I am starting this post with the end phrase: this was super awesome !!! – because it really was a great activity, as neither of us have ever seen how those chocolate shallow figures are made. Plus last year for a “what do you want to be when you grow up?” art project at school, FriBoy painted himself as a Maître Chocolatier and I thought I’d make his wish come true for a day.
Last week I took Friboy on a guided visit of the Fribourg Cantonal Police Headquarters in Granges-Paccot, organised by Ecole des Parents. I have to admit I was probably more excited to see how the inside of a police station looks and how the emergencies call-center works than my son was.
This is one of my favorite hikes in Fribourg because it’s well hidden and goes through a forest and along a lake giving me the impression that I am far away from the urban world. These nature trails in the middle of the city make this place so appealing and special to me. Back when we used to live in Bucharest we had weekends to get away from the city and see some nature but it took so much time (spent in traffic) to get there that the trip defeated its purpose.
Here is an idea how to quickly paint a very large canvas, if you want to decorate your space in an inexpensive way and also create something the fits your chromatic taste and speaks to you.
To my mind a contemporary museum is an educational space that enables critical reflection by asking the right questions, while minimizing its own bias . If it manages to do all that while entertaining me that is progressive museography. Having said this, I don’t think the Nest Museum of Nestle is a real museum, mausoleum would be more fit of a title, or its other designation, discovery center for children and adults, is definitely more appropriate.
I don’t know why I felt compulsed to illustrate this recipe. I grew up having mucenici [mûtʃeniːʃɪ], every year for the 9th of March and still bake them here in Switzerland. So it’s nothing special, unless maybe you’re not used to the idea of food offering because that’s what they are, an ancient relic of a pre-christian celebration of time renewal and the beginning of a new year for a pastoral population that kept a tight grip on its magical patterns of thought.
Each year before a major holiday I plan to send postcards to our extended family members. Sometimes I even go buy beautifully illustrated cards that end up in a drawer instead of the post office, or other times I craft cute cards with FriBoy, that end up in a different drawer. Social media has done that to us, now we send memes and tag each other on facebook. But this year is going to be different. I will definitely send these cards!
Cultural identity is an idea that sparked my interest a while ago and I started doing personal research on this subject and also went on a spree of visiting ethnographic museums in the areas where I traveled to see how this idea was reflected across various cultures by these so called “guardian institutions”. I’ve collected a lot of information which I plan to share here for whoever is interested in culture, ethnic art, travel and also research.
For this week’s Artsy Wednesdays we made a family of paper peacocks. It was again one of those days where I was too tired to plan and think of something more interesting and I just googled quickly for an idea that is easy and fast to make. However, this proved to me that the simplest ideas are more captivating and equally spark creativity as compared to more complex projects. In fact, we have a history of activities that failed to make FriBoy interested up to the end because I used to think that complex is better, develops more competencies and keeps kids more interested. But that is so untrue, quite the opposite actually. So I’ve learned no to underestimate the easy ones.
Today is the International Women’s Day, also known as the United Nations Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace, dedicated to women’s achievements throughout history and across nations. In some countries it is also Mother’s Day. So this post is about a series of 5 paintings I made dedicated to femininity and rights, the right to Eudaimonia.