Highlights of Berlin

Anselm Kiefer, Lilith am roten meer (1990) / Hamburger Bahnhof

Lugwig Mies van der Rohe, Highrise at Friedrichstrasse Station (1922) / Bauhaus Museum

Tomas Saraceno, Cloud Cities (2011) / Hamburger Bahnhof

Friedrich Seidenstucker, Women Jumping Over Puddles (20s & 30s) / Berlinische Galerie

Visiting Kunsthaus Tacheles (this is my own photo joiner)

There are other personal highlights for me like finding vintage shops and eating at a vegan cafe directly opposite from our hostel. Also just walking the streets of Berlin and taking photos kept me happy because I can see so many differences between the our streets and their streets. Tacheles was a really strange place to be and I really suffered from the cold that day so it was a bit of a weird experience, but I've never seen anything like it before. I saw so much art in Berlin I could add more (like all the postcards I picked up and everything I saw in the New National Gallery/Neue Nationalgalerie) but the pieces above are things that really stood out to me.

After weeks of stress and one thing or another failing for me, I've prepared my portfolio for interviews. It may need tweeking and perfecting and I am still waiting on some interview dates but for now I'm just going to forget about it and have a good week in Berlin.
I haven't been abroad in ages and I really can't wait to see new things and become inspired and ready for interviews, most of all I can't wait to take my instant camera to a different country for a change.

self developed 35mm film, olympus pen ee

Hiroshige

 

While I was in the Tate Liverpool gift shop yesterday I saw the book One Hundred Famous Views of Edo by Hiroshige who was a Japanese Ukiyo-e (woodblock prints) artist in the 19th century. I remember seeing some of his art over the years and also reproductions by Van Gogh, but the beauty of these vibrant landscapes took my breath away. The way the book is bound is, in itself, a work of art. The pages are double folded and binded with string and has a hardback fabric (silk effect?) cover and a toggle-fastening case. The prints themselves are stunning. I really don't know much about japanese art or ukiyo-e but I so want to learn more. I didn't but this book but I found it for a fraction of the price on amazon so I will be buying this in the near future.

I feel completely sick when I think about preparing my online portfolio for University, and even more so for the real life portfolio. I'm trying to get over those hurdles at the moment... as it is, when I think about it at night I can't even think about sleeping for another half an hour. I need to get it out of the way because I'm already stupidly tired.

This is a little peak at a piece I'm doing and it will hopefully go in my portfolio. I like watercolours but I really only ever painted my idols (same with pencil drawings), I don't know if that is considered acceptable, at least in small numbers, in a portfolio.

Either way, this is based on self portraits that I took. I am likely to include a pencil portrait, probably of Kurt Cobain, since I feel it's some of my best pencil work... I don't know yet. I like how this watercolour is turning out. I have to focus what I'm good at or I'll freak out and won't include anything in my portfolio.