Models and patterns – help or hinder?

In the last years I came across many models and patterns that help you to get to know yourself better. One of the most popular ones is obviously astrology. According to astrology, your character is formed at your birth and depending on the relation of moon and stars to earth. The easy version relates on 12 constellations as basis for your horoscope. Most newspapers include a daily horoscope. Ayurveda is an ancient Indian way to cure people by first divide […]

Freedom and fear

Why is it so hard to know yourself? That’s the question I’ve asked myself several times in the last week. I discovered, that in the last couple of months, since the surgery last summer, the most simple things could scare me. And now it’s almost gone, I suddenly see the difference with the last few months. This reduction of fear gives an enormous sense of freedom. I can be myself again without being afraid of what others might think. I […]

“99% is shit” 2

“99% is shit”, that’s what a colleague booking agent said years ago about all the cd’s, lp’s and cassettes (yes, that long ago!) he received from musicians. I don’t remember who it was, and I don’t think that I would tell you if I would remember 😉 It sounds harsh and I don’t really agree. But than, most of the material I receive comes from foreign colleagues, it has already been filtered. I certainly don’t want to offend you as […]

D.I.Y. and asking for help

Last week I did a speech for the program Mentoring & Sparring. The subject was Mentoring, what it is and when/why you would need it. Years ago I would have thought that I don’t need it, I can sort out everything myself. I love to do things myself, it gives me a great feeling of independence, especially when I head to new directions. During my life I often choose new direction. I grew up on a small farm in Germany. […]

Authority

How more success you have, how more people will look up to you. Isn’t that what we all want, secretly, somehow? That people look up to us? They will certainly take us seriously, finally. As most artists, you probably have had periods too that you wanted to belong to the group (at school, in the neighborhood, at work) but didn’t fit in. These are very lonely times. Often you provoke authority in that periods too, you don’t want to adapt […]

Timeless

Time is a funny thing. The old Greek already made the difference between clock-time (chronos) and experienced time (kairos). Those two don’t always fit together. We all know the clock time. Often our life is ruled by it. Last weekend the daylight-saving-time (summertime) ended, we put the clock one hour back. It’s a simple action, but the effect on the experienced time takes a bit longer. It’s a bit like a jet-lag. For a jet-lag they say, that you need […]

Abundance 3

This is a new word I’ve learned, abundance. It’s for plenty, opulence, exuberance. Julia Cameron writes a whole chapter about it in her book “The Artist’s Way”. And in the last week I stumbled over the word and the theme various times, so I guess it’s time to write about it. Let’s start with a common belief upon artists that represents the opposite of abundance. Many (wanna-be) artists think that they have to be careful with their art and creativity […]

Blocked …

I know, I’m very quiet in the last couple of weeks. It feels like I’m blocked, while I have so many idea’s for this blog in my head, some even almost fully worked out. Still, I don’t find the time to write. Suddenly everything seems to be more important than this blog. Many artists will recognize this, full of ideas but not able to make new art. And sometimes the block is getting bigger when the ideas are getting bigger […]

Getting personal

Since my surgery end of July I still have problems with my concentration, and somehow this affects my blog posts too. I’m writing more theoretical, on a distance. As if I don’t dare yet to get personal. This is probably because I still feeling insecure, not my ‘normal’ self yet. Shortly after the surgery my creativity was totally lost. I couldn’t make up what to cook with the veggies in the fridge, everything that asked for a bit more than […]

D.I.Y. mentality

The hippie- and punk-movement brought us the concept of D.I.Y., Do It Yourself. We don’t have to depend on others to do stuff for us, we can do it ourselves. The hippies started communes on the countryside, groups of adults and children who tried to live self-sufficient, grow their own veggies and (re-)build their own homes. Punk brought this into the center of American and European cities. They applied the D.I.Y. concept to arts and music too. When The Beatles […]

Happy?

Everyone wants to be happy, right? It’s so important, that they even put it in the constitution of the United States, just as the freedom to speak. Too often I register with  myself, that I have some very romantic images of happiness. These images often prevent me to really enjoy the moment, for I compare the moment with the images, and often the images are better than the moment. The same is true for success and fame. Most of us […]

Body and mind 1

Everyone knows by now that body and mind are linked, and that there is a connection between a healthy body and a healthy mind. Until summer my body was very fit and I was very productive and creative in my work, it was amazing! After serious surgery end of July the connection between body and mind has become a much deeper meaning to me. While my body was recovering really good and quick, my mind is still a bit infantile. […]

Freedom

Oh yes, we all admire the pop-stars of the world for their freedom. They don’t have to adjust to the routines of normal people, we think, they can do whatever they want whenever they wan it. But is this really true? Rihanna tweeted a photo from herself in a train from London to Paris, and the departure time was on the photo. When arriving in Paris, she was welcomed by so many fans, that security and bodyguards had problems with […]

Holiday, routine and being on tour

I used to hate routine. It’s like obligations, things I have to do, and it feels boring. Holiday is a great way to evaluate all of your routines. Traveling is putting yourself in a new environment, to look at your daily life from a distance. During the last couple of years I’ve learned to love routines, and to evaluate them on a regular basis. This leads to a positive confirmation of brushing my teeth twice a day and taking a […]

Waiting … 2

Waiting – don’t you hate it too? Waiting means that you are depending on others, that you have to wait for them to do something, or for the situation to change. Artists have to wait all the time, especially musicians on tour. It seems like most part of your day is waiting. You wait for your band mates to be ready to leave to the show, get in a traffic jam, wait for the sound engineers to be ready for […]