Urban Sketcher

Posted on Feb 8, 2013 in Berlin | 0 comments

A Berlin TV station interviewed four of the Berlin Urban Sketchers last week and followed them around for about 4 or 5 hours as they sketched different scenes around Berlin.

Here is the less-than-4-minute video segment that resulted from that day which was shown on TV here in Berlin on Feb. 7.

It’s a great souvenir for me because these are some of the people I have been sketching with here in Berlin: Katrin, Omar and Peter. I have not yet met Laura.

I would like to point out that the sketcher from Canada, which Omar uses as an example of people who just contact him out of the blue to meet up for sketching, is most likely me!

To learn more about the Urban Sketchers, visit our main blog which showcases sketches of everyday life from sketchers from all over the world.

Berlin subway signage.

Posted on Feb 7, 2013 in Berlin | 0 comments

U-Bahnhof (subway stop) Schlesisches Tor, Berlin

Life drawing. Coloured in Photoshop. Trying something different.

The last 12 days have worn me out. My friend for 8 days, then my cousin for 4 days, both arrived with lots of tourism-energy wanting to cram in as much as possible, and me playing a bit of tour guide.

I have to admit, I took a deep breath once the visits were over and went back to some art-making with a vengeance. Socializing and art-making do not go together. When I visit with people, my artistic pursuits get pushed aside. I just have to be aware of this. Making art, or not making art, is a daily struggle, and there are so many things in life that are working against art-making time.

This does not mean I didn’t enjoy my visitors, I very much did and I felt I deepened my relationships with both of them.

But I inserted a big art day as soon as my very last visitor left. On February 6, I went to a 3-hour life drawing session in Kreuzberg, then spent 2 hours in -1˚C cold sketching the subway station Schlesisches Tor with Oona Leganovic afterwards.

Aaaaahhhh — a good day.

Life drawing. Coloured in Photoshop. Trying something different.

Posted on Feb 6, 2013 in Berlin | 0 comments

The Neues Museum, Berlin, which houses the bust of Nefertiti, has a light-hearted section on the Nefertiti cult — various impressions of the famous lady, including one by Donald Duck. It’s not permitted to photograph Nefertiti herself, so this will have to do. You get the drift.

All we do on V.’s last day is visit the amazing Neues Museum. Just wow. All the museums on the Berlin Museum Island are a UNESCO World Heritage Site and when you see them, you know why.

We spent almost 3 great hours in the museum, then had another currywurst lunch. Around 2 p.m. we had to zip to the airport where I said good-bye to V. I felt that we had a great time, but he was my last house guest and now I look forward to one more week on my own without sharing my tiny apartment.

I meander around the neighbourhood at bit on my way back, do some work, then go to a life drawing session at Danziger Strasse in the evening.

Berlin street art.

Alte Gemäldegalerie, Berlin.

Neues Museum, Berlin.

Neues Museum, Berlin.

Neues Museum, Berlin.

Neues Museum, Berlin.

Neues Museum, Berlin.

Neues Museum, Berlin.

Neues Museum, Berlin.

Life drawing.

Life drawing.

Life drawing.

Building graphics at a childcare centre in Berlin.

Building number, Berlin. Just cool typography.

Posted on Feb 5, 2013 in Berlin | 0 comments

Considering that V. did not arrive with a sightseeing agenda, but wanted to just drift and see what caught his fancy, we did a lot.

We had breakfast at home, then visited the Reichstag, the DZ building by Frank Gehry, Hotel Adlon, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Potsdamer Platz, Sony Centre, had lunch at a Vietnamese place in Potsdamer Platz Arcaden, later coffee and cake at the famous old Cafe Kranzler. V. attempted shopping in an Italian store on Ku’damm but ran into an Italian, non-German speaking salesman. V. had his other famous currywurst at Konnopke. In the evening we watched the Hannah Ahrendt movie by Margarete von Trotta at the Kulturbrauerei Kino. And I worked a little bit.

Elevator at the Berlin Reichstag.

My button says “Das war schon kaputt”, meaning “It was already broken.”

The famous KaDeWe (“Kaufhaus des Westens” / Department Store of the West).

V. and I had coffee and cake at Cafe Kranzler, one of the old famous Cafes of Berlin.

Hannah Arendt movie poster.

Posted on Feb 4, 2013 in Berlin | 0 comments

On Sunday, Feb 3, V. and I have breakfast with E., M. and L. at Barcomi’s Deli in the Gripshöfe. We say goodbye to the kids who were taking the train back to Osnabrück later that day. School beckons on Monday!

Volker and I hop on the 100 bus to take a cheap city tour of Berlin, passing by Unter den Linden with the most important classicist buildings: the Dome, the Residenzschloss of Emperor Wilhelm reconstruction, the German Opera, the German Historic Museum, the museums of the Museumsinsel, Humboldt University. Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, the Abgeordnetenhaus, Bellevue Castle which is the residence of the German President, various embassies, the Siegessäule, Schloss Charlottenburg. We get off on Kurfürstendamm to walk around.

We visit the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche (beautiful place) but are soon disturbed by Karnival music pouring in from the street. We walk back out and there is a most pathetic Mardi Gras parade, compared to what we are used to from Cologne, a veritable bastion (“Hochburg”) of Karneval. I scream for candy with other bystanders, and the paraders throw some at us. It’s a nice nostalgic thing to get some candy, but the parade was truly pathetic. We then walk along Kurfürstendamm, where everything is closed, it being Sunday, but V. finds a few places he would like to check out for clothes or a man-purse on Monday.

We eventually catch a bus to the Bröhan Museum of Art Nouveau.

After that, we criss-cross Berlin on the subway to go to Mehringdamm again, this time to eat the famous Currywurst 36. And it was $2 for a 0.5 L bottle of Warsteiner! I want to cry. I didn’t, but I finished my half litre of Warsteiner on the subway on the way home — partly because I couldn’t drink it fast enough, and partly to experience drinking beer on the subway. Which is completely legal here.

Around 7:30 we head home so I can work, but we have a long conversation with each other and with Jeff, and I don’t get to work until 10 pm.

In the Gripshöfe Berlin, a privately owned series of courtyard buildings which is open to the public. Barcomi’s Deli is one of the courtyards, as well as various pieces of public art.

Berlin manhole cover.

Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächtnis Kirche, Berlin.

At the Bröhan Museum of Art Nouveau, Berlin-Charlottenburg.

The Bröhan Museum of Art Nouveau, Berlin-Charlottenburg.

A painting by Jean Lambert-Rucki from the 1920s at the Bröhan Museum of Art Nouveau, Berlin-Charlottenburg.

At the Bröhan Museum of Art Nouveau, Berlin-Charlottenburg.

Schloss Charlottenburg in Berlin was modelled after Versailles.

Beriln subway signage.

Beriln subway signage.

Posted on Feb 3, 2013 in Berlin | 0 comments

On February 2, my cousin V. from Cologne arrives at 8 a.m. the morning at Tegel airport. I pick him up and we drop off his suitcase, then head out to Bonanza Coffee Heroes for great coffee and one of the best croissants we’ve ever had, then to Hackescher Markt to walk around.

We saw a cool Berlin street band, Rupert’s Kitchen Orchestra. They played high energy funk music, on a traffic island in the middle of the road, just like you see in the above video. Very infectious. But I was dragging by then, exhausted from having to get up at 7 a.m., and had to go home to lie down for two hours, so I left my cousin alone for a while.

Then we had coffee and cake at Nina’s in the afternoon. We also got a tour of her neighbour’s great apartment with ceiling ornaments that he is having restored and painted.

Then we met my teenage friends E., M. and L. (not related to my cousin) for Tibetan dinner on Mehringdamm, which was great. After that V. and I went to the Berlin Ska City Festival from 9 pm until about 12:30 am.

Then home. Bed. Sleeeeep!

Graffiti in a courtyard near Hackesche Höfe.

Graffiti in a courtyard near Hackesche Höfe.

Graffiti in a stairway near Hackesche Höfe.

Graffiti in a stairway near Hackesche Höfe.

Berlin subway signage.

Typical Berlin courtyard, art nouveau building in Charlottenburg.

Art nouveau ceiling ornaments being refurbished in a Berlin Charlottenburg art nouveau apartment.

Berlin Stolpersteine — these brass pavement plaques replace regular cobblestones. They carry the names of Jewish people who lived in the building near them and were murdered or died by suicide as a result of persecution by the Nazis. The stones are controversial with some Jewish and some non-Jewish people. The question is always how to create an appropriate reminder of the atrocities that respects the dignity of the victims and their families.

My favourite teenagers, E. and M. with E.’s boyfriend L., come to visit me in Berlin!

Berlin Ska Festival Flyer.

At the Berlin Ska Festival with my cousin V.

Posted on Feb 2, 2013 in Berlin | 0 comments

On February 1, it was time to say goodbye to my friend G. We had a great time. I took her to Tegel airport and we had a light-hearted goodbye, because I will be back in Vancouver myself in just two weeks. We know we will see each other back home soon.

G. had seen a poster on the way to the airport announcing a showing of art by women of the Berlin Secession. I had not even heard of the Berlin Secession, so as I was taking the train back into Berlin, I googled it as well as the exhibit and found out it was at the Max Liebermann Villa in Berlin-Wannsee. I went to my Berlin public transit iPhone app which has been a fantastic tool for me here and quickly found the quickest train out there. Before I knew it, I was in Wannsee. Hurray for spontaneity!

The sad story of Max Liebermann is that his art was considered degenerate by the Nazis, he was forced from his official duties late in life, and he died in 1937, deprived of a dignified old age. After his death, in 1940, his widow had to sign over her home to the Nazis. In 1943, as she lay bedridden from a stroke, a letter arrived announcing her imminent deportation to a concentration camp the next day. She took an overdose of pills and died a few days later. It’s one of many tragic human stories of that time.

I felt a great sadness as I walked around this beautiful villa by the lake and thought of the many crimes against humanity committed not only by Nazis but around the world every day. There has got to be a small thing everyone of us can do to not let these things happen anymore. Maybe we can start by allowing the people around us to be themselves and not try to force our beliefs on them, be it a religious belief or the belief that you must not leave a pair of dirty socks on the floor for even an hour. We can also start by allowing ourselves to be ourselves and not be swayed by the opinions of others.

Later in the evening, I did some work and then cleaned the apartment because my cousin V. is arriving from Cologne early in the morning on February 2!

There is still a lot of construction going on in Berlin.

Gendarmenmarkt, Berlin.

Train station signage typography, Berlin-Wannsee.

Wannsee, Berlin. A very 50s-looking shopping strip.

Max Liebermann Villa, Berlin-Wannsee.

A study by Clara Sievert. I know a bit about drawing, and this is just an amazing sketch. The hands and the expression look convincing, the billowing skirt, the shadows, the weight of the whole pose are fantastic.

“Grape Harvest” by Dora Hitz, 1910. Since I did not know anything about the Berlin Secession, I also did not know about the women of the Berlin secession. I was glad to see that women were included, anyway. As the brochure explained, women in Germany in the late 19th century were not allowed to attend universities. So female artists had to go to private “schools for ladies” to learn what they needed. It follows that men were the only ones teaching the women at these schools. So it would have been difficult for women to find role models of their own gender. A problem that is more common than you’d think, even today.

The lake view from the Max Liebermann Villa, Berlin-Wannsee.

Posted on Feb 1, 2013 in Berlin | 0 comments

G. found a great button that says “Ride on without me.” Seems quite apropos after the big day we had.

January 31 was G.’s last full day in Berlin. We had a huge brunch at Cafe Anna Blume to strengthen ourselves for a giant day of sightseeing. We then toured the East Side Gallery Wall Museum, dropped by the Hackesche Höfe so that G. could pick up a few more souvenirs, we visited the Buchstabenmuseum, and then the Neue Nationalgalerie.

In the evening G. packed her suitcase and relaxed while I went to a gallery opening with Nina and then out for beer with her and her neighbour, who was from East Germany and told us about his five years in an East German prison. He said some shocking and astonishing things about how things worked and what he experienced.

This was probably the most packed day I had in Berlin in all of the three months I’ve been here. I have had the luxury of not cramming five things into one day. But it was a fun day and I did want to see all of these things too. I had put some of them off so I could do them with G.

Sculpture of Käthe Kollwitz in the park named after her in Prenzlauer Berg. We walked by there after our huge breakfast at Anna Blume.

East Side Gallery / Berlin Wall

East Side Gallery / Berlin Wall

East Side Gallery / Berlin Wall

East Side Gallery / Berlin Wall

East Side Gallery / Berlin Wall

East Side Gallery / Berlin Wall

East Side Gallery / Berlin Wall

East Side Gallery / Berlin Wall

Berlin posters. These say “Life is not a subway stop” and intend to spread news about social programs and social support.

At the Buchstabenmuseum Berlin.

We made it to the Neue Nationalgalerie. You can not be in Berlin and avoid confronting its Nazi and its East German Communist pasts. There was a large exhibit on post-WWII art, both East and West German, showing how artists dealt with the fact of a horrible war and its aftermath in their work.

The Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin was designed by Mies van der Rohe.