Chani's Creative Space

Thanking you for your support, advice and friendship in 2013, I wish you the best for 2014!  May this New Year bring peace, health, happiness and success to you all! And projects. And creative ideas, which give you the strength to get  off the beaten track. Keep believing in what you do. If you are convinced that you are right, you are definitely right. And remember that you are free. As long as you follow your conscience and obey the law, you are free! Happy New Year!

Who keeps his eyes wide open will discover surrealistic scenes everywhere in his/her daily life ;-) These pictures are not photo montages - they just show what I saw last week in the aquarium of Benalmádena (Spain). Enjoy! (I wish you happy holidays!)

At this time of the year, my body and my mind are asking for deceleration.  Working all year with technology which is supposed to improve communication and to save a lot of time (I am not sure that is really true), I am so glad when I can shut off all devices for a couple of days. While others are rushing to supermarkets, I need t ime to breathe, to slow down - and to rebel against our consumer society enjoying nature - looking at the sea, the sky, the mountains nearby with no cent in the pocket ;-)  Deceleration Ant

A big thank you to all who were there last Friday to support me and who helped me to organize this exhibition. It was (and still is until end of December) a pleasure for me to show some of my paintings at IU Torremolinos. ¡ Muchas gracias otra vez a todas las personas que me ayudaron a organizar esta pequeña exposición y que me apoyaron con su presencia este último viernes!

IU Torremolinos and myself are happy to invite you to the vernissage of my solo exhibition on Friday, November 29th at 7 p.m. Where? Sede IU Torremolinos Calle Ramal de Manantiales, esquina Río Mesa 29620 Torremolinos (Spain) The exhibition will be open all December Opening hours: Monday to Thursday, 5 p.m. - 8 p.m. (except non-business days) Spread the word! Thanks in advance. Enigma Attraction

When I walk in town, I use to look up, as faces of buildings usually have a lot to tell and can even be unintentionally funny for several reasons.  Not to speak of cables! Not the poetic ones which invite me to dream, but the wild and scary ones. The socially critical ones. Such cables make my day ;-)

Cables can be poetic, cables can be art. Hanging in the sky like half notes on an unconventional staff... Looking at them, I can hear the music of freedom, waiting for my train to bring me to the next nature park.

November - time to pick the first ripe oranges off our own, so beautiful orange tree!  A couple of weeks ago, I began to paint our oranges as they were still green - inspired by Matt Chinian's blog article View from kitchen of September 21, 2013, thinking it would not be a bad idea, after all, to make an abstract painting of what I see from my kitchen window: green oranges, Andalusian iron bars, sun, light and shadow. Looking out of my window

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my family and friends who attended the vernissage last Friday evening and to all of you who could not be physically there but supported me on another way.

The  Galería Javier Román  and myself would like to invite you to the vernissage of my solo exhibition on Friday, October 18th at 8 p.m. Where? Calle San Juan de Letrán, 10 29012 Málaga (Spain) +34 952 222 533 The exhibition will be open from October 18th 2013 until November 7th 2013 . Opening hours: Monday to Friday 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. - 8 p.m. Saturday: on request Of course, I know that Málaga is much too far for some of you...  I will do my best to get some pictures of the event and I will post them here for you.

Some moments in life are magical because of the place. Others, because of the people. And very few of them, because of both.  Magical moments Tropical rain forest fruits

Years ago, as I was living in Germany, I used to be a bit sad in September because of the perspective of a long and hard winter coming. I could not help myself to check again and again how many days I still had to work in the office before the next break comes up. And it always seemed to me an awful long time to wait until then... Now, I am happy that the summer holidays are finished with their mass tourism. I like the autumn here with its interesting light, a weaker sun which is still strong enough to give us the possibility of hiking. Even the winter with its pleasant temperatures is a delight, ideal for bird watching, shorter hikes and walking on empty beaches. In fact, I have learnt to (try to) enjoy every day of my life, not only holidays. If I was still checking my calendar permanently to see when the next break comes up, I definitely would have to change something in my life. Parrots in the sky

Last week, my mother brought me some drawings and paintings I performed as a child. I had completely forgotten about them.  It was interesting for me to see how similar and different at the same time this "early work" is from what I am doing now... I wonder if other artists feel the same way and what they feel looking at their early work.  I was 9 years old as I painted the following:

Every time I need some encouragement or motivation, I use to re-read Neil Gaiman's 2012 commencement address at the University of the Arts of Philadelphia (US)  which is, in my humble opinion, absolutely brilliant. I love every word of it, but especially the following extracts: "People who know what they are doing know the rules, and know what is possible and impossible. You do not. And you should not. The rules on what is possible and impossible in the arts were made by people who had not tested the bounds of the possible by going beyond them. And you can. [...] "Life is sometimes hard. Things go wrong, in life and in love and in business and in friendship and in health and in all the other ways that life can go wrong. And when things get tough, this is what you should do. Make good art. I'm serious. Husband runs off with a politician? Make good art. Leg crushed and then eaten by mutated boa constrictor? Make good art. IRS on your trail? Make good art. ...

The majority of those who book a holiday at the Costa del Sol are avid for sunshine, sangria and grilled fish, but they generally know little about local culture. Before living here permanently, I was not an exception. And I am still learning a lot every day. A couple of months ago, I saw for the first time a very special boat on our beach. I was told that it was an old typical boat of this area called  jábega ,  which was used before by fishermen. It is supposed to be of  Phoenician origin and its name should come from the Arabic word sabaka meaning "fishing net". Nowadays, those boats are only used for rowing races. They all have the same typical form and are of incredible beauty. They wear names, are mostly painted with strong colours and have a lot of interesting details (painted eyes, spur with snake head...). Enjoy!