Hanna Nitsch

I saw an ink drawing of Hanna Nitsch in a small gallery in Frankfurt. Her slightly creepy pale water color-like portraits of children are somehow dream-like and a little bit unsettling. They speak to me of the fine line between sweet, innocence and bizarr strangeness that makes childhood so interesting and fragile. She apparently paints mostly her own kids. Some of these ink drawings are really big too: 6 x 5 feet tall! So you can imagine their impact.

Some things in my house

On my sideboard are some of the gifts I received for my birthday displayed. The doll dates from approx. 1909 and is called "The dollar princess" because she cost one dollar in those days.


I decorated my bed room wall with a trio of vintage embroidered piano shawls.

I dressed the mannequin in my bed room in a silk nightgown.

Inspired by my Asian trip

It's hard being away from my studio for such a long time. I was suffering from art withdrawal. So I assembled some materials and made these collages and note cards.

My dad

I took this portrait of my dad in Langkawi as a memory for me of the important time we spent together. I love the Panama hat he is wearing. It is such a classic. I also like the birds on his shirt.

Penang

The kitchen in the historical Sun Yat House


The main room in the Sun Yat house. Here you can see the big windowless skylight that all Chinese shop house have in the middle room. On rainy days it rains right into your house.


Ricksaws drive through the Heritage District


Entrance to the stately Kongsi House


Vintage Chinese Shop Houses


We visited Penang,which is my favorite place in Malaysia, because of it's heritage district in the heart of the city. There you still find the old chinese shop houses and rickshaw. Buildings left over from another time, that has been erased throughout Asia. Two reasons for that: modern Asia is either communist or it's the colonial times these buildings stem from and nobody wants to be reminded of. Only recently have they realized the historical value of these buildings. And the Penang heritage district has been declared a world heritage site by UNESCO.

I enjoyed the culture there tremendously, stolling around and looking at old houses and their beautiful interiors: faded and washed out periwinkle blue walls, bird cages and woven baskets hanging from the ceiling, old chinese wooden sideboards that were once painted with gold and red ornaments, crackle glazed celadon earthenware dishes and white and blue patterned Chinese tiles on the floor...

Malaysian Fashion

Headscarves for sale!


Malaysian women's fashion is a mirror of the country's multicultural ethnic and religious make up. Most Malays are muslims and their degree of devoutness shows in their dress code. You can see the whole gamut of fully covered women to the more modern version of jeans and head scarfes. The Chinese on the other hand are very modern and enjoy showing some skin. That results sometimes in the intriguing image of a Chinese woman in super tight and short hot pants (a lot of women wear hot pants - they seem to love them) and tank top standing in line at the bus stop next to Malayan Muslim Lady, who is fully covered and wearing a headscarve. The difference couldn't be bolder. I have seen this many times. Unfortunately never had my camera with me to capture this anachronism.There are also Indian women who will dress very modern in Jeans and t-shirt or sport Saris or other traditional Indian dress. I found the juxtaposition of traditional and modern dress in everyday life in Malaysian very intriguing.

A woman completely covered and in black is mostly from Saudi Arabia. This is the typical strict Saudi Muslim dress code. The Malayan Muslims are more colorful. As seen here in this next photo. They wear a long nigth shirt-like dress, called a baju kurung, that is usually boldly patterned over a very long skirt. Often their headscarves can be also patterend or at least colorful.
This is the traditional Malayan dress: a long fitted jacket, called kebaya over a sarong. This combination is also worn in Indonisia. Muslim women will add a head scarf.
The modern and more liberal version of Muslim dress code, can be seen here on this stylish women in jeans, heels with her chic handbag and shades. A lot of women will also wear jeans and snug t-shirt and a black headscarf.
Ladies of Indian decent are often seen dressed very modern, but with a red dot on their forehead. But many are also still sporting traditional dress, like these in the photo.


It seems that Chinese women's appearance is the most western. They also show the most skin, often wearing short skirts and hot pants. I photographed one that looked rather decent, compared to some hotties I saw.