This plexiglass was cut in such a fine way. Even standing right in front of it, I couldn’t tell if those were openings cut into the pastic or not (they were).

This piece was so fun! I had to go up a floor to get a good shot of it.

I am really into this piece for some reason. I love the realism and the quiet and freaky feeling about it. The contrast of the black boots and the pale wood is quite striking.

Some beautifully painted portraits.

Love the feet/shoe-like structures.

Spying on visitors…

A beer afterwards in the sunshine…

And a burger!!!

I went to Potsdamer Platz (in Berlin) on Saturday with my boyfriend to see the dominoes that had been sent around Germany and the world to be painted by school children and others. We got there just as the sun was setting but I still managed to snap a lot of pictures thanks to the lights installed everywhere. It was packed with people and bustling with food stands everywhere and even Glühwein! I know, already! We had to drink one since we were slowly getting cold because we forgot hats and gloves. It had been so nice earlier in the day!

I just finished watching the whole fall of the wall ceremony on TV and got to see the dominoes knocked down by Lech Walesa, which fell among the crowds gathered in the center of Berlin. It was a nice ceremony with a lot of emphasis on taking note of all the walls that still exist in the world.

The dominoes were painted with many different themes. I photographed the ones that were visually compelling and had a good concept. There were so many that I liked! I didn’t get to see them all though. I got quite cold before I got to the end of the domino line and turned back. I hope you enjoy what I managed to capture.

I have prepared a few changes to the class. I think the students are a lot fitter than I originally thought. So I’ve got to keep them interested! Teaching is so much fun! When I first stepped into the class last Tuesday I thought, oh man, this is going to be a long hour. But you get into it and it goes by so fast! I made a mixed CD for my class and I think I will feel more and more confident. Tomorrow I just need to get the heating right in the studio and I think I have it down pat!

One of the things I think I should really try and do is to make sure that the class knows they can ask me any questions afterward. When I first started taking Yoga I bombarded my teacher everyday after class with questions about the positions and what I am doing right/wrong. I get the feeling that people are mostly shy or are just not so curious, I don’t know. But I want to encourage them to get involved. It only improves your work.

I want to start tutoring some of my friends individually to work on my teaching skills and to be aware of what beginners are facing when they start Pilates. And then I think I will definitely be looking for a place to teach in English somewhere. Right now I am teaching 4 times a week, but it is temporary. When my teacher comes back, she gets all of her classes back, although there has been talk of me getting one of her classes if her schedule is too full. I think it is great to do it in both languages too. I don’t know what I was so afraid of with the whole German thing…it is no big deal to teach the class in German. But, as my boss once told me, we have different ways of speaking depending on the language we speak. It sounds odd, but so true. I think when I speak English I am more natural, relaxed and funny, but when I speak German I am a bit more serious because I am concentrating on the language.

The first artist that caught my eye was CIOU from France, I think (her website is biography-less). The pieces she exhibited were so finely painted, I had to view the paintings so close to see some of the finest lines. She paints fantastical female characters with a bit of a punk/death/dark side to them. The canvases were initially covered with collaged newspaper that was varnished with a brownish yellow color and then the characters were painted over that. There seemed to be so many layers and the detail was fascinating. Such gems! Check out some other work of hers (images from her website):

Good Wives + Warriors had another piece I liked. The artists behind the production are Becky Bolton and Louise Chappell. It looked like they had used a combination of pens, markers and ink to do their detailed black and white drawings. The piece exhibited was a microscopic view of a natural looking yet imaginary world similar to this one:

Some more pieces from their website that I like:

Mario Hugo had this beautiful piece in the show, a personal project from 2007:

The two realistic portraits were so delicately drawn and I love the funny abstract characters, especially the tree man. Hugo has such a fine sense of line. The materials used for this are graphite, acrylic and china ink on found paper. Some of his other work I got from his website is below.

Roman Bittner had a super cool piece in the show. There were about 6 panels of white illustration board that had been carved by a fine laser to create drawings that were like snippets out of a comic strip. It was quite beautiful to see something with that much detail all in white and you could easily read the dialog because of the shadows of the cuts. There is nothing to see on his website right now. It’s under construction.

Some paintings (digital paintings I think), which I really enjoyed were by Christian Montenegro, an artist from Argentina. I actually found the pieces that were in the show on this gallery’s  website where his work was exhibited before. The characters he developed in these pieces are so fun and I am a huge fan of his color palette. I love the texture, layers and feeling of transparency and the geometry of his style. These reminded me of Giuseppe Arcimboldo’s portraits of the seasons from 1573. Here is his website for more information.

Vertumnus, god of the seasons by Giuseppe Arcimboldo:

Some other pieces of Christian Montenegro’s that I enjoy:

Diego Lorenzini’s beautiful sketches made an appearance at the show, which I knew from the Johanssen Gallery in Berlin (I saw his show there a few months back). He draws with what I think is a simple ball point pen and sometimes a pencil and he creates with those materials work with such an incredible line quality. You really have to get close to the drawings to see how fine they are and how he is able to graduate the weight and darkness of the lines. It is breathtaking. Beautiful beautiful stuff. Here are some examples from the gallery’s website:

There were a few nice pieces from Olaf Hajek, a German illustrator. I like the style of his paintings. There is tons of texture and motifs in his work, muted yet vibrant colors, and his characters are drawn so delicately and in a charming style. I found the following images on his website.

There was a book of Martin O’Neill’s work in the show. This was the first time I had ever heard about this collage artists and his work is fascinating to me. Being a crazy collage lover, I was just drooling over his pieces. He apparently has a massive collection of material for his collages that (maybe) all began when we was studying in Germany. Read this:

This sounds like heaven!!! Man I would love to come across something like that. I wonder how he’s gotten around copyrights. Obviously, when you find old photos, there isn’t any question, but images from ads, books or magazines…I wonder about all that. Check out his website for more info and images. Oh I love this stuff!

Well these were all the warm fuzzy feelings and names I brought home with me yesterday. I hope you all have enjoyed my finds! I am most definitely inspired:)

]]> http://blog.annvandelft.com/life-in-berlin/illustrative-berlin/feed/ 0 http://blog.annvandelft.com/fashion/strange-styling-eek/ http://blog.annvandelft.com/fashion/strange-styling-eek/#comments Thu, 29 Oct 2009 09:10:14 +0000 ann http://blog.annvandelft.com/?p=224

I received a clothing catalog from Otto this week in the mail and while flipping through, found some pretty crazy/bad/ugly styling! I love looking at these kinds of catalogs after seeing what’s on the runway and in magazines, and then comparing the two! Some of the outfits are just plain bad interpretations of current trends, but others are just scary. It makes me wonder how one could come up with such odd outfits. I enjoy making fun of this kind of stuff…is that bad? I also found some obvious over-photoshopping, which always tickles me. Oh, I am such a designer nerd!

So, first off…in the image on the left…we’ve got some sleek wool work trousers paired with a paisley print hippie top and a tight jean vest. There are absolutely no colors working together in this outfit! Each piece of clothing looks like it was taken from a different women with completely different tastes in clothing. Hmmm…. The image on the right just makes me chuckle. I have never seen anyone silly enough to rock the high heels and socks look with socks such as these! Notice that the leopard pattern cuts off before the sole of the foot. Attractive!

A funny shirt/scarf combination…I wonder if the scarf is detachable.

Some funny styling…I don’t know, that belt looks funny like that. Why isn’t it in the belt loops? That nonchalant look never grew on me. I think dressing so that you don’t look like you styled your outfit, but you really did, only works in certain cases and mostly for guys.

This dress scares me. These longer plaid shirt-dresses are big now, H&M is carrying them, etc., but this one just has a bit too much poof in the skirt. It ruins the look! Now the dress looks like a young teenage girl should be wearing it and not a 20-some year old.

Scary jeans from a long lost decade! Note: you can only wear these jeans with knee-high boots, a belt and a long cardigan, because you do not want to be seen without these cover-up devices (see picture on the right!).

I always laugh when I see models in exaggerated poses. I am a fan of natural photography, where it is enough if only the essence of the clothing shows through, because I am aware that those jeans will look different on me anyways…. In this photo it’s as if the director wants to show the exact shape of those jeans on that model’s body and as a result she looks way too stiff and awkward.

Look! Wonder jeans! Haha…and what happens when you wear them a few times and they get all stretched out? This purple jacket is awful as well as the fact that they have the model wearing a hat that is not the same purple. Yuck! And the last picture…uh…ripped T-shirts? I did that when I was sixteen to my shirts…is that coming back?!? And when were hand warmers and T-shirts ever a good look together?

Oh the push-up jeans. Too bad this image is so overly photoshopped that her butt looks completely fake! Nice name for them though — Salsa Jeans:)

Her belly is strangely photoshopped here. The curve on the left looks seriously weird and unnatural.

Ahh, don’t you love how they try to sell clothes in such inappropriate ways? An outfit for work showing lots of cleavage. Very tasteful.

Just scary!!! My sister was telling my recently about the misuse of harem pants she has been noticing. Some girls just don’t know how to wear them and so they shouldn’t! Well, here is one example that I can say with complete certainty is a horrible misuse of harem pants. And what the heck is going on in the outfit on the right? Ahem…trashy…just a bit?

These three outfits, the two above and the one below, made me actually wonder if these were Halloween costumes! Very frightening and might just give me nightmares.

And finally…some outfits I liked. The models are posed naturally and relaxed. This makes me think these clothes are meant for normal people, like me, instead of for women with inflatable butts or a 16-year old sense of style. Eek!

Well I just wanted to share some photos really. First off, my outfit for the wedding and the earrings I designed for my dress! My sister and I:

Here are the dynamic and geometric earrings I designed to go with the colors, V-cut and angles of my dress.

Some nice pictures I took on the flight over. The sky was so beautiful and the clouds were casting such crisp shadows on the ocean below.

Here are some fun things I saw in a few store fronts in Philadelphia.

While we were in Philadelphia, my sister took us to this really fancy Yoga/workout clothing store. My plan is to be able to shop there for my stuff in 5 years! It was such nice clothing, the prices were high, but for someone who loves workout clothes as much as I, it could be worth it…one day!

The following are some photos of some of the great food we ate during our stay. We ate well, to say the least!

We had a hot dog here at Coney Island:

Lamb we made for a dinner party at my mom’s:

We went canoeing with my Dad and his girlfriend and we spotted a bald eagle up in the tree tops. I tried to creep closer on the shore to get a better photo, but I spooked him and we got to watch him take off and fly across the lake.

In New York City my boyfriend and I stopped by Times Square before we headed home and enjoyed the lights and the glitter for a half an hour or so. I like these pics:

At Longwood gardens there were these beautiful giant lily pads and pumpkins!

I love this pic…it was my sister’s idea:

This is from a year ago, but it puts me in the mood for Fall and I still love love love that hat!

Good bye to summer! I so love these one piece outfits. One day I’ll get one…

Some more looks from the summer that is coming sadly to an end. I love the combination of hot pink and turquoise! It makes me so happy.

Some more current looks. Plaid is big and I love those scarves with lots of fringe.

Big necklaces…totally sexy and visually powerful! Too bad they can be a pain to wear cause of their weight. Oh the sacrifices for fashion…

These pendants are enticing and I love their graphic style.

These necklaces are really inspiring to me. I love their geometry and the statement they make!

More statement jewelry. I also love this topless model with just a crazy big necklace on. It’s all about the jewelry and nothing else! I once saw an ad for a bag with a topless model standing next to it, and that made no sense to me, but here I think it’s clever.

Some of my inspiration with sketches. I am designing some big necklaces right now for my Etsy shop. Can’t wait to see the reaction!

Just a fun pairing of images…

That’s all folks!

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