Art Show: Tales From The Sneaky Crypt

This Friday is Tales From The Sneaky Crypt, a group art show hosted by Sneaky Raccoon. It features urban vinyl customs by many artists, including myself. The opening is on Friday, October 28th, 6-10pm at Kid Robot London (19 Earlham Street, WC2H 9LL).  There will be lots of events: live t-shirt printing, live drawing, a raffle, treats, and proceeds of all sales go to charity.  Customs will not be revealed until the opening, so unfortunately I can’t show what I’ve been working on. But you can get a chance to look at all the customs (and purchase one if you wish) HERE on Friday night! The show runs through the weekend, ending on Halloween night.  Come by Kid Robot if you’re in the neighborhood and check it out! 🙂

Photos: Berlin

The last city I visited on my trip was Berlin. I had heard so much about it, that I was so excited to see what it was all about!  First I did all the touristy stuff — the Brandenburg Gate, Alexanderplatz, the Berlin Wall (East Side Gallery), etc.  I also visited the Käthe Kollwitz Museum. It was just AMAZING seeing her work in person. She puts so much emotion (sadness, grief, loss) into her work. Her work is so powerful that it’s both inspiring and exhausting at the same time.

There was a political demonstration happening while I was walking along Unter Den Linden.  A group of guys were puppeteering a giant marionette; making it walk and ride a skateboard.

There were several reasons why I visited Berlin other than just to see the sights. One of the reasons is that my Mother went to art school in East Berlin, so I wanted to see the school and the flat that she lived in.  It was a very special experience for me to see where my Mom lived for 3 years (when she was younger than I am now)! 🙂

My Mom’s best friend from art school (who designed the eagle on the German version of the Euro coin!) has a daughter my age, so I met up with her. Alina is a graphic designer like her Mother, and we had a very nice time together.  Alina + her boyfriend showed me the Flohmarkt (fleamarket — amazing stuff which I wanted to buy but couldn’t fit in my suitcase), we ate delicious waffles in Prenzlauer, and they showed me what is remaining of the Berlin Wall.  I’m really happy I got to meet Alina since our Mothers were best friends. 🙂

 

I also met up with my Grandfather’s friend Klaus who is over 80 years old. Klaus took me on a tour of Berlin and had lots to say about living through the war, rebuilding afterwards (he said people wanted simple things.. like windows), living in East Berlin, and it was all very interesting.  He took me to the Märchenbrunnen which is a collection of super cute fairy tale sculptures placed around a giant fountain. He explained that after WWII the fountain was busted and most of the pieces were missing. Years after the war when he was working as a journalist, he was given a tip about sculptures found in an old abandoned garage. There he discovered all the missing sculptures for the fountain! I think it’s amazing that he helped restore this fountain back to its original glory.

 

I liked Berlin.  It felt like a city where change was possible.

Photos: Munich

After visiting Austria, I headed over to Munich, Germany.  I caught a cold during this part of my trip, so I didn’t take as many photos as I had hoped. One day I wandered around the Englischer Garten dazed out of my mind and layed in the park watching people playing with their dogs until I had the energy to walk around again! 😛 haha. If I wasn’t staying in a 6-person room in a hostel, I probably wouldn’t have felt the urge to leave and would have slept for most of the day. I’m glad I pushed myself to explore the city while I was there. I didn’t want to miss out on any part of my trip!

The highlight of my time in Munich was when I came across this tunnel full of graffiti. I stopped in my tracks and was like OMG for a few minutes (Although that could’ve been due to the cold medication, LOL). Flying Förtress had work at both entrances to the tunnel.

Then inside the tunnel in the most prominent spot was Daim… my favourite graffiti artist of all time! Seeing his work in person the most amazing experience cause I’ve been a fan of him since I was a teenager. ❤

 

Overall I have to say I wasen’t too impressed with Munich. I was sick when I was there, so I’m sure that affected my lack of enthusiasm, but it felt to me like a generic city without many interesting things to see. I did just leave beautiful Salzburg, so maybe my expectations for seeing beautiful old architecture was set too high.