2299 moments, the night-side of life, best of 2014 & the horizon of 2015

In the last couple of days, I revisited the files with the photos I took this year, and picked some of them to get printed and framed, so that I can give them as gifts for Christmas. Revisiting the photo files also brought back so many memories of this year, like the one above: spotting a sun halo, and trying to catch a picture of this rare sky moment. Such luck, to be there right at that time, and probably one of my favourite images 2014 (here's a larger version of the photo with notes).

Altogether, it was a beautiful, and special year.  Today I counted the photos I took since January: 1127 with my photo camera, and almost the same with my mobile phone camera: 1172. Which makes 2299 photos altogether.



Each photo, a moment that made me pause and notice and enjoy, and take a picutre, to keep the memory. Some moments were huge, like the ocean horizon of Mallorca island. Some small, like this playful "selfie" reflection photo of an art installation.

"If it wasn't for this illness, it would have been a truly wonderful year," I joked yesterday while we were out there, on a walk, and watched 3 birds sailing in the December wind. But then, it still is. And I am glad for those photos, to bring back the memory of those small big moments that shaped the year.

Looking at time, it feels a bit weird that it was my birthday now, this day of life celebration, just a few days after the first chemo therapy. But also kind of symbolic, with the start of this treatment, and the step into  a new, different year of life.
 


This week I came across this quote from Susan Sontag, who calls illness “the night-side of life”.. here is the longer quote, from her book “Illness as Metaphor”, more + quote)

“Illness is the night-side of life, a more onerous citizenship. Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and in the kingdom of the sick. Although we all prefer to use only the good passport, sooner or later each of us is obliged, at least for a spell, to identify ourselves as citizens of that other place.”

So I will be citizen of this other side for now. Which also is part of life. I guess one of the most important tasks is to keep the larger perspective, to see beyond the immediate discomfort to that wider horizon. To remember that I am basically on the way to the kingdom of the well. And to notice the small beautiful moments each day, especially now.



This year started with a mindful January, a time of noticing a small moment each day. I want to continue this in January 2015, and also spend time revisiting moments from previous years.

Another thing that I started last January, and that I want to continue: to try and see art every now and then, when I have good days. It was one of the things that added so much to this year, those brief visits to places of art and history, and the reflections they brought. Often it was the smaller ones that I enjoyed more, like the Hamish Fulton exhibition in the local gallery here. Which inspired so many other memories of art and places, from London to landart.

And I want to keep blogging, and join the photo challenges, share moments, visit the moments of others from around the globe. Be part of this larger, electronically connected world, especially in this time of being more restricted in the things I can do and the places I can go. It's an ongoing inspiration, this sharing of moments and experiences, around the world, along those wider horizons.

Plus, of course, there is the world of books. I want to keep reading around the world, and spent some time yesterday sorting a shelf, to put the books there that are waiting to be read - more about that, in an own blog post.

..I started this blog post yesterday evening, and now it turned longer. It is morning now. The field I see from the window, which was green yesterday, is covered with the first real layer of snow of this winter. And this revisit of images of 2014 now turned into a sketched plan for the upcoming season through the night-side:

- To notice the small moments
- To keep the larger horizon in mind
- To keep walking towards that horizon 

Step by step.
Moment by moment.

May 2015 bring many beautiful moments, for everyone, around the world~~



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Links


Here are more "best of 2014" moments from around the world: photo friday

And I now started to mark all blog posts about this shadow journey with a tag, you can click here to read them: C is for cancer, and for courage, too 

Meta Cool Places, or: Paintings about painting - an art short trip

At the start of the year, I was in Stuttgart city for some meetings, and knew I might have some spare time at the end of the day before the museums close. In the end, all that remained were 30 minutes. I still went, and what seemed to be just a short art moment at the end of a winter day turned into a rough plan for the year:

"Trying to make space and time for mini-trips and for art - that's what I started in January 2014, and each time, I was glad for it." (Places & Links: art short trips)"

Cool Places

Last week, I was in Stuttgart again, and revisited the same museum, with its new exhibition "Cool Places". The exhibition features paintings that together form a reflection on modern painting, it was rather varied and colorful, with good contrasts, but also a bit abstract. I probably wouldn't have visited if I hadn't been in Stuttgart anyway. But again, I am so glad that I went.

Here are some impressions from the museum, combined with the official introduction - the museum is rather modern in architecture, constructed as a cube made out of cubes. The different rooms and levels open into each other, which creates open connections between the paintings and scultpures on display:

"With "Cool Places", the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart is devoting a large exhibition to important aspects of current painting, ranging from abstract and figurative to conceptual approaches. It includes examples of Neorealism, as well as works influenced by Appropriation Art, Constructivism, and Op-Art."

"On view will be over sixty keyworks, with numerous large scale pieces by Glenn Brown, André Butzer, Günther Förg, Philip Guston, Jeff Koons, Beatriz Milhazes, Albert Oehlen, Neo Rauch, Daniel Richter, Bridget Riley, Julian Schnabel, and Christopher Wool. The selection will be supplemented from sculptures by Glenn Brown, Jeff Koons, and Rebecca Warren, as well as films from Darren Almond that highlight the impact of painterly modes of expression in other media."




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Beyond the paintings

While at the exhbition, I enjoyed being there, but felt a bit overwhelmed, too - both by the abstract theme, and by the open space that keeps pulling your attention to the next thing to see, wherever you are.

Also, I felt that the exhibition for me felt a bit too mixed with the different styles and topics, many different painters. But then, you probably need this kind of variety to develop a self reflective meta-theme and its many layers.

A day later, I looked up one of the painters, Bridget Riley, and was fascinated.

I saw some of her work before, and always thought she belonged to the current contemporary group of artists, but she is a pioneer really – and is 80 now! And still working and giving interviews and being part of exhibitions. I was stunned, and read an interview with her. Here is an image collage of Riley's work:

And now I am curious for the other painters, too. So maybe this is an exhibition that grows slower from effect. And good that there is the internet, which makes it possible to continue the exhibition in another way. Just following links to Riley's work brought me to 2 art network webites with blogrolls and exhibition links:

• Painter's Table - From the Art Blogosphere
• e-flux art network & links

So the Cool Place (which actually is the name of both one of Riley's featured paintings, and of the exhibition itself) now leads to more cool places..

And finally, to follow the series of art selfies I started to take, here's the one from last week:

Links

• art short trips 2014 
• the start: "art, selfie & the first exhibition: Baumeister"
• reading the world ...