Clay scultpure class at Gardiner Museum of Ceramics

Untitled

Tertiary Care

The Abstraction Method of Problem Solving

Just when I feel drawn to abstraction I came across a construal level theory (CTL), an interesting study by psychologists Yaacov Trope and Nira Liberman.

"People are capable of thinking about the future, the past, remote locations, another person’s perspective, and counterfactual alternatives. Without denying the uniqueness of each process, it is proposed that they constitute different forms of traversing psychological distance. Psychological distance is egocentric: Its reference point is the self in the here and now, and the different ways in which an object might be removed from that point—in time, in space, in social distance, and in hypotheticality—constitute different distance dimensions. Transcending the self in the here and now entails mental construal, and the farther removed an object is from direct experience, the higher (more abstract) the level of construal of that object. Supporting this analysis, research shows (a) that the various distances are cognitively related to each other, (b) that they similarly influence and are influenced by level of mental construal, and (c) that they similarly affect prediction, preference, and action..."


The theory has important implications for creativity. Must read!
http://psych.nyu.edu/tropelab/publications/TropeLiberman2010.pdf

Insomnia (#1)

Things Unsaid

White Fish

This collage was inspired by my friend's passion :-)

Collages

When I don't have much time, but need to switch to something creative at least for half an hour, I do collages. They free your mind and do not require a lot of preparation. You can just use whatever you have handy.

 The last collage was inspired by Eddie Herder. I love her work!
You can view some of her collages here

Henri Matisse

When working on collages the image of Matisse with scissors kept coming up in my mind. There is a great documentary on YouTube about him here.

Even more collages

More collages

First collages

Female figure studies

Gottfried Bammes suggests to do studies using charcoal powder and ...your finger. It's actually a great way to do quick sketches. Never heard of this method before, but I liked it.

Playing with ice

Sketch on white board

Chalk on black paper

Pistachio men

Male proportions

Exercise on proportions from Bammes book.

Gottfied Bammes book

For quite some time I had a PDF version of this book in German. Had a few failed attempts to translate it. Now it has finally got translated. Bought it on Amazon for less than $40. I think it's a great deal. Tons of material!

Fun in the kitchen

Drawing with juice.