That art is easier discovered in the web is probably due to the nature of internet users, and the vast implementation of the digital world in our modern lifes. I myself am driven by curiousity. It’s so luring to follow amazing images. Just a click and I am entering other people’s world. It’s so inspiring and nurturing for my creative soul. I could spend ages travelling to different domains I wonder how much time for exploring other sites would be left once I began intensively spreading the word about my own art. What about gaining great reputation online with few effort? I am in favor

Shall I exhibit my art work in a more professional way on the web? Where? Two of my inspiring friends – Katwise and Kate use Etsy. Others use DeviantArt, Flickr and Tumblr. These for me seem a better platform for photography. I love photography! I am constantly thinking of taking pictures, no matter if old ladies’ faces, babies, bugs, flowers, junk, shoes, hands…. I even consider my husbands Partypoker gatherings as great opportunity, where I could catch the player’s faces, hands, cards, and emotions with the advantage that nobody would pay attention to my camera!

Back to art online. What platform should I choose? The range is so big. Besides choosing the network, I would probably need to put effort in spreading the word. Is it necessary to be present in as many different sites possible to draw attention? If so, I am pretty sure the effort would grow over my head. I better just focus on one. So far I like Etsy. Spreading tools like Twitter I somehow don’t really consider suitable for me.

Whatever. For now I prefer to follow the stream of happiness I am currently in by simply doing what I like. I love sharing, I love inspiring, and whatever else comes along, will only have one purpose – to make me happy Thus, I will continue to share with you my artwork, the stages it goes through, my thoughts and ideas behind it, and hopefully inspire you to be creative. Who knows, maybe it is you at the end who shares with me your experiences with those different platforms, networks, and spreading tools and tell me what works best.

Spain, October, 2003. My creative nature gives me a brilliant idea. I decide to organize a quiz about Vilnius as a Christmas present for Augustas, with the price being a most special one: me myself prior to the date and time he’s expecting me.

Spain, October-December 2003. An intensive Internet research on historical sites in Vilnius helps me to compose a wide array of questions. My Lithuanian friend J. in Zaragoza assists me in choosing the right amount of questions with an acceptable level of difficulty. Being from Vilnius herself she can estimate best what the average person knows about the city, the distances on foot between the sites, and thus the approximate time the quiz is likely to take. Last is essential for planning the outcome of the quiz – the receiving of the gift (me) at the right time.

Lithuania, December 2003. Following, I involve J.’s sister C. She lives in Vilnius and helps arranging everything physical involved in this quiz. She makes the print outs, seals and names the envelopes, and delivers everything to Augustas. She furthermore places ribbons on each historical site Augustas is supposed to find.

Augustas receives following package. A big A4 envelope stating, “Open first on Christmas Eve“. Inside he finds: one A6 Christmas Eve message, eight A5 envelopes, and one A6 “Where to go” envelope for the end of the game. Each of the eight A5 envelopes contains three A6 envelopes named QUESTION, RIBBON FOR QUESTION, and JUST IN CASE. The right answer to a question will lead Augustas to the historical site where the ribbon is fixed. He is supposed to cut the ribbon and carry it along to proof he has been there. In case he finds the site but cannot find the ribbon he is allowed to open the RIBBON FOR QUESTION envelope, which points out the exact location of the ribbon. If the ribbon was removed from someone unknown and therefore is a missing proof to the right answer, he is allowed to open the JUST IN CASE letter, which confirms if he is at the right place. Augustas is instructed to open the next question only when the first one is solved. Besides the Christmas Eve message, he is allowed to open the other envelopes only on December 27th, the day of the quiz. He has to seek permission for starting out on the quiz by making a missed call to C.’s mobile phone number and wait for a missed call in return.

Vilnius, Lithuania, December 27th, 2003. I arrive early morning with the night bus from Germany. I meet C. in the city center, where we go to a small café near the Cathedral Square, and give finally the “GO” for Augustas quiz. We are chatting joyfully until 3 missed calls from Augustas phone indicate that he has solved the last question and opened the letter “Where to go“, which reveals the location of his “present”.

Now it’s my turn to position the gift on the miracle stone “Stebuklas” in front of the Cathedral Square. It is situated about halfway between the Cathedral and the bell tower, and marks the end of the 2 million person human chain leading from Tallinn to Vilnius (650 km) in a peaceful protest against the Russian occupation on August 23, 1989. A symbol of freedom and hope, Stebuklas is believed to perform wonders. One has to stand on the miracle, turn 360 degrees clockwise, and make a wish.

The stone’s history and it’s magic power are in my opinion the perfect place for Augustas to find his Christmas present. Highly excited I await his arrival. Once spotting him I face a challenge in staying put on the stone. I can’t wait wrapping my arms around him, and would have loved just to run up to him. But maybe then the magic would have been gone. And thus I wait, until… what follows I estimate unnecessary to describe

Just a couple of months ago I had accomplished the task of a wellness photo shoot at Monte Vista on Ko Phangan island in Thailand. It went so well for being my first shoot that I feel confident I can help out Genevieve. The good thing in her case is that I don’t need to prepare anything. There is no fixed setup, no expectations, just the wish of making her new designs shine in the limelight.

While Genevieve dresses her young model, I check the possible locations outside. Depending on the outfit I choose different locations. We try many things and create what universe intends to be. With lots of fun we bring about marvelous results.

I remember vaguely that I intended to create something perfect. A great but false intention because “perfect” things only happen when I can let myself simply be and turn of my mind. In those moments creation is upon perfection simply because I follow the energy flow, the anything that is meant to be, that is supposed to evolve. It seems as if doing art switches my mind off automatically. It feels like jumping into a lake of cold water, bringing me easily into the state I enjoyed when receiving Dave’s rain-stick massage. It’s a “letting myself go”, like being a tiny particle swirling around freely in the universe. There is no thinking, there is only being. And when I began drawing this marvelous fellow here, even though I had this “perfect” intention, setting down the pencil onto the paper switched my mind off instantly. When a couple of hours later I look at this man, this figure, I see only one thing all life is about – ENERGY.

Making business cards I especially enjoy. The first one I created as a member of the European Student Association AEGEE. As far as I remember I even created them for other members of my working group. Before heading on to my African journey, I designed business or rather visiting cards each for myself and Augustas. This way it always felt easy to part from friends and other wonderful people I met.

During my recent journey through the world I decided to create a logo because I wished to have something that symbolizes this spectacular experience in my life in one image. I began scribbling in my notebook, coming up with following sketch after many trials. With the help of Jasc Paint Shop Pro I managed to put it in digital form, ready to be printed on any material.

I had several versions of it, depending on the purpose (books, t-shirts, website, business cards) – and the background required (black, white). For the making of our visiting card I included the name of our website, and after lots of fiddling I came up with this design for our “business card”.

For the first 1,5 years of our journey we were dealing with my self-printed postcard in the attempt to say thank you to our drivers. When we got out of the car we would quickly get the postcard out of our backpack, and add a personal Thank You! message and our contact details before handing it over. During hitch-hiking, especially when leaving the car, time is sparse. We usually need to be quick to avoid traffic jams or other uncomfortable situations for our drivers. That’s why we later came up with the idea for our own “business card”. It was a good move for it cheers up our drivers, inspires them to follow their dreams, and makes them remember us with a smile. And some drivers might even have great fun with the fact that also hitch-hikers have business, well, visiting cards.

Time comes when I am ready to draw the head-hand figure. It goes surpisingly fast, as if it is given to me from a higher source. In the process of drawing I have the beautiful idea of colouring the head in rainbow colours, similar to another painting I did back in India called Human Flower.

Unfortunately, time is running short, and I don’t manage to finish the painting in Malaysia. Even in Thailand, where I volunteer for 3 months, I don’t find the right atmosphere to complete the painting. And so I carry the drawing on to Australia.

Adelaide, South Australia, February 2011. In Dave’s place I finally get the inspiration to continue – or rather finish – my head-hand painting. My imagination from back in Malaysia, though I see it clearly in my mind, turns out far different on paper. The colors I choose are not the ones I imagine them to be. A bit confused about the result I leave the painting on its own for a couple of days before I continue adding color. I start and stop several times over the one months staying in Adelaide. Only when I come to the conclusion that the experiences I have made in between my stay in Malaysia and now in Australia, as well as the magnificent personality Dave and his warehouse I stay in have on me, I can accept the change of appearance I produce on paper. Once content about this evolution of my painting I finish it with great joy.

Some things don’t work out the way I think of, in general though it doesn’t affect the fact that it becomes a fascinating piece of art. The magic of the painting completes with the name giving, which is all that I heard a thousand of times from out of Dave’s happy spirited mouth:

Faaa-n’Tastique!

[speak as written to get the essence of it]

At first I play with different WordArt settings in PowerPoint. At the moment when I get a clear idea about how the logo should look like, I realize the long way laying ahead between imagination and realization. WordArt is a fantastic function in PowerPoint, and with the additonal help of screen print and saving options, cutting this, glueing that, and examining parts of the image under magnifying glass for tiny corrections in Microsoft Paint, I finally solve my virtual ping-pong work. The result is a simple yet clear logo that has – in my opinion – all the power needed to express what our magazine is about – culture and art.

One day I am furthermore asked to create a new logo for the group itself, since a proper one was still missing for our website. This time I feel lucky because I have Jasc Paint Shop Pro at my disposal. I love to work with Jasc, it seems so easy and convenient for me, besides that it is one of those graphic editors I have worked with most. Creating the new working group logo brings lots of joy for me, and it seems that I implement this joy right away into my work:

When I am suddenly asked to make a logo for the new campaign of our working group, too, I quickly create the following before time is running out for printing and distributing our posters among interested students:

The other ingredients the sand provides me with inspire me to create a live collage. I arrange a little set up of miniature world, which reveals the passion the Colombians inherited from the Roman Empire. What? ;D Have fantasy!

When strolling around the beach at Isla Baru I happen upon a seller who makes cute little lobsters and other sea food into an unidentifiable porridge. If that tastes? I never find out.

The day has been an adventurous one, and when the few tourists that dared to step onto the island for the weekend finally leave, the real magic of this place becomes so tempting that I cannot help but try touching it.

It doesn’t go long until myself and the manager decide to have our own photo shooting, since we have got a reasonably good camera (Canon Rebel XT). I take on job as the photographer. Inspirations for possible shoots fitting the treatments at Monte Vista I get by searching Google images. Additional I roam the kitchen, storages, and treatment rooms for suitable photo material. Following I organize several photo shoots, starting with simple elements like Buddha statues until including models for representing massages, counseling, cleansing etc. The photography equipment I use is merely our camera, a powerful floodlight, and at times Augustas for assisting with the position of the lamp.

Upon having the shoots I work them over with Adobe Lightroom. This fantastic, easy-to-use program offers a huge array of opportunities to wipe out tiny failures and to give the situations the right atmosphere – in case the result photograph didn’t turn out like I had imagined before.

Enjoy a look behind the scene to understand the conditions on set, including some fun pictures we made to keep up the good mood: