I wish you all a lovely Valentine’s Monday!

Your AB

If love is the answer could you please rephrase the question?

At the end of each year and well into the beginning of a new one we tend to look back at the last 365 days of our lives. We retrospect and make all kinds of lists: best books, worst films, failed resolutions, kept promises, etc, etc.

According to Yahoo! the most popular questions of 2010 were:

1. How to Tie a Tie
2. How to Lose Weight
3. How to Kiss
4. How to Write a Resume
5. What’s the World’s Only Immortal Animal?
6. Which City Has the Best Tap Water?
7. Which Natural Disaster Shortened Earth’s Days?
8. What Is Love?
9. What Causes Lightning?
10. How to Boil an Egg

Striking range, isn’t it? From practical tips to purely philosophical topics. "What Is Love" is a good one to ask Yahoo!... Is there a definition of love? Sure. Thousands of them. And we still don’t know. Century after century creative minds try to unearth the essence of love. Look for Love quotes – it will take years to read. 

"One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: That word is love." - Sophocles

"Love is like quicksilver in the hand. Leave the fingers open and it stays. Clutch it, and it darts away." - Dorothy Parker

"Love is everything it's cracked up to be. That's why people are so cynical about it...It really is worth fighting for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you don't risk everything, you risk even more." - Erica Jong

“Do not seek the because - in love there is no because, no reason, no explanation, no solutions.” – Anais Nin

Or how about: “If love is the answer could you please rephrase the question?” It’s a video created by Bettina Disler, an artist from Canton Aargau, one of the local artists of the year, chosen by the Aargauer Kunsthaus and the Aargauer Kuratorium for Auswahl 10. This traditional annual exhibition of Aargau artists offers a review of the various current art practices in the Canton of Aargau. 

Image courtesy of www.aargauerkunsthaus.ch

To be completely frank I always feel somewhat lost after visiting this yearly event. Many works seem very conceptual, although the concepts are not always understandable. Probably for this reason Bettina's video was my favorite exhibit this year, because after all love needs no explanation. Naturally one can join a group and the guide will elaborate (as far as interpretation goes) on artist's ideas and intentions, but I prefer wild guessing. 

And when I run out of wild guesses I go to the 1^st floor to see the permanent collection of the museum.  As site description puts it, “the Aargauer Kunsthaus is home to one of the most beautiful and comprehensive public collections of recent Swiss art. It is an ideal venue for encountering the great diversity of Swiss art – from the 18th century to today.” Comprehensive and beautiful - a truly precious combination...

Max Pechstein Liegendes Mädchen, 1910

The annual exhibition will last till Sunday, January 9, 2011. More information about Auswahl and other events you can find here: http://www.aargauerkunsthaus.ch/en. 

I hope you had a lovely start in 2011.

Love,

AB

Today is different

Whose morning doesn’t start with sorting out junk mail? What about those Fw: Fwd: FW: Fwd: Fw: mass e-mails? I don’t like them either: on one hand they normally come from someone you know, on the other hand it is always some teary or banal impersonal message and a request to resend the letter to 15 (make it 100) your best friends. I never do. Unless today. I'll skip the text and post these photos. The message? You'll figure it out.

Have a great day and don’t forget to tell your loved ones you love them.

Love,

AB

On January 15, 2005, twenty-one-year-old Katie—the girl “with a contagious smile and unrelenting optimism” who had been battling cancer for three years—married twenty-three-year-old Lapeer County sheriff’s deputy Nick Goodwin, her high school sweetheart and the love of her life, at Church of Christ in Hazel Park, Michigan.

Photos were taken by Romain Blanquart.

Katie Kirkpatrick and her fiance, Nick, rest prior to their wedding. Katie has terminal cancer and spends hours in chemotherapy. Here Nick waits while she finishes one of the sessions.

Even in pain and dealing with her organs shutting down, with the help of morphine, Katie took care of every single wedding plan. Her dress had to be adjusted several times due to her constant weight loss.

An expected guest was her oxygen tank. Katie had to use it during the ceremony and reception. Katie's parents look on.

Katie, in a wheelchair, listening to her husband and friends serenading her

In the middle of the party Katie had to rest for a bit and catch her breath. The pain doesn't allow her to stand for long periods of time.

Katie passed away just five days after her wedding at the McLaren Regional Medical Center in Flint, Michigan

Nick said of the wedding and Katie’s passing:

It was wonderful. It was a dream come true. She was the most beautiful angel ever—just caring and selfless, and such an inspiration to everyone. She was always smiling no matter what happened, no matter what news she got. She was as close to perfect as they come.

Cloud 8 (Wolke 8)

This weekend is all snowflakes and glowing fireplaces, and friends gathered in a warm bar with a romantique name Je t'aime. Hmmmm, feels good, almost like on a cloud number nine. It is Cloud 8, actually, a new humorous theater piece of Simona Hoffman and Tobias R. Pingler, two young artists from Aargau. She is a movement actress, and a graduate of Dimitri school. This year Simona (www.simonahofmann.ch) debuted with her first one woman show "Night explodes your dreams".  He is a passionate voice artist (RAP), author and actor (www.tobias-pingler.net).

Couple in real life, they make a wonderful creative tandem "Schweiss & Geist", showing  contrasting approaches and bringing different experiences on stage, which this time looks like one giant bed, piled with fluffy blankets and pillows. The plot? A love story, of course. All fairy tales end with "they got married and lived happily ever after". The question is "HOW do they live happily ever after?"

Image courtesy of www.simonahofmann.ch

The couple dressed in their pyjamas leads us through a labyrinth of their romance. Black and white setting is deluded with soft color fields of spotlights, as if allowing us to sneak into this couple's life, or is it a reflection of our own?.. The play is abstract and surrealistic, and easy to try on. I couldn’t hold myself laughing out loud throughout the show. If you happen to be in Switzerland, dont miss a chance to find yourself on Cloud 8.   Next performances are at Theater Marie in Suhr (Aargau), Dec 1, 3, 4 at 20h15. 

And speaking of artistic tandems I cannot bypass another creative couple: Maren et Yannick Coléoptère, whose performance "Chronik der Gefühle" (Chronicle of the Feeling) I saw last week in Tearto Palino, Baden. Maren Gamper is a talanted piano player; Yannick Longet is a genious mime actor. They tell their tragic story through movement and music. Currently they work and live in Dijon, France, but I will make sure to follow their productions in the future. 

Image courtesy of www.facebook.com

Alors, I hope you had a good weekend and I wish you a great start tomorrow. Monday is no day to have your head in the clouds, unless it’s a Cloud 8. ;-)

Love, 
AB      

P.S.

I wasn’t going to write more this week: too many things to do and too little to say; but I couldn’t resist not to share.

“A single man”, the new film of Tom Ford. Here is an extract from the official movie description: “It's November 30, 1962. Native Brit George Falconer, an English professor at a Los Angeles area college, is finding it difficult to cope with life. Jim, his personal partner of sixteen years, died in a car accident eight months earlier when he was visiting with family. As he routinely and fastidiously prepares for the suicide and post suicide, George reminisces about his life with Jim. But George spends this day with various people, who see a man sadder than usual and who affect his own thoughts about what he is going to do…”

The official movie trailer is a little weak, I think, apart from the music. Go and see the film, it’s in the theaters now. Go and watch it with someone you love.

I post this little monolog of the professor Falconer. Colin Firth is brilliant, and this monologue sums up pretty much what I have been preoccupied with these last several weeks:

“Fear is the cause. Minorities are just people, people like us… Fear after all is our real enemy. Fear is taking over our world. Fear is being used as a tool of manipulation in our society. It’s our politicians peddle policy; it on Madison Avenue sells us things you don’t need. Think about it. The fear of being attacked. The fear that there are communists lurking around the corner. The fear that some little Caribbean country that doesn’t believe in our way of life poses a threat to us. Fear that black culture may take over the world. Fear of Elvis Presley’s hips!..Actually that one maybe is a real fear…. Fear that our bad breath may ruin our friendships. Fear of growing old and being alone. Fear that we are useless and no one cares what we have to say… Have a good weekend.”