Everything is here to be happy on earth.
We have snow and every day a new morning.
We have trees and rain and hope and tears.
We have humus and oxygen.
We have distant lands and bicycles.
We have sun and shadow.
We are rich.
Hunderwasser (1980)
And bicycles! What a random-ish thing to add to his list of things that make us rich! But, of course, the bicycle is such an elegant and simple way to get to the distant lands.
Do you know of the artist Hundertwasser? I have this nifty little book. It is a diminutive catalog from the Barbican Art Gallery of Freidensreich Hundertwasser’s work and it is one of my few treasured possessions. We could not keep most of our books when we moved – books are heavy and moving companies charge by the pound. This little book, though, I have managed to hold on to and it has been carried back and forth across Canada several times.
The catalogue dates from 1976 to 1983 and it documents the “Austria presents Hundertwasser to the continents” show. So many amazing little engravings of Hundertwasser’s paintings and tapestries. He loved colour and he loved natural forms and all of his paintings make me feel really happy.
He also designed alternative communities with fantastical buildings that included “simple living systems” (ahead of his time I think). There is so much in this little book – paintings and lectures and woven tapestries and little sketches of ideas. It is difficult not to try to photograph every single page. I do so love all of his work. I hope you will like this charming and odd fellow too.
I have been making this freeform crochet “Blanket with bird” for a while and when I don’t have any other work that must be done “right this minute”, I pull it out and make some more pieces. I think the onion hearts will become a little village somewhere along the side. It is nice to work without a plan.
Yarn paintings. Happiness!
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