This Crazy Little Dream
"This Crazy Little Dream" is a story about a black sheep of a family, that turns out to be as colourful as life, a story about emigration / immigration, arts and the American dream.
Crossing borders not only of countries, but also in our head - thinking out of the box - is one of my life themes. I emigrated from Germany to France, living as an paper artist, book author and paper jewellery maker at the beneficially open EU-border between both countries. We have three languages and can enjoy the best of all cultures.
I knew that my family has a long "tradition" of emigrating from Slavic countries, just looking for a better life or escaping political cruelties. Until today I lived with a family lie, that all my relatives in the USA had never been artists, with the exception of one. Our black sheep, I call him Gladstone in my sketchbook. He vanished, he must have been wrecked, never become an artist, warned my mother. She only accepted workers ... and rich people. I loved drawing, painting, writing stories, but artist as a profession was forbidden. Fortunately on a long term my parents were wrong.
Firstly I worked as a journalist, later I became a writer. Short time ago I began to live my dream, creating jewellery from paper and glass art, creating art journals, collage and assemblage art.
Getting a sketchbook from New York made me curious about my family, who emigrated to the USA in 1923. Surprise: There were so many artists! Our black sheep Gladstone is one of the creators and artists of the famous hand-painted billboards on Sunset Strip. Another one worked on the Art-Nouveau doors of Perseverance Hall in Cleveland.
The research felt like a therapy: I suddenly understood my mother. Her father was the only one of several siblings staying in Europe. He had visa for the whole family, invitations, but they never travelled. In my sketchbook I learned what such a separation does to a family and how they had to survive it - the emigrants as well as the remaining ones. Even more important: You have to learn how to find your personal dream and how to live it. With my sketchbook I could close some circles of my life.
The greatest adventure for me was sending it over the sea to the town, where once upon a time my family landed and dreamed this American dream. Is it serendipity, that I am now living close to the town, where Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi was born? He was the creator of the Statue of Liberty.
This is the text that you can read, as soon as my sketchbook will be digitized in the Brooklyn Art Library, New York. You can already read it in the Library under the call number 348.9-7.
Find more articles about my sketchbook here. You can use the Google Translator at the top of this blog.
Deutschsprachig: Einfach ganz oben die Translator-Leiste entsprechend einstellen!
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| Double-pages from my sketchbook "This Crazy Little Dream" |
I knew that my family has a long "tradition" of emigrating from Slavic countries, just looking for a better life or escaping political cruelties. Until today I lived with a family lie, that all my relatives in the USA had never been artists, with the exception of one. Our black sheep, I call him Gladstone in my sketchbook. He vanished, he must have been wrecked, never become an artist, warned my mother. She only accepted workers ... and rich people. I loved drawing, painting, writing stories, but artist as a profession was forbidden. Fortunately on a long term my parents were wrong.
Firstly I worked as a journalist, later I became a writer. Short time ago I began to live my dream, creating jewellery from paper and glass art, creating art journals, collage and assemblage art.
Getting a sketchbook from New York made me curious about my family, who emigrated to the USA in 1923. Surprise: There were so many artists! Our black sheep Gladstone is one of the creators and artists of the famous hand-painted billboards on Sunset Strip. Another one worked on the Art-Nouveau doors of Perseverance Hall in Cleveland.
The research felt like a therapy: I suddenly understood my mother. Her father was the only one of several siblings staying in Europe. He had visa for the whole family, invitations, but they never travelled. In my sketchbook I learned what such a separation does to a family and how they had to survive it - the emigrants as well as the remaining ones. Even more important: You have to learn how to find your personal dream and how to live it. With my sketchbook I could close some circles of my life.
The greatest adventure for me was sending it over the sea to the town, where once upon a time my family landed and dreamed this American dream. Is it serendipity, that I am now living close to the town, where Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi was born? He was the creator of the Statue of Liberty.
This is the text that you can read, as soon as my sketchbook will be digitized in the Brooklyn Art Library, New York. You can already read it in the Library under the call number 348.9-7.
Find more articles about my sketchbook here. You can use the Google Translator at the top of this blog.
Deutschsprachig: Einfach ganz oben die Translator-Leiste entsprechend einstellen!
![About [span]me[/span]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vkj-8i6_vky9_aWITijwhpN5XASX86LcurUbTZSm15bIifoIG-wM2wZkAx7OJEm1GjudoY_69i3Tu4VfWHXT16PvuY7BuizUX08qP4Rntbty4BysEkLTtgPvfTz2TLNY6jV29LvPRgTI5KxfCLkCwg=s0-d)
liebe petra von cronenburg,
AntwortenLöschenich hoffe, ich mache das alles richtig hier - ich kenne mich nicht aus mit all den social media funktionen.
auf ihrem blog habe ich den hinweis auf das sketchbookproject gefunden. was für eine sache! vielen dank fürs (mit)teilen! ich habe so wieder zugang zu meiner eigenen künstlerischen arbeit gefunden; so lange konnt ich nichts tun...
ganz kurz vor einsendeschluss habe ich mein eigenes sketchbook weggeschickt, und bin jetzt sehr gespannt auf die digitalisierte form.
ich würde mir gerne ihr SB ansehen, aber mit der angegebenen nummer funktioniert das nicht - vermutlich aus dem einfachen grund, dass ein SB erst angesehen werden kann, wenn es digitalisiert ist...?
sobald ich nachricht von sketchbouquinistes habe, melde ich mich, ok?
ah, ja, ich bin auch eine über-50-frau, lebe in freiburg.
soviel vorerst.
herzliche grüße und noch einen schönen sonntag nachmittag.
lioba grieshaber
Liebe Lioba Grieshaber,
Löschenja, das ist schon alles richtig, die Kommentare müssen halt von mir erst per Hand freigeschaltet werden, das dauert manchmal etwas. Diesen hatte ich irgendwie übersehen.
Ich freu mich sehr, dass ich nicht nur auf das Sketchbookprojekt Lust machen konnte, sondern auch auf die eigene künstlerische Arbeit - das ist wunderschön!
Und ja, man kann online nur die Sketchbooks ansehen, die zum Digitalisieren vorgesehen wurden von den KünstlerInnen, so wie ich das z.B. gemacht habe. Es wird allerdings dauern, bis die von 2017 alle digitalisiert sind, es sollen über 40.000 Stück eingegangen sein!
Man bekommt dann Bescheid per Mail und ich werde natürlich dann den Link im Blog bekannt geben. In meinem Newsletter erfährt man auch davon (den findet man über meine Website, Links ganz oben im Menu).
Herzliche Grüße aus dem Elsass,
Petra