Berlin- walk a secret way with me

If you are with your family in Berlin and don't want to walk the tourist mile, then I have a secret way for you. 

Along the little river -Die Panke- there is a very nice way and you will be going from west part of the town to east part and have a calm afternoon in nature, thought you are in town. 

The river is actually small and not deep, so no danger for children and dogs, when they jump or fall in. 

You can start your walk on any place in the borough Wedding. Yes, that area is know for not being so chic and being urban and having a lot of none Berliner. But it is not that dangerous as people say. You will for sure see calm and beautiful places and houses and old like new buildings right next to you, even places with just grass and place for water, if the river has to much. 

So, going along the river is also crossing streets and going under the overground, seeing old building with graffiti and some other art. You also can see and hear the airplanes landing, as Tegel is in the background. If you have children who likes planes they will enjoy the way!

 

So let's start with coming from the Underground station  Reinickendorfer Strasse, and we go up and follow the Schulzendorfer Strasse till the Kunkelstrasse which is our start of the way next to the river Panke. 

Not long you will have to go and just before the overground comes and you have to pass under the bridge you will see graffiti and art. 

Then a while later you will find a place we go up, up, up till we have crossed the Badstrasse. Behind that you will see very old buildings and one of the buildings got a new one, because it is the library on the Luisenbad. 

The picture will give you a small impression and then you will also meet the library bus which stops there. A project to help people getting books, people who cannot do a long way or not at all.

So even for Berlin people this is new and kind of a secret way. So be sure it is nice and easy going there. 

Well, let's go on and we cross the Osloer Strasse to have little gardens on the left side on our way...

...and all the way long you will see that the river goes round and round and has sometimes a more natural, sometimes a less natural riverbed. 

Then finally we will reach the -Pinke Panke- the Kinderbauernhof/ Kids farm, with birds and pigs with wool coat. 

And behind that you'll find the Bürgerpark Pankow/ big park from the borough Pankow. There it is time to sit down and eat, drink and enjoy the view and later to see some goats on the way to the underground. 

Hope you'll have fun and a great time as I had and as always I wish you a lot of... 

Love & Light

Jan Bo Vinter Poulsen- an Interview

Hey Folks, here is another interview I made with a great artist, a painter whom I was lucky to meet and talk to. I hope you'll have fun reading it and look at his work! He is very god and a very amazing person.  

Jan Bo, you are a painter and an architect and are coming from Danmark but now you are living in London.
If I remember right since four years and since that time you are also working mostly as a painter. Is that right?

Yes, since 2011 I have been drawing and painting in London. I have slowly been transforming myself into a figurative artist, looking at people and making my emotional responses from what I see and feel - sometimes stories built from glimpses into human behaviour and the way fate brings people together, sometimes purely a transcription like a courthouse drawing. It is portraiture and storytelling for me. I do it from an observational perspective, and whether I'm noticed or unnoticed is often reflected in my work.

If I look at your work, I see a different style of technique and you use different ways of making a picture. You do arcrylic paint, but also oil. I also see that you use pins and so I see a mix of painting and drawing. How come? 

In the search to express my observations, exploring different and challenging materials has been essential. Sometimes the use of mixed media has been a way to show the complexity of the scene and capture different layers.

So, with those different techniques you create art and as I could see on Instagram and Pinterest you seem to go through a lot of stages before the last painting of a t.ex. human is finished. You also show those several steps to people- why?

I often find it very difficult to tell when a drawing or painting is finished. I do like to record the progress and I don't mind sharing my journey. Some earlier stages may tell a different story, and as the story progresses, the painting is changing, the drawing is changing, and the figures are somehow clarifying and dissolving at the same time.

You also show your sketches. You have a sketch book if I am right.

The sketchbook has over the years become a guideline - sort of a chronometer or diary. It is with me at most times, and I try to make notations and records of things I see and feel. I love drawing while I'm out - I have made the whole of London my studio. Whether I'm among strangers or friends and family, it is a dialogue - a language for me. I can step away from the conversation and make myself a spectator, but I feel I'm still in dialogue with them via my painting and making such a record of the whole experience.

Well, from what I saw of the sketch book I would call it art and cannot help but wonder if someone, when the book is finished, wants to buy this collection of sketches, as I have the feeling when going through them it is like reading a wonderful book, would it be possible to buy it?

To part with the book seems difficult right now. I would like to one day perhaps publish an edited version of the sketchbook or should I say several sketchbooks. There are some highlights, lowlights and experiments that I'd like to share. But mostly I see it as a tool for my development, and in the future I will be making more paintings from my sketches.

Is it right you paint every day? That would also mean you must have a lot of great sketch books at the end, is that right?

I paint and draw every day. It is essential for my being as an artist to produce and record. Lucian Freud said ...

I had the luck to watch you sketch people and you seem to have a fast eye and a good sense of catching emotions and feelings. Was it always like that or did this become stronger with time?

I would like to think there is constant progress but unfortunately it is not always like that. They are dead ends for me and sometimes I take one step forward and two steps back. I have developed a stronger certainty of my way of working and don’t get very concerned about the opinions of the people around me while I'm painting and drawing. Sometimes there can be quite an encouragement from bystanders to change things or from people who are not happy with their appearance.  

Next question leads us further to the question what or who inspires you as an artist? 
I read you have been many time to the National Gallery in London and studied t.ex. The Immaculate Conception by Diego Velázquez.  

I look to the old masters and I'm hugely inspired by their techniques, their concessions, and their ability to capture difficult and emotional topics. I draw often from other people's art to make it my own, to take it in, and I don't regard my drawings from them as copies but as individual works of art.

You know, the last question is actually about the fact that you paint mostly humans. Different kind of people, like a Punk Dj, naked women and man and also people in a Pub. You seem to like them, but the style is very different in which you paint them. Some portraits reminds us of pictures from Albrecht Dürer and Francisco Goya, because of the dark background. Others more of Van Gogh and other paintings of the way you did paint in 1910 till '40, as you use a lot of colours in them. 
You have mostly a more raw style, but when you paint naked people or others then your way of painting is more soft. Has this a reason or does it just happen to match what you see?

I love people and their diversity. I see people kind of like components in an electrical device in the way that they interact, working together and making life.

I saw you once or twice put out on Pinterest a series of variation of the same man you painted- like we could follow the process but as I saw all those five or seven versions I wonder if you can buy those as a series as you showed on the internet? I talk about the " Getting the man out of the canvas" series t.ex..

Those images are purely process and a way for me to guide me in the paint process. Posting wile the work is unfinished have given me feedback and further inspiration and I think this is one of the things I have learned from using Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter and Pinterest.

Looking on your pictures, paintings and sketches they seem all like old/ classic but new/modern in the same time, thought you just have started your work as an artist. 
But you started as an architect. Seems the connection to people is also very strong there as I saw your work in the Danish Design Centre at the exhibition "Honey I'm home". There you ask in your work- 2007: "Can a person live in a sandwich?"
Yes, how come an architect goes into painting?
How come that many architects have a near bond to art?

For me, it is all really linked. There are in theory no limits, it is very fluid, and while what I'm doing at the moment is not architecture, I could not have created it without my background.
Last question now.
Where can people see your work now or in the future? Is there any exhibition in planing?
I'm working on getting my first London show and finding a gallery to represent me in the future.

Now I will thank you for giving me the chance to ask you all those questions. For the readers will now follow the links to the sides on Pinterest and Instagram... and of course some of your paintings and work in process to see. Thank you.
https://instagram.com/jbvp8000https://www.tumblr.com/search/Dexx8000

Her are some of his works:

all pictures are made and owned by Jan Bo Vinter Poulsen!

LOVE & LIGHT

What's wrong with the US police?!

A question many nowadays ask them self. 

What is wrong? 

Thousand of people have died in the last ten years through police, but only 54 trials have been the results. And after all only 11 policeman have been condemned guilty. 

Most of the gunman are white and the majority of victims is black.

The Washington Post has written about this the other day. 

You can easy say that the USA has a crisis but seems the politic is still trying to put it under the table.

Away from the question of how we deal with this truth, we have to ask the people in the USA how come you went so far and deep down?!

Actually it is not a very new movement. Since years we can see how a policeman is a good man and even if it is clear he was not, he is more or lesson save and can get away with next to everything. 

The police who should be your friend has got an understanding of being the man for law and order in a way like being the army. It also seems to be a common sense that it is a must to be cruel and without exception to keep the respect from people and make criminals fear. Thought those getting thougher and harder only lead to less respect and less fear and more hate. It also lead people to believe they need more guns to feel save as the police makes people feel that living is such a dangerous thing. 

But the police is going many times to far. It seems they see every human as a potential threat. Where is the trust in human kind? Where is the learning of trying to avoid escalation? As we saw many times now, the police is doing everything to make things worse instead of making it calm down which should be their most and important goal. Then with all the numbers about black people being victims and most times also those victims getting much more hurt, there is the question of what do they teach the people who work for the policy? This is not a neutral habit they show but should as the police is to save in first line and not to hunt. The right wing politics also make it worse every year with its hate and also the orthodox religious by keeping the guns in the house of everyone instead of teaching people to see and hear to each other. 

You can't deny the feeling that it is all about power and money and far to many right wing and fascists are working in the police corps. 

It is since a very long time no longer just an exception of one or two persons, it is the corps who does not work as it should be the case. 

Sadly they mostly went free in the past and always do they find the wrong habits on the victims. Yes, the victims are made more victim as they are. The government seems not to care about the people only about the money and the power and to darken all truth.

Having sad this, we can now wonder how to get out all those hundreds of black sheep?

They shoot, far to early and far to often. They don't reanimate and don't try first to deescalate and they see in everyone a threat. 

Yes, how to change this?

One thing will be (if you like it or not) that all policeman must have a camera as part of their cloths. The next is, to build a team who will only follow up old and new "problems" and if they found a reason to say someone has to get into court, then it has to be made and then they must be the result of true trials in which the policeman who have not done right gets their threat. Far to many went free in the past, far to many without any charge. This leads of course only to the thinking - I am holy/ I am more worth/ I can do whatever I want to and if I hate I can live it out-.

And then the judges have to stop to see the police man as always "the god man". They have to take them as a human, like they do with all the others or like they claim. Sadly many judges in the USA are not neutral and many are right wing partners, which is also a reason why colored people get harder threats then white one.

This is a shame for the USA as the country claims to be better then the rest of the world. But then many countries already have learned that this is not the case. 

How far the thinking of being better is can we hear when the NSA wants to be in every household in the world and also have the right to "fight" the enemy in other countries, even when it is a - He could be/ is maybe an enemy and the evidence therefore is low. Even then! 

Imagine that and you'll understand where the problem lies and how deep. 

True- I don't have all the answers but it is the job for all the people in the USA to find a way before it gets even worse. How long will they wait, we wonder outside the USA? You killed old people, children, black and some white. You killed a lot of your own and still you say it is no problem you have?! What reality will you build up with that? What future is in mind, when weapons are the only way of fight? 

I wish you a lot of Love & Light to find something better.

To show or not to show- the pictures of pain and cruelty?

A question which will be discussed in the papers and other media from time to time without a real result  or the fact that something changed. 

We all want information from all media. We all have the thirst to see as much as possible but then we avoid some pictures and others we have no problem to see. We show some of pain and cruel things and others we pixel and if we do not, then we there is a big discussion and hunt against those who showed them. 

Of course the photographer wants to show his pics, the documentation of a crash, a burned human, a burning house, the result of war and so on. Of course it is war porn if you say so and yes we risk to get used to them like we got use to all the porn pictures. 

But then, it is their job to make them. 

The thing is that even the papers say many times thank you, but thank you -not! 

It seems a common rule that it is o.k. to show people and dead parts of a body, if the human had a flying crash, a car crash or has been a victim of a natural disaster. But if it is about people getting killed, if it is about people getting stoned, if it is about people being victim of a war then we say we don't want to see the pics, thought we know the cruelty exist. We have easy suddenly then to explain why we should not show them and that we give power to the demons if we show them but is that the true why we avoid them?

I think not.

Is it not the fear that we see something going on in our lifetime, Is it not that we feel helpless because we know we could have done it better. Is it not the fear that we won't find a way to stop this kind of cruelty? Is it not the fact, that people who fell for a crash are far away from us and we know we can't and don't have to do anything?! It is kind of not our responsibility. 

So should we better do it the other way round?! Not showing those victims of a crash, a natural catastrophe, but showing the victims of a bomb, a war, the bloody face  of a reality we should find a way to change?! Because if we see in the eyes of those people we take this reality for real and the fact that we stand for this world. We have done this! We must find a way because here we can and should, and yes feeling helpless is a start as it is the reason to react. Yes, those pictures hurt as hell and give us a bad feeling, making us feeling ill and angry. Yes, that is our reality. What can we do? That is the question we have to look at.

What do you think?!

Tell me!

Here or on Twitter under: @SebastianisLove

Love & Light

What not to forget about easter!

Easter has gone and most have had fun. 
But what is easter about- we can read it in our newspapers. But what do they forget about?
It's not the bunny, not where the egg comes from. It's not the lamp and eating it or not. It's not the question if you are going to church or not, nor is it the question about Jesus and how he went out of his grave. It is not even the question, is the cross a sign for pain or proud and how do we see it in our life. It is not the question when the church took away that cruel way of treating a human (it was 300 years after Jesus had the "luck" to hang there).

It is no question that easter is the most important celebration day for christ as it is about the true sign of being Jesus someone special, thought the Bible gives you three different stories, who Jesus is and that's why people once in Rome decided to mad up the holy trinity to put all stories in one. 
Science has shown that the human we call today Jesus must have lived once and sure was some kind of healer and did wander around. So part of the whole story is true or like we say it in Hollywood- after a true story. 
So this is also not about the fact that the Bible can only be read as a miracle book and not taken word by word. 
So what is missing in all we read? 
The women! Yes, the women who have been with Jesus. It was the women who saw him first, his spirit and who went to his grave and saw him not being in there. It was the women who stood by him when he was on the cross while all the man have run away. And there is one special women who is actually also the only one person who has been with him all his live. Maria Magdalena! There both spoke the same language, as they both came from the same place. And she was after all we know about the women around him the only one being able to stand on her own feet. She must have come from a richer house as otherwise it would not be that easy as a women to decide by herself. 
What we can find about her is a strong person and the only follower of a life time. A women who made career and then have been dumped down by the church and the rest of the women as in Jesus days women had more rights and stood on same level with man. The change came in Rome when man decided to put together all the stories in one book called "The Bible" and also to decide which parts come in and which stay out. It was this time man understood that their power will only be bigger when they change the image of women. Since that time women became a week part and even Maria and the other women have been written out of the truth and so a man was the one who discovered the spirit of Jesus. 
But without that strong women there would be no church! So why are women not fighting back and say what is right, that they have the same rights! Why let women still make them self believe there are the week link? Cos they're not, not even physically. 
You know I worked in psychiatry and there we had small women being in big rage and we needed over ten man to calm her down to get her in control. 
So a small person can beat a big man if she just believes in that or is in rage. 

So let's start celebrating easter and the women who made it possible and let this be a reminder that the institution of church is a product made of lies. 
Remember that it is time to give women the same rights! They are not week. They are capable of the same. 
Believe in God and Jesus if you want but don't trust the Institution- no religions institution. 

Love & Light

Why such a hate against Gays?

Is a question many of us ask and in this case I don't mean just the hate against gays, also lesbians, transgender and so on.

Queer people face hate again and again in so many parts of the world and on so many levels.

Why is that?

This is just to collect some of them and if you know more or have your own opinion so write me or comment! Or write under @SebastianisLove on Twitter.

O.k. Let's see where this hate comes from.

Mostly it is sure it is learned. Since childhood or when someone got a bad experience in life and don't want to take the fact of his own fault. 

Religious is sure the biggest reason, thought many just heard from some extreme thinking human that hate was the answer but truly have never read the books. Hate is not such a part, but interpretations makes it happen. To deny the truth to become a hateful people is the common way. The truth of Love and listen to your heart. 

But could it be also the denying that heterosexual don't want to talk about their own ways of thinking and acting about love and relationships? We have dating portals. We have naked date shows on TV. We have people marry each other with the first meeting just for a TV show. We have the man with his 5 women and he is celebrating polygamy and calls himself a true christ- how can he? We match people with question and other methods on TV shows. We have the bachelor where women fight for one rich man- giving up all their credibility. We have more divorces then ever and still man and women beating them self up in their marriage, some many years and in such bloody ways that you just wonder. And we have all those married people without children- but some of them deny children for others. Oh yes then - We have all those big, dirty Sex scandals and the politic but foremost the church is most part of it. In some areas we do not respect the women and kill them because they have been raped and are fighting back- how can they tell to be true believer or act in the name of a god?!

So a lot of reason to look away and instead take the gays and hate them, thought it is lying to them self. 

How can you hate someone who loves? 

Is it the fact that open gays don't play the holy game? That gays seem to take what they want and like. That they are more true to what they need. That they mostly live in open relationship because they take the truth of human sexuality for real. 

Can it be that Sex and forbidding it makes people more aware of the fact that they are humans?! Yes, animals a like we do have the needs and then above that we can enjoy it. 

Forbidding because religious says so, makes people just building their own prison cell. How can you not then hate all who is walking free outside that cell?! 

Exactly.

So one way to lose hate is to open your heart and mind and then your soul to sexuality. That does not mean you have to fuck around like a dervish, but can enjoy it without fear, because without it you would never fear another humans sexuality. Be comfort with yourself and tell your religious preacher to shut up telling you to stay uncomfy and unhappy just to be a fellow sheep. 

Well, folks tell me your thoughts...!

Love & Light