Dale Chihuly

Dale Chihuly is an American glass sculptor that I really like. I first found out about his existence through a huge chandelier type sculpture of his that hangs from the very high ceiling in the entrance hall of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

It made an impression on me for two reasons:
1) it's fabulous (duh)
2) it's scary
The scary part is me being afraid that one day the ceiling is going to give and that glass thing is going to crash down and kill people. So I felt slightly uncomfortable standing underneath it and preferred looking at it from a different angle on one of the higher floors. ;-)

So when the Groninger Museum decided to do a big exhibit of Chihuly's work I knew I had to go. Luckily Groningen is near enough that I can go back and forth within a day. The practical problem with living on an island is that many things take at least one overnight stay at family, friends or a hotel, unless it's in the north of The Netherlands. Groningen is in the North, so no need to make extensive plans, just catch the early morning ferry and go.

Today I'd like to share an impression of the exhibit, because I loved it so much. Photographs don't do it justice, but at least you get an idea of this mans skill, diversity, love of colour and even (yay!) patterns.

I wish there had been more drawings.

I took a lot of pictures of  pattern details like this.

This was my favorite room. It's consisted of one huge man sized glass garden!

For those who are close enough it's definitely worth traveling to Groningen for. The exhibit still runs until the 5th of May. For those of you who live too far away or don't have time: I hope you enjoyed coming with me virtually. If I can manage it, I myself hope to revisit the exhibit before it expires. We'll see how it goes.

For now I wish you all a wonderful and artsy day. 

A peek in the journal

My journal is my (almost) daily companion in life. I actually like to think of it as a type of travel journal for the everyday. It's mostly lots of writing with added photographs of my walks, the art I make and things that just speak to me. Sometimes I do a bit of decoration, but not often extensively.

I am still way behind on my journal posts when it comes to the blog. The pictures I'm showing you today are from a journal I worked in the spring of 2018. It is my third Leuchtturm1917 notebook. In my current life I am three journals ahead, so I really should do a few more journal posts soon if I ever want to catch up!

Anyway, here are some spreads from The Third Leuchtturm:

A lot of the writing in the above posts is about my struggle with diabetes and finding some peace of mind in a very stressful time. I can tell when looking back how this time lead to me taking a break from everything in the summer of last year. It's interesting to see, be it not all that pleasant. And luckily in time things got better again.

Still, such is life and I hope you enjoyed this peek into my journal and  I wish you all a wonderful and artsy day.

My favorite walk

Okay, the title of this post is a bit misleading, because which walk is my favorite depends on my mood, the weather, the time of day and simply my fickle preferences at that moment in time.
But ... it still is with a certain certainty that I can say that Kroonspolders is one of my most beloved areas on my island. You can walk in a big circle around this area and have so much space around you and endless views. It's almost overwhelming. I love it!

Here's an impression of a walk I took there not too long ago:

Hope you enjoyed strolling through the grass with me and taking in the views, and wishing you all a wonderful and artsy day!

Arting with a cat

Doing art with a cat in the house can be a challenge, but Spooky and I usually manage to reach some kind of compromise. Sometimes the compromise is that he takes over my project completely. Oh well, it makes for some cute photographs and lots of purring.

Hope you have a furry companion getting in your way that just melts your heart, and wishing you a wonderful and artsy day!