Asparagus and Strawberries

It is asparagus and strawberry season in Germany. Spargel is the german name for asparagus and most of it are colored white as it is grown covered in soil in order to prevent photosynthesis. This process prevents the asparagus from turning green and results in a sweeter and more tender taste.

It's perfect when its served with slices of ham and hollandaise sauce.

The german strawberry season had also started. Dirk like very much strawberries picked by neighbors and other locals here in our place. These seasonal foods/fruits are selling like hotcakes in the supermarkets and stalls.

Cool mom in front of the supermarket

Asparagus and Strawberries

It is asparagus and strawberry season in Germany. Spargel is the german name for asparagus and most of it are colored white as it is grown covered in soil in order to prevent photosynthesis. This process prevents the asparagus from turning green and results in a sweeter and more tender taste.

It's perfect when its served with slices of ham and hollandaise sauce.

The german strawberry season had also started. Dirk like very much strawberries picked by neighbors and other locals here in our place. These seasonal foods/fruits are selling like hotcakes in the supermarkets and stalls.

Cool mom in front of the supermarket

"Bubele, you are not making bombs here-it is just art"

16 x 16 encaustic Lpressman

Still on the subject of influences, I was thinking about artists that I know or have known personally who have the ability to help my work grow and change. One teacher comes to mind quite often and I repeat his advice to my students every time I teach and occasionally to myself when I am fussing around on my work.
Jake Grossberg, sculptor, was trying to show me something with Plaster of Paris and I was very hesitant and timid. He looked at me and in his Jewish grandfather way said

"Bubele, you are not making bombs here-it is just art"

Later after I had graduated he was encouraging me to go around NY with my work and I told him I wasn't ready.

His words were "Do you think you will ever think you are ready? He suggested that I think of promoting my work like I was selling salami's. Some people like salami, some don't."

He taught me to separate my work from myself and get into a different mind set when promoting......invaluable advice. Thanks, Jake

Schnitzel and Pommes

Everytime we go to any german restaurant, i always order the same food, fried sliced pork and french fries. Sometimes vegetable salad is included as an appetizer.Take a look at my order below, its really a big portion that you can only eat one slice.


There are some restaurants that allow you to order kids menu and that includes small schnitzel and french fries. With our small built, i think that portion is enough for us, same thing with t-shirts that we can buy in the kids section.

The other schnitzel menu at Gugglhupf restaurant

Schnitzel and Pommes

Everytime we go to any german restaurant, i always order the same food, fried sliced pork and french fries. Sometimes vegetable salad is included as an appetizer.Take a look at my order below, its really a big portion that you can only eat one slice.


There are some restaurants that allow you to order kids menu and that includes small schnitzel and french fries. With our small built, i think that portion is enough for us, same thing with t-shirts that we can buy in the kids section.

The other schnitzel menu at Gugglhupf restaurant

Notes from a Critical Feedback Workshop

14 x 11 encaustic L Pressman

Last year at the Second National Encaustic Painting Conference I was selected to participate with 9 other artists in a Critical Feedback Workshop given by Kay Walkingstick.It was a full day of looking at our work and discussing it as a group and privately with Kay.

Here is a compiled list of questions and comments that Kay made that day: All worth asking, thinking, discussing,and arguing about..............

1. Do you spend at least a couple of hours in the studio every day?
2. What is your goal for your art career? (Have your work shown in a
museum, pay your bills and feed your family or somewhere in between —
it’s all valid)
3. What are you looking for when you go to look at art? Does your work
fulfill that need?
4. Who is your favorite artist and what do you expect their art to do
for you?
5. What subject do you want to investigate?
6. How to do conceptualize your work? How do you begin (through color,
image, idea)?
7. How are your pieces related to one another, if at all?
8. What symbolism are you trying to convey?
9. Who is your audience? What do you want your audience to see?
10.What does surface signify? Does it carry meaning?
11.Do you fully understand and know what you are doing?

Draw every day, natural things that interest you.
Collect stimulus, draw them. Focus, find out as much as you can.
Stimulate yourself. Journal what you love, what you hate, what's in your
head, what's important. Journaling organizes your thoughts; allows you
to see things in concrete way that otherwise you might not see.

Focus on what you think you need to find in your art.

Art can be close to the bone, but we are not our work. Try not to
identify your core ego with your art.

On Preciousness: Get rid of your little darlings......
"Destroy your duds"...said by someone else.

Real success is making art all your life.

Don't be afraid of expressing what you really mean in your art, what
you really feel. Say it visually, as strongly as you can. Push as far a
reach as you can, then go all the way!

Avoid methodology. If what you're doing is about technique, that's not art.

I expect of abstraction as much as what imagery does for me...to carry meaning.

Art has to be incredibly layered. Symbols, signifiers...layers that
relate. Combine signifiers with more abstract notions. Push! Vary lines.

"Ya wanna be an artist? Make art!"

Tell the viewer something that they need to know.


It is important to know:

1) You are OK just the way you are. You need a strong stomach, a tough
hide, and to be able to take rejection well.

2) Do your homework. Check out galleries. Don't just walk in with your
work. Be as professional as you can.

3)....there is a gallery for everybody."

"Be of good cheer, miracles do happen."

Kay Walkingstick


14 x 11 encaustic 2009 L Pressman

Meet our Engineers

These are the young but promising engineers of Bestman Builders who are responsible in building our retirement house at southforbes golf city. The two are graduates of Mapua Institute of Technology (MIT) and the other one is from Adamson University. MIT used to be the best engineering school in the country. Since they started with the quarterm, the increase in tuition fees and the changing of school name, the quality of teaching suffers.

Meet our Engineers

These are the young but promising engineers of Bestman Builders who are responsible in building our retirement house at southforbes golf city. The two are graduates of Mapua Institute of Technology (MIT) and the other one is from Adamson University. MIT used to be the best engineering school in the country. Since they started with the quarterm, the increase in tuition fees and the changing of school name, the quality of teaching suffers.

Caring for the Oldies

Filipino culture do not really look well on children "abandoning" their parents to any homes for the aged. We are reared to respect our parents and that means taking care of them when they grow old. Filipino families are close knit and taking care of our elders is a responsibility.

Here in Germany, the older generation are looking at new models of living for their retirement years. They want security, social contact and comfort. To live in a nursing home for older people is always a family decision. Some children don't have time to care for their elders because of work and own family.

In a nursing home, there are rules to follow, strict schedules and everything is planned as if you're trapped. It's also expensive and rooms depends on the pocket power. Some who cannot afford the nursing home resort to alternative care from relatives and the mobile caregivers.

Caring for the Oldies

Filipino culture do not really look well on children "abandoning" their parents to any homes for the aged. We are reared to respect our parents and that means taking care of them when they grow old. Filipino families are close knit and taking care of our elders is a responsibility.

Here in Germany, the older generation are looking at new models of living for their retirement years. They want security, social contact and comfort. To live in a nursing home for older people is always a family decision. Some children don't have time to care for their elders because of work and own family.

In a nursing home, there are rules to follow, strict schedules and everything is planned as if you're trapped. It's also expensive and rooms depends on the pocket power. Some who cannot afford the nursing home resort to alternative care from relatives and the mobile caregivers.

The Stone Bread

For the first time in his life, dirk baked a bread. It's a dark wheat bread and he said its tastes good. For me, its more of a stone than a bread beause of the dark color and its really hard.

Actually he's just testing the ready mix wheat bread if it tastes good. Mutti is going to be with us in December and she only eats dark bread and we're going to buy a bread baking machine soon.

The Stone Bread

For the first time in his life, dirk baked a bread. It's a dark wheat bread and he said its tastes good. For me, its more of a stone than a bread beause of the dark color and its really hard.

Actually he's just testing the ready mix wheat bread if it tastes good. Mutti is going to be with us in December and she only eats dark bread and we're going to buy a bread baking machine soon.

What artists have influenced you ? Nancy Tobin

Nancy Tobin is an artist living and working in Maplewood, NJ. She was recently in a show at the Parlor Gallery in Asbury Park, NJ and exhibits with Rupert Ravens Contemporary. She has a great new gig as a writer for the New York Times Local Blog interviewing artists in the Maplewood area.

Bionic Fizz mixed media on panel 30 x 30 Nancy Tobin


Here is what Nancy says about her work:
My work deals with the power of memory.

The human mind holds millions of snippets of visual memory. From the moment they are stored, memories become fiction; remembered, they become narrative. My art draws the viewer through that process.

Organic forms (drawn out with scissors, paint, ink and pencil) are suspended in an atmosphere comprising layer upon layer of medium; the eye literally plumbs the painting’s depths in pursuit of meaning.

My work spans cultures and media to include organic forms from nature, Asian art and textiles, cartoons, and decorative elements from around the world.

Drawing is the genesis of my creative process; drawn forms imbue the work with organic unpredictably. It’s the most magical part of my paintings, representing a loss of control and an invitation to the viewer to follow.

Representation is as powerful as it is futile.







1. Walt Disney- Love him or hate him, it's hard to deny his influence on our culture today. Saturday matinees at the local theater in Grand Rapids allowed me my first glimpses into the world of art. While the action was playing out in the foreground, I would find myself entranced by the captivating world created by the studio's background artists.
2. Hayao Miyazaki- Also inspired by Disney, Hayao Miyazaki weaves tapestries of make-believe where humans roam with fantastical creatures in glorious landscapes — with just enough creepy darkness to keep your teeth from rotting.
3. Islamic Miniatures- I'm amazed at the intricacy put into these tiny jewels. Oh, and WOW — the colors!
4. Richard Diebenkorn- I pored over his work when I was learning to paint in San Francisco. His color, his layering, his strokes seem effortless. Looking at his work makes me homesick for the Bay area.
5. Ernst Haeckel- His Art Forms of Nature is my Bible.
6. Paul Cezanne- I taught myself painting by copying his.
7. Andy Goldsworthy- His work is like a conversation with the Earth.
8. Chuck Close- His life-long commitment to the portrait provides continuity as he reinvents and challenges himself all along the way.




9. Mark Rothko- For his exploration into the dark — a place I'm happy just to skirt the edges.
10. The Universe- Maybe a cliché, but one of my biggest inspirations is what I see when I look out my window.

The Second Hand Shop

While browsing around the city today looking for the new office of our friend michael, we came accross this second hand shop selling used clothes, accessories, decors, furnitures and other housewares. They're even selling a very old sewing machine way back from the 60's.

It seems that i'm collecting different scratcher, i found this at one euro shop and i also have two others from baguio and vietnam. My new find had double purpose, a scratcher and a shoehorn

The Second Hand Shop

While browsing around the city today looking for the new office of our friend michael, we came accross this second hand shop selling used clothes, accessories, decors, furnitures and other housewares. They're even selling a very old sewing machine way back from the 60's.

It seems that i'm collecting different scratcher, i found this at one euro shop and i also have two others from baguio and vietnam. My new find had double purpose, a scratcher and a shoehorn

The Strange Weather

Yesterday, i have some bouts of headache because of the hot weather. When the weather is like this, ice cream and coffee shops are full of people enjoying the sunny weather. There are also lot of shoppers because its the start of the spring vacation for students. On my part, i just bought some toiletries, fresh asparagus and kopfsalat.

While browsing around the city, i saw this black dog who dont want to get out of this stone figure with water inside. Its probably his way to fight the hot and humid weather. If its sunny yesterday, its raining the whole day today, strange isn't it??

The Strange Weather

Yesterday, i have some bouts of headache because of the hot weather. When the weather is like this, ice cream and coffee shops are full of people enjoying the sunny weather. There are also lot of shoppers because its the start of the spring vacation for students. On my part, i just bought some toiletries, fresh asparagus and kopfsalat.

While browsing around the city, i saw this black dog who dont want to get out of this stone figure with water inside. Its probably his way to fight the hot and humid weather. If its sunny yesterday, its raining the whole day today, strange isn't it??

Something New From the Studio

12 x12 encaustic L Pressman


10 x 10 encaustic, oil L Pressman


18 x18 e ncaustic,oil L Pressman


18 x 18 encaustic ,oil L Pressman

BauHaus

Bauhaus is just like wilcon depot or any home depot in the Philippines selling construction materials and house/office/garden needs. Our heating system is somehow kaputt so we did go there to buy the needed parts. Unfortunately, its not available there so we did drive to Obi and consulted their technician.

While dirk is explaining what is kaputt in our heizung system, i found this toilet bowl cover with clock, interesting isn't it??

BauHaus

Bauhaus is just like wilcon depot or any home depot in the Philippines selling construction materials and house/office/garden needs. Our heating system is somehow kaputt so we did go there to buy the needed parts. Unfortunately, its not available there so we did drive to Obi and consulted their technician.

While dirk is explaining what is kaputt in our heizung system, i found this toilet bowl cover with clock, interesting isn't it??

Dinner at Kaiser's Palace

Last friday, we did drive to Ortenberg to try the other chinese restaurant there. They have dinner buffet and the price is really reasonable. The dinner was a treat from the Deicholbohrer family.


The foods also taste good and there are lots of chinese dishes to choose from. They also have sushi, salad buffet and different flavor of ice cream and chinese dessert.


They also have some surprise for birthday celebrants

Dinner at Kaiser's Palace

Last friday, we did drive to Ortenberg to try the other chinese restaurant there. They have dinner buffet and the price is really reasonable. The dinner was a treat from the Deicholbohrer family.


The foods also taste good and there are lots of chinese dishes to choose from. They also have sushi, salad buffet and different flavor of ice cream and chinese dessert.


They also have some surprise for birthday celebrants