Heroines 1

Patti Smith
Marianne Hauser

Tove Jansson

Virginia Woolf's 125th Birthday

Happy Birthday Virginia!

Objets d'art de Meret Oppenheim

Ma Gouvernante

La Couple et le Dejeuner en Fourrure

Nobody gives you freedom - you have to take it.- MO

Meret Oppenheim

Family and friend

My mother and my cat

Cities I have lived, loved and loathed.

Stockholm birth
Ibiza childhood
Copenhagen hippie
London child bride
Los Angeles young woman
NYC liberated victim
London survivor student
Cambridge new page
Berne film artist
Zurich film maker
Basel a breath

Boston student
LA free again
Bergen alive
Provincetown artist
Newcastle nomadic creator

From Sweden to England to Spain through Scandinavia to England to the USA to Switzerland to Norway to Cape Cod to England with many travels and journeys interwoven in between; exploring South America, North America, Central America, Europe, East and West and the Mediterranean, the Far East. Being born into a nomadic lifestyle lingers through-out my life.

I am at home where I am in my body with my soul.

Where the DJANG is.

My Unbelievably Happy Childhood

My Unbelievably Happy Childhood

Leonardo Pisano Fibonacci

Fibonacci Numbers

0,1,1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89,...

The Golden Section

+0.61803 39887 and +1.61803 39887

The Golden String

1011010110110 101101

Found in nature; in seeds, flowers, petals, pine comes, fruit, vegetables...

...and used in art, architecture, music, and geometry.

Fail Better

"Fail Better" as a motto is frequently used when encouraging creative endeavours.
It is in fact a line by Samuel Beckett from Worstward Ho, one of his last writings in 1983. (The whole quote can be read in its entirety above.)
I find it particularly useful when trying new things or overcoming obstacles.

Fail Better, gives a perspective on the concepts of failure and success and gives us a lot more moving space in between. It is like with black and white, and through failing better we get shades of grey/gray as well.

Joel Fisher curated an exhibition titled The Success of Failure in London and in the USA several years ago. There was also a publication, an exhibition catalogue to accompany it, published by ICI, NYC. Several artists were invited to show a piece which they considered to be a failure and include a written statement explaining why they thought so. The artists included Lawrence Weiner, Meret Oppenheim, Sol Le Witt and others took part and the result was fascinating.

Like the dualities of good and bad, success and failure, black and white, yin and yang, when ruminated upon there is less difference and more similarity. In fact as long as we learn something new, re-learn something, re-assess, re-evaluate and thus grow...have we not simply failed better? Is that not what life can be, a daily "failing again better"?
Good and bad. Bad or good. An opinion, a judgment and also subjective. When we read a review, or talk amongst ourselves, we share our opinions and that is precisely what they are. Nothing more and nothing less. Yes, they can have an impact, yes they can influence how and what we think and do. Objectivity is questionable at the very least, and subjectivity is the norm.
Still, the concepts of good and bad have often confused me and I find them a waste of time and space. They are likely to change, they are relative and what do they even mean?
Yes. No.
An educated opinion. An un-informed point of view. A layman's perspective. Who are we kidding?! Who am I kidding?!
I personally have found that I have learned and thus grown far more from my mistakes. Often repeated I must add! What has come easy or what I have been "good" at has flowed so smoothely that I simply repeat the motion again and again, and therefore grow less I suppose. It becomes almost habitual. I do not want to end up too tall after all.
That is why when I went to do my masters I chose every course that I was afraid of i.e. those that I knew nothing about, and those that were truly challenging. Seems obvious now!

Embrace all that you fear. I read this in Patti Smith's handwriting at a small William Blake exhibit at the British Library recently, where also one of her writings was on display.

When I got A's I was sorely disappointed since I went back to grad school to learn and was hungry for it. It was too easy and I realised that of course the grade system was inflated, for some shady reasons indeed. Where do you go to from an A? Creative work can not be graded anyway!
You have to be self-motivated and keep pushing yourself to fail better each time.
Henrik Ibsen (19th cent Norwegian dramatist) apparently, according to one of my playwrighting professors, wrote 40 plays, yes 40, before he had one published. One that HE felt was good enough.
You have to give yourself assignments. Not only goals.
We often work to deadlines, which can be artificial and not about the maturity of the work.
Put the work down and come back to it, with fresh eyes later, then make some new decisions.
Sometimes just go with the flow and do not ask any questions until afterwards. And even then- wait!
It is too easy to become doubtful and insecure. It is far too easy to shoot oneself down.
If you don't believe in your self? Who else will? Except your most dear friends and family, perhaps. Even they can be your best enemies.
When is a work finished? A lesson learned? A life lived? When do we know anything? For certain. Anyway.
YES and NO. YEO!

Don't cry - work. -Meret Oppenheim