Hi Carolina, nice paper! Considering the many drab or ugly buildings that exist, just think of all the beautiful paper that could have been if they hadn’t been build but their plans mashed to pulp. I love the burnt tree from which you took charcoal to make drawings.
I just returned yesterday evening from a back and forth to Amsterdam for a couple days. That was interesting! As the Human Magnet I picked up very clearly on my own feelings. It was a terrific ‘high’ coming back to that city. I felt lighter, happier, happy to be able to live there, and being a part of it. Even though I like mountains very much (I think), and Idar-Oberstein is in a tight vally between smaller mountains, I just felt I was able to breath deeper in the flat wide landscape that Amsterdam is in. Also the mind frame and way of people. This made me realize just how much I have moved away from my German roots to my “foster roots”.
After reading Susanne Klemm’s comment about appreciating her Swiss roots much more now I came to realize that it is just the opposite with me. I have actually never felt patriotic or proud about being German, had never thought about it when I lived there. Too young as a 5 year old when we left it, and not feeling particularly German growing up in Canada except for having German parents, I had to get used to being German when I was 17 and often felt that a part of me was missing because I didn’t have the same stories of TV programs, books, songs, or school lessons the others did. Later when living in Holland I was happy to be European. It felt bigger and wider somehow.
The Gray Area for me is actually a metaphysical space rather than a physical area or color. It’s the in-between areas filled with stuff like unclarity, confusion, insecurity, undecidedness and so forth. Physical gray is for me just a color that can be relaxing to the eyes from too much color, it can be calming, or just nice to wear. It’s everywhere, even as floor color in my apartment because it connects colors well. Maybe that’s it! Maybe a gray area is needed to connect things?
Ciao, Andrea
View over part of Amsterdam harbor from the building of where my job is. W-I-D-E ….. take a deep breath!
