OF POPPIES AND PIGEONS

I think, it’s time to explain a little ,-or at least try and explain where my passion for the latter comes from…! I’ve loved poppies as long as i can think, though i guess, as i grow older i attach more meaning to them. Firstly, there is the color-RED- my favorite color. Though, the fact that such a fragile flower has such a vibrant color even if the petals are almost translucent, always made it more special to me then-lets say..a rose.

my actual arm

Then there is the fact, that once you cut a poppy and try to keep it alive in a vase, it will very soon just die on you…yet the same flower blossoms just fine on wasteland…!

And of course there is the opium…!

Not enough that a whole field of poppies looks strikingly beautiful, but it can actually kill you . Since when you stroll through it to long you will get sedated, at some point pass out and finally simply die of starvation…!

Yet also poppy seeds make a delicious ingredient in cake and on bread too

But really,- having sung the praises to my favorite flower, i think, i’m just mostly drawn to it’s fragile beauty, since- all the other qualities left aside- a poppy to me is just beauty in perfection, and that needs no explaining….!

Last but not least, i suppose a lovely side effect to my little obsession has always been, that literarily  all of my friends and my family think of me whenever they come across a poppy, and that alone is a pretty nice thing too!!!

As for another very common image in my paintings -THE PIGEON-

I don’t actually recall, how that started. I think it was that poor little thing in the backyard of our salon. A pigeon with a broken wing, that i fed for about two weeks until i called the PSPBA to come and pick it up, as it just didn’t get any better

In the meantime however i had some interesting conversations about pigeons.

Generally spoken, i like pigeons. And as it is with all animals for me,..the uglier, the more i feel sorry for them and have some kind of fond feelings towards them because of it.

I mean, to be realistic, in the end it’s our fault that most of them look so scruffy in the first place. It’s all the pollution we cause. To me, pigeons are city birds and somewhat belong here, as it would look really weird if they wouldn’t be there anymore, just like the sparrow is gone over here already..!

Fair enough, they shit everywhere, and you will also have lots of people saying that you can catch diseases of them. Well, personally i never caught anything of a pigeon, so that’s a weird rumor as i don’t know anyone who has either…!

don't lick the pigeons ...:)

I find it rather amusing and actually quite heart warming to watch a group of pigeons sometimes, as they are so social and communal animals.

When that injured bird sat in our court yard, it would only ever eat, when other pigeons came to join it.

So, i still don’t know exactly why i use pigeons to express certain feelings in my paintings but they somehow seem fitting in my mind.

so there it is…my two red lines … i did try