the new year

is knocking at the door... What will it bring? [a last post for this year by Sandra]

2006 ends clouded with the loss of a family member.
But we have the hope that the new year will going to be a good year.
A year filled with new ideas and full of creativity, lots of joy, old and new creative people lighting up our lifes, some planned collaboration projects (Sheree, I hope you remember our date in January :-) ), a first whistle stop for a little blue sheep on the TV (January 22nd, ARTE TV, magazine"Chic", noontime 12:35), a year with love and peace.

I made a list with 36 things I wanted to do in 2006, but as you might guess, a lot of them are still open and have to be transfered to the New-Years-resolutions-list:

1. meditating regularly
2. finding a house with an outbuilding, we can use as Friederikes! and my studio
3. establishing a business, our own little gallery-shop for selling handmade art & craft
4. visiting Niki de Saint Phalle´s Tarot Garden in the Tuscany
5. eating more healthy food
6. more reading instead of TV watching
7. learning to say clearly and precisely what I want and what I don´t want/learning to say "No" (but I advance)
8. doing my taxes not at the eleventh hour
9. spending more time with my family
10. spending some time at Saras refugium

..... this list of open things could be continued, but I don´t want to bore you.

What are your New Year´s resolutions?

All the best for the new year to you & lots of viking power

yours Sandra + (of course) Friederike!

A gift for you!

Dear friends,
only a few days left, to Christmas Eve. Time for Sandra and me to say

"thank you"

for your lovely and encouring comments on this blog, your lots of emails and your support of herzensart. Unfortunately the petty cash was empty so we couldn´t send X-mas cards to everybody, but we would like to make you a little gift, which is absolutely free for download.

1. click on the picture. -> A new site with a big format opens. Safe the jpg-picture on your local computer.

2. copy the picture into a program you want to print from (I use Word or Powerpoint)

3. change the size of the picture, however you like (in my opinion a small format on heavy paper looks best)

4. print it off

5. Cut it out

6. frame it

et voila!

Merry Christmas! and happy holidays, xox Friederike! and Sandra

an early Christmas gift

Hello friends,
so much to do in these last days before Christmas, until now there wasn´t even time for Christmas Shopping . So obviously it all ends in a last minute shopping, how I hate that!

We got an early Christmas gift from Sara. We made a swap and she sent us her beautiful "little keepers of the garden" and a wonderful brooch (we still have to work it out who of the two of us may wear it on Christmas evening). Saras works are so full of details, that you only recognize if you hold the piece in your hands and have a close look.

Sara the following pics are for you, so you can see where the little keepers live now.

Thank you so much!

New finds on the web:

Swiss artist couple: Gerda Steininger and Joerg Lenzlinger (found through Ullabenulla)
xox Friederike! and Sandra

I love Kiki!

Kiki Smith is another great artist I admire a lot. I feel a strong connection to her work and person, although I don´t know her for long yet. I came across Kiki Smith when I bought two DVDs Art:21 (season one and two, which are a fantastic source to get in touch with the Contemporary American art scene)
Maybe it´s been Kiki´s "dead animals" installation that inspired me to my "free the birds" series I´m working on lately.

It´s always a kind of therapeutic experience to see artists who "made it", although they had no boundaries either thematically nor in techniques and materials.

A quote, that I found in the book "All creatures great and small" (Kiki Smith)

A dream is like an animal, but an unknown one, and you cannot see all its limbs. Interpretation is a cage, but the dream can never be found inside. (Elias Canetti)

Apropos dream, don´t miss to take a look at another great artist Sara Lechner´s dream studio

bye for today, xo Friederike!

free the birds!

"..., I shall free the birds. They may now fly freely throughout my realm. No man shall hunt them again. Then may they build their nests in peace..." after THE BANYAN DEER, a Buddhist legend.

Have a peaceful weekend! xo, Friederike!

the legend of the thornbird

I´m a dramatic sheep. The more drama the better - not in all respects - and especially I hope I´m also over it watching out for drama in my personal life. But I still love it in movies. I´m sure you know the novel "The thorn birds" which was also broadcast, must have been in the eighteens, I guess. The story of a forbidden love affair between the young priest "Father Ralph" and an Australian sheep farm daughter "Meggie". Didn´t we cry lots of tears, when Father Ralph was torn between his own love for Meggie and his love for God? A story full of bitter sweet drama....
It was Ralph who told Meggie "the legend of the thorn bird". The story begins this way

I never forgot this as it impressed me so much. A few days ago, it came to my mind again and inspired me to a series of thorn birds

I´ve uploaded a few more pics on flickr. These birds will also be available on my website, soon. Wish you a day without drama! Kisses, Friederike!

ghostgirls

I fell in love with the ghostgirls gouaches by Amy E. and had to purchase these two (they were sold out once Amy posted them on flickr. They will be framed and placed in the studio. Aren´t they beautiful?

Friends, have you ever seen a blue sheep on television before? I have to tell you I´m soooo excited that I can´t sleep anymore...............Although it´s only a izibizi-tiny gig, I enrolled in drama school yesterday, as it is my very first public TV appearance. The date is January 22nd, 12:35 p.m. on ARTE TV (the title of the magazine is "Chic"). You don´t have to write down the date for now, as I will remind you from now on in every following post I guess ;). Unfortunately ARTE is a German / French broadcast station, and as far as I know can´t be watched in other than these two countries, right? Now I have to ride the bike, because you want to watch a telegenic sheep in January, don´t you? Yours very excited Friederike!

the mind

twins...

new work:

check out: ships by Ann Wood and dolls by Nina Braun. Talk more soon...

this was yesterday

some pictures of yesterdays "open studio day", taken by my dear friend Bogi Bell. Here you can find this picture in a bigger size

We are grateful for artist colleagues and friends that dropped in, for strangers that had the courage to ring the bell (it´s not easy to walk into the house of someone you don´t know) and what a nice surprise Elisa, a wonderful artist from Holland came with her family (we never met before, Elisa is one of my flickr friends). She brought me a gift, the beautiful oven gloves in the picture above. Thank you so much Elisa, it was so nice to meet you in real and I hope it was not for the last time.

In short it was a very nice day with many friendly people and inspiring talks. Thank you so much for your support my lovelies!

these great pictures were taken by Bogi Bell

fresh, new space

it´s done, friends - the pink wall has gone forever. Thank you for all your colour suggestions. But we thought after all the colour experiments in the other rooms, the studio has to be clean white. Even myself feels more fresh in this new, airy space.

Take a look at our new "oops-we-did-it-again" creatures. I think we will publish regularly a "oops-we-did-it-again-post", as there seems to be no chance for us to concentrate on more "profound" or "serious" work over a longer period. So here is the second "oops-we-did-it-again":

we called this creature "Schleichplotz" after a story written by Ottfried Preussler (original name of this robber is "Hotzenplotz"). I don´t know if "Hotzenplotz" is known in other countries than Germany. But if so, I would be very interested how he is called in your country. Now, I have to go back to work. There is still a lot to do until sunday (REMINDER: open studio from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. !!!!!)! Kisses, Friederike!

we open the doors

of our studio on Sunday, 19th November from 11 to 6 p.m. for visitors.


Throughout 3 weekends, starting with last weekend, Colognes artists open their studios to community viewing. If you live in Cologne, or nearby drop by, say hello and make a blue sheep and a girl happy.
So only 4 days left for preparing, which means first of all giving the pink wall in the studio a new colour. Any suggestions for the colour? We tend to paint it white, we love the fresh and airy feeling of white rooms and it makes it easier to display our differnt art works. But on the other hand winter is on the way and we know how cold white rooms can make you feel....

But one is for sure, the time for pink walls is over. (The picture above was made before the pink-period)

Talking of white rooms, take a House Tour

Latest web-finds: Mieke Driessen and her funny world project

KaizerModo

Maybe ´til Sunday... Love, Friederike! and Sandra

oops, we did it again

on our insomnia nightwalk yesterday, we found these extremly rare species

left: "gemeiner Wurmfisch", right: "koelsche Zwergflunder"

( as the specimen locality is Cologne only, no english names exist.)

(the more we try to focus on "serious" work, the more stuff like this comes into our brains)

yours, Friederike! and Sandra

textile experiments

yesterday I grabed two old paintings, that never had been finished... there are many of these unfinished things to find here, that I haven´t touched again since the moment they moved away into the corner. But these two paintings are different, they are spinning through my mind from time to time. The reason for this are the two figures I painted on it. One figure is a girl (the once above), the second is a boy. They are identical except for the hair. The title of the paintings (if they ever should be finished) should be"zwei Koenigskinder" (the two king´s children) after Grimm´s fairy tales. I loved the thougt to make little sculptures out of them. The first try to transfer them into 3D is making small textile sculptures out of them. You see the very first try above.
Love, Friederike!

limited advent edition 2006

dear friends,
we from herzensart have a special advent offer for you. It´s a limited edition of little "anti-spy" christmas trees. This series is only available in November and December 2006. Please visit our website for more information. Click the "advent edition"-button.
Thank you so much for your support of herzensart!

latest finds on the web:
Patricia Waller crocheted works (via mein herzblut)

Love Friederike!

oh lucky me

[post by Sandra] I´ve got mail with a big surprise in it. I must admit I had tears in my eyes when I opened it and saw what it was. A very young artist from Australia, called Mym, 11 years young sent me one of her masterpieces - "Donnatella", a textile art doll. Mym was the very first I agreed to do a swap - one dreamguardian for one of her dolls that I adore so very much, since the moment that I first saw them. I wrote about Poppalina the creative mother-daughter team already a while ago. How glad I am that I "met" these two ladies, that are so creative and lovely and make such wonderful art. Visit her blog and check out Myms and Shulas art. Thank you Mym and Shula, you are great!

Love, Sandra

Morphe II - online poll

hello friends,
there is an online poll regarding the Morphe II exhibition in Adelaide. The visitors and you can choose which toy they/you like most. So please vote! (no.1-no.3 are from herzensart :-) HINT, HINT) Each week only 10 toys are for shown. These three are our guys...

Please vote here: http://neststudio.typepad.com/ Thank you! Friederike! & Sandra

Bavarian air ...

collage of my hometown visit

[post by Sandra] I was breathing bavarian air for the last few days. It feels good to be "home" again, to spend time with the family, making long walks through a beautiful nature with "Luna", my brothers dog, meeting old childhood friends, that I hadn´t seen for the last 20 years. Chatting for hours over the past, while eating delicious dinner and drinking wine in a restaurant that I haven´t been in since years. So many remembrences awaking, that had slumbered in the deep.
Many things have stayed the same in this little town Straubing, where I spent the first 18 years of my life. Even the discotheque I´ve been hanging around as a teenager still exists. Unfortunately many of the small shops, that had individual stuff disappeared.
But there´s also an amazing new shop named "der andere ton" that´s absolutely worth a visit. I bought an Advent wreath that shop owner Christina Kronawitter knitted and chrotched by herself. Christina also makes funny clothes "mein herzblut"

So long for today, I´m taking a deep breath of Colognes air and have to acclimate now. Love Sandra

summer is over

hello friends,
it´s getting cold again, the summer in Germany is over, that´s for sure. When I had my first coffee this morning I opened the door to the terrace, let the cats out and saw this beautiful sky. I took two pictures at intervals of only 2 minutes.
I´m leaving for the next 10 days. Have a wonderful and creative time!
Sheepkisses, Friederike!

P.S: I´m so fascinated by Kelly Buntin Johnsons "Intercessors" (found through flickr member "fragmented" Check out!!!

sunday morning light

taking pictures, while the morning light in the rooms changes every 5 minutes. I´m waiting that "the boys" get up and arrange it among themselves who drives to the bakery today :-)

In the last weeks, herzensart was mentioned at the following blogs: lifever, Annika Sandin and Camilla Engman . Thank you!

Latest finds on the internet:
Cody Thompson Dolls
Tropfnass Collection via decor8

sunny sunday,
Friederike!

thank god it´s friday!

how would you expect a week to become if it starts with this scenario:

Monday morning - you get up early (it´s still dark outside) and the first greeting of the day is that you step with your still bed-warm hooves into cold cat barf.

Yes, I had the same thoughts, that probably you would have had too:
S!%&!H!%!I!%&!T!!!!!

As already expected it became even worse on tuesday.
Victoria, only 1 year and 3 months old decided not to be happy with her job anymore and that she urgently needs a rest, while you are working on a series of new objects that have to be finished on friday. On wednesday the sewing-machine-doctor dashes your hope that Victoria would ever be herself again.

Thursday: you get the urge of "if I can´t sew, I have to paint the walls in room xy in green" and drive to the home improvement store. You discover the perfect green at once. Unfortunately you made the mistake not to drive alone, you asked two sheep friends to come with you. These sheeps tell you that your "perfect green" wouldn´t be perfect at all, so you trust their intuition and buy their "perfect green". I´m sure I don´t have to tell you more, think of the worst you can imagine and you´ve got it. (Always trust your intuition as you always get in trouble if you don´t!)

Slowly but surely I have the dim feeling, that this is one of the regularly occurring "it´s not my week - weeks"

Thank god it´s Friday!

Friends, I wish you a perfect weekend!
Sheepkisses, Friederike!

ADDENDUM: was it really me who said, "thank god it´s friday"? How could I hope that this day would be better than any other of the week? Look at this picture, which was sent to me together with a nice email. The name of this beautiful fellow is: LUISE. But look at her hooves! Oh brutal world!

investment in inspiration

Hello friends,
I´m not a fashion victim sheep, which doesn´t mean I´m stingy. But give me some money and let me choose to spend it in a new coat or in new art supplies and books, definitely I would elect the latter.
I´m fascinated by the artist Louise Bourgeois (born 1911 in Paris, lives and works in New York) for a long time. By chance I came across a gallery exhibition in Cologne some months ago and it was so thrilling to watch her work in real. Last week I found the book "La famille" in an art-books-store and had to buy it. It collects her family-related-works and deals with her fears of failure, to not succeed as a wife, a mother and most of all as an artist. So her personal history is vastly important in the content of her work and she also has pushed many boundaries. I think the portrait picture above also exemplifies this. Her work unsettels me and intrigues me at the same time.

An artist or better an artist couple of quite a different nature that I also really love is Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely.

Art was their great love and Niki and Jean turned their love into great art. To me it´s one of the greates love romances of the last century. As the creation of art can be a lonely endeavor, these two artists were able to work together and to challenge each other with their visions. "It was like a game of ping-pong between us" said Niki about their collaboration. Isn´t that wonderful? Even after both entered into new relationships they realized a major art project like the Tuscany Tarot Garden together.

So a further book - instead of a new hat, or coat or shoes - I needed to have: Niki & Jean - L'Art et l'Amour

And an exhibition tip for tonight, just in case you live in this area. My friend Bogi and other photographers show their art works at PHOTOLOFT2 Mediapark Koeln, Gebauede 4 A+B+D+E. The opening is at 7 p.m. (19 Uhr)

But now, enough for today - back to work. Love, Friederike!

todays color - white...

...the color of the actual works....... of a new inspring book.......the color of the studio boxes and the working desks......of the buddhistic wedding 5 years ago.......and the icecream that stands next to my laptop right now.......

also white the website of Tilleke Schwarz, I really love her art works!

love, Friederike!

new website!

dear friends, please apologize that I have neglected you in the last days, but I had a really tough week and there was too less time for posting!

But.............. now we are done, the website is redesigned and online! Please check out the new, old site www.herzensart.com and tell Sandra and me if it was worth the trouble.
If any problems occur (for example, there were incompabitilities with different browsers, as with Safari and the old website) then please, please tell us. Also you my dear english native speakers, please write us, if you find clerical mistakes. We are very thankful for every hint and at last you help us to improve our english language skills. Many thanks to you in advance!
And now I don´t want to hold you back .... www.herzensart.com

sheepkisses, Friederike!

everything Australia

three of these four new characters, ready for packing, will start their journey to the art toy exhibition Morphe II in Adelaide, Australia this weekend. Two dream guardians plus one Mana, or two Manas plus one guardian, we will see. They hopfully arrive safe and sound. Btw. does anybody know the tarrif regulations for Australia?
The fourth guardian or Mana will move into the shop and be available.

Fortunately the postcards came from the print shop today, right in time. A few of them will also do the long journey. I´m happy they turned out quite well. I´m not vain at all, but do you see the portrait card of me? Maybe I´ll use it for autographs.

Shula an Australian artist (yes I wrote about her before), awoke my housesheep qualities... I´ve baked the first cake of my life and it turned out, hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. You have to try her Honey Almond Cake *doesn´t that sound sweeeeeet?*, it´s absolutely worth it (every gramme that will settle down on your hip, the moment you only think of honey almond cake) here is her recipe.

That´s all for today. Wish you a happy weekened, my friends! Kisses, Friederike!