londonartfish

2006-08-17T09:24:00.000-07:00

we are on broadband! fastline! yeeehaaaa!!!! it is amazing how fast suddenly my pictures upload! exciting!
anyway, i just want to see HOW FAST it can actually do it! so i am posting this photo of ianto from this summer:

2006-07-23T15:59:00.000-07:00

on the first of july the europride march 2006 took place in london. sian and ianto and me went with the campaign group wages due lesbians and the all african women's group. we had a banner saying: wages due lesbians - invest in caring not killing. and the AAWG had a banner with their name and "the world belongs to all of us - we all have the right to be here and be safe"
it was great. the weather was really hot so there were lots and lots of people in the streets and participated in the march or watched us go by. it was a huge crowd marching this time. the last few years pride marches and pride event had been a bit of a party and there was practically no political theme at all, as if the LGBT community had nothing and no one left to fight for. as if everything was just great as long as we can party in public.

this year, there were quite a few groups with banners with political ideas and statements.
we had a bit of space between us and the people marching in front of us. this way everyone could see our banners and had time to read them. it was great! people clapped for us and waved, told us they agreed with what our banner said etc. it was amazing.

here are some pictures:

ianto looks like he went incognito :-)

here's both our groups with their banners

2006-07-23T14:12:00.000-07:00

i just had a lovely holiday in france with all the family. it is nice to all get together again - even if it is just once in a while. it is interesting to hear what everyone is up to, and to just spend time together.
it is great when all the kids get to play together - even though they don't speak the same language. they still have fun and somehow communicate. something for us adults to re-learn!
now the week is over...back in london. after this time in the beautiful landscape, with lavender scented air and a pool just next to the house...what a difference that is! a bit of a shock really. :-) but it is also good to be back. we had to rescue our garden - our guest who was meant to water the garden seems not to have found the tap?! everything's dried out, but we were just in tome to keep all the plants from dying. we have four tomato plants that have some fruit on them already! can't wait for the harvest :-)
i have just transferred the photos from the camera onto the computer. some lovely pictures to go with the good memories! :-)

thank you, mutti und papa, for a great time in the lovely house you chose and i am already thinking about when and where we should meet again.

fuer immer jung? :-)

mutti und ianto

sian und rita

joana

muttis abend

2006-05-18T14:55:00.000-07:00

something really exciting happened last week! President Chavez from Veenzuela came to London and we went to meet him. i mean, he was doing a talk in camden city hall and we went with the Global Women's Strike to welcome him. we kind of guessed that he wasn't going to go into the hall where the organisers had told everyone he would go in, so we waited where we thought he would go in and we were right! Ken Livingston, the mayor of london had invited him there, so Ken came out to be there when he arrived. we were right inthe front row, Ianto and me and Ken came over, you know, like politicians like being seen talking to little kids. he asked Ianto if he had come to see the president and ianto said yes. so then Chavez arrived with a whole troupe of bodyguards and security etc, and Ken welcomed him. then he said to Chavez: here is a young man who has come to meet you. and he came over to us and Chavez said hello to Ianto, asked him how he was and Ianto said "fine" :-) he was so friendly! he took ianto's hand and kissed it and then went over to the other side, where Sian and Kristina were with our banner and the book by the director of the women's development bank of venezuela, which the strike published with her. and he said hello to sian and kristina and saw the book and then he remembered who we were and hugged Sian and kind of introduced the strike to ken livingston! the president of venezuela!
the best thing then was that in his speech, he mentioned Selma James, who is our point of reference in the Strike, a long-time campaigner and widow of CLR James, who wrote the book Black Jacobines, which describes the Slave rebellion in Haiti. he mentioned the book and Selma, who gave him the book last year. :-)
sian and me had made a banner welcoming chavez and saying: globalise article 88. that is an article in the venezuelan constitution that sais that women's work in the home should be recognised as valuable to society and the economy and should be remunerated (paid). on the first on June in venezuela they will start to give money to the poorest women in the communities, starting with 500.000 and then spreading the scheme from there. they will get 3/4 of the minimum wage to start with.
anyway, this banner we made is now in possession of the president. :-)

so, you see it was a really exciting week. i will try and add some pictures....>>>it's not working at the moment, so that will have to wait. sorry.

:-)

2006-03-25T14:22:00.000-08:00

i have decided on my topic for my dissertation that i have to write next year (starting research in the summer!). i will write about the role art plays in a revolution. i want to look at the russian revolution and at the revolution that is happening now in venezuela. i have found a lot of interesting literature about the russian revolution and art already. there is really fantastic revolutionary ceramic work with slogans and symbols etc. propaganda, of course. and there are the posters etc. in venezuela there are a lot of murals, which are beautiful and i have also found several interview with artists about their work and the revolution and how they relate to it. it is going to be very interesting to work on, i think...i just hope that the tutors are going to accept my proposal.
they say that if there is no tutor that can help with the research i have chosen, i have to find something else. so, keep your fingers crossed for me, that it will be alright.
:-)

2006-03-24T12:44:00.000-08:00

here finally are some more photos from venezuela. still not all of them, but i am getting there!

maybe soon i will post more. did you see the graffiti? the people will not retreat! ha!
and there are lovely murals about the revolution and the "heroes" everywhere. i did take more pictures of those, but they are still on the other computer.

thanks for your patience! :-)

hanna

2006-03-08T15:05:00.000-08:00

at the moment i am working a lot in the ceramic workshop. lovely! all plasterdust and squidgy clay and plaster etc! but seriously, there are a lot of very beautiful things you can do with clay!
i am slipcasting pots and i will be experimenting with coloured slip decoration and printing on them.
here are some pictures of quite simply pots i made last year to learn this new technique:

there is of course much more, but i have not got time to upload more for now. what do you think, quite nice, isn't it?

2006-03-06T11:54:00.000-08:00

i went to play softball again for the first time in about 3 years on sunday. it was so much fun! i missed playing very much....it is so amazing how you can exercise really hard for three hours and you don't even really notice until afterwards, when your muscles ache!!!
i think i went a bit over the top - i cycled to hyde park (40 mins) and then played softball and then cycled all the way back. today, monday, i can hardly move! hahaha...but it feels great to know that i am getting a bit of exercise again.

maybe i should explain that a little bit:
i used to play softball in austria - for about 5 years. our team was quite good, went to three european cups etc. i really loved playing and i was a bit disappointed when i found that here in england people play slowpitch softball and not fastpitch softball. i still played for about two years here, going ot tournaments etc. it was still good fun.
then of course, my life changed quite a lot about 3 years ago and i didn't play anymore at all...my poor glove was stuffed in a bag inthe back of the cupboard.
so sunday morning i got my glove out, got the glove oil and put a nice layer on. still nice and soft, needs a bit of tightening the strings i noticed using it.

:-) it's great to have some kind of exercise that you really love.

2006-03-01T11:39:00.000-08:00

well, so today i am going to try to post some photos from venezuela. these are just some landscape pictures....the others i have not got on my computer yet.

how beautiful is this? you will notice the ones that are taken from the airplane!

:-)
hanna

2006-02-28T03:22:00.000-08:00

yesterday i finally got the typed up "interview" about the artisans collective that i visited in venezueal. i had to ask a friend to do the interview for me, because we got there so late that we only had about 10 minutes there before we had to leave again for the town near the airport. she said it had been a good interview and that they had got lots of information. now what she sent me is about 1 page!!!! i am meant to do a 10 minute presentation on that. no info about techniques, no info about the running of their collective. and i had really written down all the questions for her! argh!
if i had known how little she had, i would have looked for a different interviewee in the last three weeks since we've been back. now i have to find an alternative in the next week or so - the presentation is at the end of march.

do any of you know about artist/crafts collectives in the London area? (UK)

2006-02-16T11:40:00.000-08:00

i have just come back from a two week holday in venezuela! it was one of the most interesting experiences i have had in my life. the country is absolutely beautiful and i couldn't stop taking pictures!
but the most important thing is that there is a revolution going on in venezuela. people are taking the things promised to them in the constitution and improving their lives. it is a slow process, but it is happening everywhere.
health care there is free and working towards prevention rather than treatment. also, alternative medicine is included in the GP practise. there are community committees that visit sick people in hospitals and at home to keep track of what the doctors are doing and if the work is not up to standard or the patients are not cared for properly, the doctor can be sacked. the same is true for any public service. the community always makes sure that people get what they are entitled to.
the money that venezuela gets from the re-nationalised oil industry goes directly into the communities and there are food programmes, literacy programmes, schools and hospitals are being built. the military there is not just used as defense for the country and the revolution, but the soldiers also grow food, build houses, schools and roads. they are seen as part of the people, not as separate. this is also why the coup there (set up by the US) did not work. the military wanted Chavez back as much as the rest of the population.
anyway...people are so encouraged by all this and they are really so much more upbeat than i have seen anywhere else in the world. compared to people's lethargy and depression about the situation here in the UK, that was such a great experience!
so....if yo want to travel to an interesting country wher you can learn how to do community organising, venezuela is the place to go.

2006-02-16T11:24:00.000-08:00

so....this is my first post....it feels a bit weird writing stuff in english even though my mother tongue is german (although i do use english all day every day, so i am used to it) but i feel that even though i would like to write in german sometimes, english will give more people the opportunity to understand my blog and take part in creating it.