So its been more than a few months since I checked in here at my blog. The last time I wrote, I was stressing out over the move from Lowell to Munich and not being able to find a place. Since then we have settled quite nicely into our new 3 room apartment. Its in a nice old house from the turn of the century… Continue reading
Home is where the heart is…
DK and I have both been over the moon and back lately because…we…are…returning home!
Our household will be packed up on the 22nd (this monday) and we will be flying out on the following monday the 29th, arriving on the 30th. I guess you can say that we are undergoing a hefty dose of moving stress —finding a reliable moving company was hard enough, they all want to swindle you or make you feel stupid for being overly concerned about insuring your artworks during transport…another exemplary situation where artists are easily dismissed and not taken seriously…hm, I wonder if Damien Hirst goes through this whenever he moves, or if it’s just something an unknown self-important egomaniac like me goes through. Plus there is the challenging prospect of finding an apartment in Munich —the rental market in Munich is seriously competitive so it will not be easy and I reckon we will be paying significantly more since 2014. I’ve armed myself with knowledge and made apartment applications complete with one cheesy photo of us, short biographies, career infos, proof of credit in Germany and references from our former landlords. Securing an apartment in a city like Munich is like securing a job. You apply, you wait. You may or may not receive an invite for “interview”, you get interviewed, if they like you, you get an apartment out of it…if not, rinse and repeat as often as needed. I am positively certain though that we will find something we can live with…However, regardless of all of that, it will be worth all that we face in the coming months to be close to those we love, in the city we love. If things go awry, DK and I will deal with it because we have each other. So get ready Munich! Get ready beautiful Isar river and beautiful Alps! We are returning home to you!
Well hello Resin!
During an art fair back in 2014, I saw some art that was made using resin…apologies but I can’t remember the name of the artist. The artist had used resin to create beautiful multi-layered collages. They were small pieces about letter size envelope. Since then, I’ve been itching to incorporate resin in my own work. I always hesitated due to fumes… its already bad enough working with oil paints and varnishes—at the end of varnishing a finished piece, I usually suffer from stinging eyes and dizziness, despite working in a well ventilated space and wearing a mask. So when I was looking into different types of Resins, I found a company back home in Canada, who claimed to be non-toxic, free of VOCs, fumes and solvents, I was super happy! They are called ArtResin ( https://www.artresin.com/ ) When I got an email from the product owner, Rebecca Zak, inviting me to try out their product a few months ago, I was super double happy! Did the Universe hear my plea?? Too bad it took me forever to get working on a piece using it. Sorry for the delay Rebecca 
Anyway, I tested it out first on some necklaces I was making for my shop and it was easy peasy painless! You have 2 components – Resin + Hardener. You mix these components in a 1:1 ratio, pour and wait a day for it to dry. Because the surface of my necklaces were super small, it dried rock hard overnight.
So to start with, I needed the following:
An idea
Surface to work on
in here:
Resin
Hardener
measuring cup
mixing bowl (I used the my ramen dinner bowl)
Nitrile gloves (from the lumber store)
Large plastic mixing knife
Acrylic paint
Sparkles
After sealing the box with transparent matte medium and letting it dry, I painted the first background layer: 
In hindsight, I should have used white gesso for the inside of the box…meh. I repeated this until I was happy with the overall tone and colour of the background.
While that was drying, I worked on making the different collage components on paper. First the paper moon and then the birds and branch.
When the background colour was dry, I was ready to mix a batch of resin for the first layer. Using a ratio of 1:1, mix resin and hardener in a mixing bowl and mix mix mix for several minutes and then… pour… 
I covered the shadow box with a sheet of plastic to keep pesky dust and bits from sticking to the wet and sticky layer of resin.
Ah crap! I forgot to stick the paper moon on there…ah well, there is always tomorrow!
So the next day, fuelled with strong Kona coffee and full of motivation, I checked the state of the resin and it was hard to touch. You know you got the mixture right, if its rock hard the next day when you check 🙂 I painted the first layer of resin, I wanted to have swirling masses of dark cloud and sparkly stars in the background– but I didn’t want the sparkles to be too “in-your-face” if you know what I mean… So once I had that, I just repeated the previous step with the resin…did this a couple of layers at a time and added the birds and tree branch during different stages, as I wanted to play around with shadows. In the end, I was happy with the resin…not so happy with my piece…but this is definitely not the last time ArtResin will be used in my studio. I absolutely love it and highly recommend it to artists who want to start using resin or are already seasoned resin artists.
I just wish that moon would glow more in the dark… And as you can see, there are a few air bubbles around the bird – This was my fault for moving the box around too much while it was still wet. But there is a bit of charm to the bubbles, so I don’t really mind.
Anyhoo, if you are interested in learning more about resin art, visit ArtResin on their homepage and subscribe to their YouTube Channel where you can learn more about resin art and how to use it! Thanks to Rebecca and ArtResin for sponsoring me a starter kit for this experiment!
Flash Fiction Month 2016 Week 1
Introducing Steve Toase and his haunting tales. His writings inspired several of my pieces this year. Looking forward to working with him more in the future!
It’s been a while since I posted on my blog. I’ve been busy working on the next draft of my novel, and attending various events like Folk Horro Revival at the British Museum, and the Society of Authors North Ghostly Gathering (more on them later). If you want to get free flash fiction in your inbox every fortnight, and keep up with my writing, I have a storyletter you can subscribe here. http://tinyletter.com/stevetoase
One piece of news I can share now is that Aurealis Magazine have accepted my short story ‘Hyter and the House that Stands’ for publication.
For the past few years I’ve set myself a challenge; to spend a month writing a flash fiction story every day on the run up to Short Story Day at the Winter Solstice. This year I decided to do it again.
Below you can find the first seven stories. If you want…
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Munich Stories 2016 is off to the Printer
We finished our editing sprint and have sent the Munich Stories book to the printer. Here is the front cover image: We ordered a small run and the books will be for sale at the Reader…
Munich Stories Project Makes a Book
The idea was to take visual artists and match them up with a writer to create stories for a month.
My True Self – Lange Nacht der Muenchner Museen Installation
This is worth going to! If you are in Munich, go go go!
“My True Self” (Mein wahres Ich) Installation von Emmy Horstkamp & Munich Artists
October 15, 2016
Masken im Spiegel
In unserer heutigen Gesellschaft tragen Menschen “Masken”, um ihr wahres Ich zu verbergen. Sie wollen nicht, dass ihre Umwelt mitbekommt, wie sie fühlen und wer sie wirklich sind.
Der rechte Spiegel ist voller solcher Masken, die Künstlerinnen und Künstler von Munich Artists während einer Installation im Juli 2016 abgelegt haben. Sie haben im übertragenen Sinne ihre Ängste und den Konformitätszwang der Gesellschaft abgelegt, um ihr wahres Ich zu zeigen.
Die Rückseite des Schranks ist verspiegelt, so dass Sie einen Blick auf das wahre Ich der Künstlerinnen und Künstler werfen können. Sie sehen damit auch die innere Schönheit hinter den Ängsten und Sehnsüchten der Menschen.
Du bist Deine eigenen Gedanken
Der Spiegel auf der linken Seite möchte, dass Sie einen positiven Gedanken finden. Viele Menschen schauen auf ihr eigenes Spiegelbild und…
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Inspired by Book Series #1 – Brigitte Pruchnow
Munich Artists is creating an art book series called Inspired By + name of the artist.
For the first book, artists created an art piece based on this artwork by Brigitte Pruchnow.
Inspiration art piece by Brigitte Pruchnow
A group of around 28 Munich Artists created art pieces based on Brigitte’s artwork.
The following is the tentative list of artists involved (A final list will be shared on the project page when all artwork has been submitted):
Hazel Ang
Anna Blumenkranz
Devaney Claro
Britta Eriskat
Christine Friebe
Roy Hessing
Emmy Horstkamp
Elizabeth Hughes
Manuela Illera
Angela Josupeit
Christina Corell
Anette Koch
Maximilian Lueckenhaus
Corinna Naumann
Berit Opelt
Niala Orsmond
Simona Petrauskaite
Brigitte Pruchnow
Elke Reis
Alexandra Ritter
Isidora Romani
Gabriele Rothweiler
Rainer Schmitten
Ines Seidel
ursula Singer
Allun Turner
Michaela Wuehr
Silke Lohmann
The book will be published as an A4 Landscape. If you are interested in a copy of the book, please let…
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Show Announcement!
art & music party hoorah!
Please save the date: Friday, June 19 from 7 to 11pm
I am pleased to announce that several of my pieces have been selected as part of a pop-up exhibition to kick-off East Boston Week. It will be available for viewing in a new alternative art space/sculpture park located in an active shipyard called BLDG 32; an alternative space which features works by local contemporary artists. This could be the perfect way to end your work week! I would be delighted if you can join me this Friday, June 19 and celebrate the summer with art, drink, and some of Boston’s newest freshest music. You can RSVP here and for more info, go here. Looking forward to seeing some familiar faces! Cheers, Hazel Ang
Hazel Ang 