Coaching, reloaded - Coaching question of the day #361. - Your favorite piece of art

Today's coaching question may look like an oddball, and yet it's one of those questions that can reveal a lot about ourselves.

What do we consider as art in the first place, which example of artistic expression is our favorite one, and why exactly that one matters to us?

It doesn't matter whether we are talking about more traditional forms of art (literature, painting, sculpture, architecture, theater, music, dance) or less traditional forms of art (graphic design, street art, interior design, body art, conceptual art, graffiti, cinema, audiovisual).

[Besides my tattoos, you may ask?

That's an easy one: the paintings of Botticelli and Mucha]

What matters is how a work of art can enrich our lives, inspire us, motivate us, embody our idea of beauty and creativity.

Charles Addams, revisited #1. - The perfect storm for sheltering in place

Even if around me many people are starting to go "back to normal" already, I still think that, as long as it is not clear how things will evolve, staying at home and sheltering in place is the way to go, as much as possible and as often as possible, for all people that can afford it.

It is safer for them, it is safer for people around them, it is safer for the people they are usually in contact with and yet they are not living with.

On this lazy Saturday afternoon, I am sheltering at home and this is how today's weather is looking like, in Berlin:

[A perfect storm, in the way the famous illustrator

Charles Addams would describe it:

"Just the kind of day that makes you feel good to be alive!"]

Staying at home and sheltering in place on Saturday, with your loved ones and something good to read and plenty of time to write?
Yes, please.

Tags: Charles Addams, Addams family, Sheltering in place, Stay home

What to read next:

Coaching, reloaded - Coaching question of the day #94. - A very special day, for you
"Happiness is made of..." The happiness inventory that should become your new reality check tool, perfect for good as well as for bad days

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Where to start, if you are new

Collecting "Le petit Prince" - A big thank you to all the special, incredible people that are playing the game with me, year after year

"Now I always have a look around, when I am in some new place. Somehow, he has become my new habit", he says.

And I just melt.

This very good friend of mine is talking about looking for new, exotic editions of "The Little Prince" for my collection while traveling and/on being abroad for some time for whatever reason, and knowing that he remembers me and my special game makes me feel seen, loved and appreciated.

Collecting the book has been a serendipitous idea, something that I would not have expected and yet kept me company all these years, almost fifteen years by now.

And now, after so many years, my collection looks like this:

[My collection of The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

as it is in June 2020: over 100 books 

in around 70 languages and dialects]

According to the most recent data, the book has been translated into more than 350 languages and dialects worldwide.

Short and sweet motivational questions for your self-care #10. The Pandora's box

If I say "Pandora's box", what does pop up in your mind?

Greek mythology? Aerosmith vs. Donna Summer? Silent movies diva Louise Brooks starring on a forgotten masterpiece? An even geekier and yet definitely pop culture reference?

[Could you resist a Pandora's box as tempting 

and as ambivalent as Louise Brooks starring

in Georg Wilhelm Pabst's silent era masterpiece?]

A Pandora's box is a place where we don't want to go, because if you open a Pandora's box (it doesn't matter that it was actually way more similar to a jar, in the original myth), you've got big problems to deal with. 

To open it means to initiate something that can be overwhelming, dangerous, unbearable. Who does want to deal with pain, evil, risk, suffering, despair?

Mythology and pop music on the side, each of us has their own personal Pandora's box.

"Born This Way" also means "Living This Way", and paying the price for it - In memoriam for Zombie Boy [1985-2018] - Part I

"With such beautiful tattoos, I understand that it is a pity to hide them with those stockings" the doctor said today in the morning, while visiting me because of a terrible pain on my feet that it's making it impossible for me to walk, and referring to special stockings that can be needed in such cases. 

He wants to be nice, and he probably thinks that his words are friendly and charming. And maybe even a little bit flirty, in a fun way.

So I keep my cool, look at him with a firm smile and reply: "Well, this is not about my tattoos, it is about me not being able to walk because of the pain. I just want the pain in my feet to stop". 

After the medication, I go home with a huge white bandage that covers half of a leg and a foot. As I can walk without pain, for the first time in three days, I really don't care about the people staring at me.

[Zombie Boy posing as a polarizer that draws 

so much attention while traveling on the subway 

and minding his own business, 2016

It feels so familiar to me...]

If people are used to staring at me wherever I go, well...

Today they do that even more, and they have the "excuse" of the bandage. Some smile, some look perplexed, some seem to be dying for asking some questions. I just want to go home and take care of my feet.

While hearing about the unexpected death of Canadian model and actor Rick Genest, better known as Zombie Boy or Rico the Zombie, found dead two days ago in Montréal at the age of 32 after (apparently) committing suicide, I have to think again about what happened this morning. 

First Doodle Google of August 2018 is dedicated to German war phographer Gerda Taro

Today's Google Doodle in Germany is dedicated to Gerda Taro (pseudonym of Gerta Pohorylle), the German photographer considered to have been the first woman to work as a photojournalist in war zones and to be killed on duty.

[A big smile for the camera!

Google Doodle dedicated to Gerda Taro

on August 1st, 2018]

Activist against Nazism and Fascism, picture editor, photographer and furthermore personal assistant, muse and companion of Robert Capa (born Endre Friedmann) during the last two years of her life, Gerda Taro had to leave Germany in 1929 because of her Jewish heritage and worked with many important newspapers, also documenting the Spanish Civil War with David Seymour and with Capa himself.

Many pictures and negatives that she signed together with his personal and professional partner, seen as lost for decades, has been found in Mexico in 2007, making it possible to dedicate her prestigious art exhibitions.

Google Doodle pays homage to German graphic designer Ludwig Sütterlin

Today's Google Doodle in Germany is dedicated to Ludwig Sütterlin [1865-1917], a Berlin-based graphic artist and teacher at the "Teaching Institution of the Royal Museum of Decorative Arts" (lit.  Unterrichtsanstalt des Königlichen Kunstgewerbemuseums zu Berlin) that invented the Sütterlin script.

[Colorful Google Doodle on July, 23rd 2018

dedicated to Ludwig Sütterlin]

This minimal and very regular writing style based on geometrical forms, influenced by Art Nouveau and by the work of Rudolf von Larisch, was nationally adopted in Germany as a more adapt writing style for children (in comparison to the more tricky Eckenschrift) during the Twenties and the Thirties.

Every letter would have the same height and width, in order to help small children learning how to write properly while using a quill:

Hips don't lie, beards do. And people do it as well, sometimes - Part II

The young, blond man is sitting near me in the subway, at the end of a chilled & sunny summer day.

He's tall and he is hot and he's wearing glasses and... I surprise myself at doing it again.

While sitting absolutely motionless and apparently distracted near him and looking somewhere else in front of me, I am actually undressing him on my mind. 

Yes, exactly. I am imagining him without his huge hipster beard and, virtually, undressing his beautiful face and asking myself if he would be even more handsome without a beard.

["Rire dans sa barbe", a popular French idiomatic expression

not directly translatable into English,

as depicted by Auckland-based designer Anjana Iyer...

with a huge hipster beard, of course]

Gut feeling about that? Hell, yes.

Sorry for not being sorry about that.

As we said in the first part of this post, beards are not really my thing.

Short and sweet motivational questions for your self-care #4. The most important guest at every party

When was the last time you read a sentence and your mind went "BAM!"?

To me, it has been about ten minutes ago, as I read: 

Embrace what is true NOW.

Naomi Dunford

This sentence, apparently so simple, has so many layers within that it can be read in at least four different ways (sky is the limit, here). Naomi capitalized "NOW", for empathizing it, but your mileage may vary.

[Now Is Just Right Now by Egor Kraft, 2014]

"Embrace" what is true now.

What does "embrace" mean to you and how can you embrace what is true now? How would this look like and how would you know that you are succeeding at it? It has to be "all in or nothing" or can you imagine yourself taking baby steps?

Kaizen? Haragei? Ikigai? Just go for Kintsugi, the new and yet so old Japanese (buzz)word about perfect imperfection

Gold can be hidden everywhere.

So a couple of months ago, during a public speaking event, while listening to a very bad speaker, I heard for the first time about Kintsugi, the Japanese tradition, celebrated for centuries, of "upcycling" chipped pottery and vases with... golden glue.

Instead of throwing those "broken" pieces away, the Japanese artisans were able to embrace the concept of wabi-sabi, or finding beauty in all things and phases of life, without looking for perfection and completeness, and to transform those damaged objects into even more appreciated and beautiful pieces, special and unique, definitely more valuable because of their imperfections and "breaks" and not despite them.

[Modern reinterpretation of Kintsugi 

by Robert Puro, talented artist based in New Mexico

Image credit: Puro Kintsugi: From Broken to Beautiful]

How can this relate to you?

Typically "Berlin style" is... #2. - Two modern Marina and Ulay

Many of you liked a lot the katana lady, as an example of the very special atmosphere one can experience in Berlin.

Another example of what's typically "Berlin style"?

Last Sunday while walking in Kreuzberg, after a big storm, I stumbled upon two young street performers, dressed up like for a very formal wedding with 35 degrees Celsius and people in t-shirts around them sweating for the big heat.
The young "couple" was busy fighting and running and dancing and laughing together, while interacting with each other thanks to a huge grey mattress, in a fascinating art performance about love and other disasters that reminded me of the notorious  'Relation in Space'.

[The naked truth about love, relationships, pain,

broken hearts, emotional struggles and so on...

Relation in Space (1975)

by Marina Abramović & Ulay]

As if this would be the most normal thing to accidentally see, on a lazy Sunday afternoon. And in Berlin, it is. 

This one is for Michael.

(To be continued)

Tags: Berlin, Berlin's quirky sides, Performance art

What to read next:
Typically "Berlin style" is... #1. - The katana lady 

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Where to start, if you are new 

The kind of questions that can leave you speechless, make you smile and force you to grow

"Who do you feel would benefit least from your work?"

The question that coach Travis L. Wilson has kindly thrown at me, as we are talking about which kind of change I want to make, as an intercultural consultant on her way for getting certified as a coach and willing to work as a coach for diversity management, leaves me puzzled and a little bit speechless. Speechless, moi!?

Being speechless never occurred to me, if we keep out the first 18 months of me learning German after moving to Berlin without speaking (back then!) a single word of German and a (back then!) incredibly broken English that soon became an even worse Denglisch. 

But this would be another story, even if one with a linguistic double happy ending, and I digress. ;)

[Speechless, moi!? No way!

I do speak up if I need to. No problem there.

One of my personal issues is...

having often closed eyes in pictures. 

Pics: Me, November 2017 

at Berlin's street art museum

Urban Nation © Radoslaw Kosiada]

And suddenly, I smile, because I realize that I am in the right place and that giving myself Seth Godin's The Marketing Seminar as a Christmas present - even if I don't celebrate Christmas at all and I was just looking for a good excuse for enrolling in the workshop - has been a very good decision.

Three quotes that can help you shape the upcoming new year 15 minutes a day, and a big "light blue" thank you for another amazing blogging year together!

The new year is around the corner, and you are going to hear this question so many times in the coming days, but I can't help by asking. As you know, it's easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission, so...
How do you picture the future?

Not only "the" future with a capital F, the one related to the whole world, the planet, global politics, environmental issues, big and sometimes surprising cultural changes happening in real time and more of all this to come, but also your near future and your future in the long run?

Is it something you think about with excitement, fear, curiosity, anticipation or are you totally carefree about the topic and way more worried about what are you going to stream on Netflix next week in order not to get bored already during the first week of the upcoming new year?

[The future is made of light.

Or, like in The Maltese Falcon (1941) by John Huston, 

of the "stuff that dreams are made of".

Pics: Me, November 2017 

at Berlin's street art museum

Urban Nation © Radoslaw Kosiada]

For me, how I see "the" future and my future is strongly related to two poetic quotes by William Somerset Maugham [1874-1965] that would probably surprise you.

"What I want to do before I die?" Candy Chang and John Lennon can help you answer that question

When does one realize that life is getting serious?
That one is becoming an adult, after all?

While getting older, I find myself confronted almost on a daily basis with: friends who are getting married, who are starting a family and having children, who are falling in love, who are buying a house or moving to another city or making a career makeover... 

I am not yet much confronted with death, but it happens sometimes to hear that someone I love just lost a friend, a relative, a loved one.

[Art installation Before I Die by Candy Chang

Image credit: Candy Chang.Com]

In the song "Beautiful Boy" John Lennon says that life is what happens to us while we are busy making other plans. Life is somehow difficult to be planned and we are used to thinking that we have a lot of time. We are used to saying: "One day, I will do this and that". We are used to taking a lot of things for granted.

Mood: Still absolutely in love (with Berlin)

The summer is almost vorbei in Berlin.
Therefore, when you can enjoy a wonderful summer day just like today, you consider yourself to be in heaven.
To be happy doesn't mean to obtain everything you desire, but to desire everything you already have, to be proud of it, to consider yourself lucky because of it. Can a summer day make you happy?

[James Turrell's installation See! Colour!
Sweden, 2011]

In Berlin, for sure.
The light is different. The sky is different. People are different.
You are different.

Different how?

Tags: Being an expat, Living in Berlin, In love with a city, Seasons, Summer

What to read next:

"Why Berlin?" or my very personal answer to THE question about the life as an expat in Berlin

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Purple hair & fashion girls: The gorgeous world of freelance illustrator and photographer Kris Atomic

Kristina Mordokhovitch aka Kris Atomic is a very talented artist and freelance illustrator/wedding photographer based in Brighton.

Her work is lovable, original and quite impressive:

[The girl with the Purple kimono

Image credit: Kris Atomic]

The doll-like girls of her illustration & sketchbook works are absolutely funny, sweet and innocent but cool and somehow naughty at the same time.
If they also have purple hair or purple shoes, or cotton candy hair with a white blouse that Marlene Dietrich would definitely pull off, like the young lady you can see below, what else I am supposed to say?

Google celebrates Austrian/Swedish architect Josef Frank with a colorful Doodle

Google Doodles are almost always very poetic and beautiful and it's a real pleasure to start my 'search engine journey' with something different and unexpected, now and then.

Today Google celebrates Austrian/Swedish architect Josef Frank's 125th birth anniversary [July 15th, 1885] with an explosion of shapes and colors, a Doodle realized by displaying some of the most beautiful creations from Frank.

[Google Doodle for July 15th, 2010
Josef Frank's 125th birth anniversary]

Creative fashion design made in Berlin at The White Market

Do you like creative fashion design made in Berlin?
Then you have to take a look at what's next on The White Market calendar, in Kulturbrauerei in Prenzlauer Berg (Berlin, Germany) from July 17th, 2010 to September 11th, 2010.

Where and when

U-Bahn: U2 Eberswalder Straße
S-Bahn: Ringbahn S42, S47, S8
Tram: 12, 53, 50, 20
From noon to 7 PM

[Amateur Fashion]

Further information:
The White Market

Tags: Berlin, Fashion design, The White Market

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