Blog – News from my Arts

Posted on

Surprise, Surprise …

Shawnee National Forest, Illinois

Illinois is known to be pretty flat.
In the years we have lived here we got kind of used to it. Prairies, rivers, and sometimes forests are mostly the landscape around here. No mountains or even hills. In fact, the only hill in the area is a garbage hill, a huge landfill full of old trash, overgrown with grass. I mean, you wouldn’t guess it if you wouldn’t know, you can even go up there and have a nice view but it is still just filled with trash.

But, if you think that all of Illinois is flat you would be mistaken…

Continue reading “Surprise, Surprise …”

Posted on

Red Cap Prevention – Part 1

The following re-telling of a fairy-tale-story was inspired by ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ – it comes in two parts.
Enjoy!

RED CAP PREVENTION

Another catastrophe – Samuel stared at the newspaper in his hand. He shuddered. The front page exclaimed in black, bold letters, “Huge meteorite explosion resulting in ‘meteorite rain’ in Siberia, Russia”. Without noticing it he touched his head and the scar hidden under his scrubby hair. Continue reading “Red Cap Prevention – Part 1”

Posted on

Winter Time – Time to explore

Winter is a great opportunity to investigate, explore, or to visit a place you always wanted to see. One of those places for me was the Tribune Tower in Chicago.
Back when we still lived in Germany, my friend told me about it and highly recommended that I visit it. Now, that I had time to investigate it, I found it to be one of the most fascinating buildings I have ever seen. There is so much meaning in every single detail.

Continue reading “Winter Time – Time to explore”

Posted on

Another one of my Mail Box Stories …

“A man opens his mail box … “, my grandfather starts in his story-telling voice. He sits on my bed waiting for me to slip under the covers. As soon as I lay there, he smiles one of his big smiles that I love so much, “Ready?”
I nod.
“Okay – So, Mr. M opens his mail box to find an envelope containing a set of instructions. He takes it, slowly turns around and trudges back up the five steps to the old wooden porch. He takes his time to sit down on the bench and laboriously opens the letter. The word INSTRUCTIONS screams from a white sheet. Nothing else. What? Continue reading “Another one of my Mail Box Stories …”

Posted on

No winter lasts forever …

No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn. -Hal Borland

Signs of Spring
Borland’s quote is a good and necessary reminder for me. This season will end as it does every year and then transform my world into a wonderful spring, full of color and new beginning. And I’m soo ready 🙂

 

February is the snow month here in the Midwest – and my worst month of the year. Don’t get me wrong – it truly looks nice when it snows. Looking out of my window, I watch the quiet downfall of the powdery flakes, and observe how the snow creates a beautiful clean landscapes, covering up the dirt and all the imperfections.
On the other side, it takes away all the color.

Continue reading “No winter lasts forever …”

Posted on

The Old Staircase – A short Story

A staircase in San Jose, Puerto Rico

Sometimes, when I’m out shooting photos I come across places that intrigue my curiosity, my imagination.
I wonder about these places,  … about
a forest and the animals that live in it,
a house and the people that own it,
a staircase, and those who climb it up …

Then, stories plop into my brain, characters evolve, and my imagination starts to come up with stories.
Sometimes I’m smart enough to write them down.
Bob Stromberg, an author and comedian calls these incidents ‘grabs’ and he taught me to interrogate them, write them down, and see if they make it into one of my stories or books.

While we strolled through the Old Town of San Jose on the beautiful island of Puerto Rico I shot a picture of this staircase and it became one of these places, and my ‘grab’ made it into the following story – The old staircase.
Enjoy!

Continue reading “The Old Staircase – A short Story”

Posted on

5 Reasons to participate in a Photography Challenge

Last year I participated in several year-long challenges to – yes, you guessed it – challenge myself.
One of the challenges was a 52-week photography challenge held by a Facebook group for Photographers.
There were no cash prices. Instead, your picture could be picked to be the header of our Facebook page for a week, and then you would select the next week’s winner.
I was never selected as the winner, but I submitted all 52 pictures.
Some weeks it was easy to submit a picture, other weeks I had to work hard to get a decent shot – and some weeks I almost ripped out my hair because I could not come up with one decent picture.
So, why would I do such a thing?

Continue reading “5 Reasons to participate in a Photography Challenge”

Posted on

Chess Dance

They say if you sit in front of your computer staring at an empty screen and you don’t know what to write, find a prompt and start writing – something, anything. The following story is a result of such an exercise. I hope you enjoy reading it.

Chess Dance

“We did it!” Shelley whispers, “Nice ice! What a beauty!” She admires the diamond necklace we just freed from its vitreous jail. The stones sparkle in the moonlight that shines through the roof window, as she turns it in her hand. Although it’s a full moon tonight I can hardly see her and Cloe down here. Our deep black clothes are the perfect cover.

Continue reading “Chess Dance”

Posted on

Who are you?

Do you know who you are? That’s one of the big questions in life.
I recently stumbled over this question in an inspiring blog post by Jeff Goins (if you interested you can read it here, Goins, Writer)
In his article Jeff states, that ‘when we know who we are, we know what to do.‘
I like that, and I think there is a lot of truth hidden in this statement.

When I take pictures I often ask “who are you?”  because I want to capture the personalities, not only of humans but also of the animals I portrait.

Continue reading “Who are you?”