Mothers Unite!
Mommy Muses United!
Acrylic on Canvas, 30x60” 2009© Caridad B. Kolb
Dearest Talkinggrid readers,
We must accept our flawed beauty. Women, specifically, can better function if we find the music which runs through the veins of the plant life, animals, and stars glittering on the supermarket checkout line. WE must awake, arise, and possess our ever increasing social power and independence. We can make the world work; one cup of mutual support, kickstarted kindness, and an hour or two of daily pan-handling for clicks/donations; at a time. By sharing with our sisters; caring to those that live nearby, for those that fly away to foreign countries without sufficient funds and refuse to write for flowering blogs that pay good money... Loving our best friends and being true to the oath of universal respect which must become involute and sacred is all that matters, resonates, endures.
Yesterday, a dear friend of mine came to visit. A remarkable woman, she lives in Los Angeles, nearby. She is scientist from Germany and we have children exactly the same age. She has twin boys; they were born in England. When we met, at a hippy dippy co-op pre-school that was not a match for our family, WE MET. I saw her in the ball-pit and… it was LIKE… slow motion. Everything slowed down…because I recognized her immediately… I’d been thinking about this woman. I’d been waiting for her to come along and be a source of LOVE and then I met her beautiful blond boys; I knew they were to be my son’s best friends for life. I simply knew because I’d dreamt of these same boys before; blond, beautiful, English boys with adorable accents; yet, fluent in German.
Our playdates: quiet… the children playing around us. She had made the most delightful creme citron, served in a gigantic cocktail glass for us to share in a civilized table top tea… NO ONE is like this MUSE. NO ONE! Tears almost come to my eyes when I think of how much being in her company meant to lonely isolated young mother, me.
When I KNOW, I take action! I just saddled right up to her said, “Hello!” Like I knew her all my life… our eyes clicked and the rest is history.
I love this woman very much. She is super smart, calm, logical, reliable, and sexy… somehow… she has this naughty senseless irrational streak which sparks the flood of admiration required to get me writing in the early morning, before dawn… here I am thinking of her and writing. But that is not all; I’ve made a number of messy acrylic portraits of the lady; she has an hourglass figure, deep cleavage, cool gray eyes the cool of melted snow… filled with intelligence of generations of genius: yesterday, I learned that her great grandfather was a professional accordion player.
(I must confess, that the above painting is not directly of The Muse; I mention, but rather of the ideal of her as a beach goodess, melding with the water, rising from the sand, much like Venus, born from sea-foam.)
I love my accordion and I love the Muses. Thank you for stopping by, Sweet German Scientist MUSE!
Danke, Darling Muses for all the love.
Merci,
Frau K.
Thank you, authentic, Talkinggrid Heads for reading. DONATING and commenting with pleasure, ease, and panache in 2014!
***(For your information: as of 2013 Talkiggrid is sustained by donations and your clicks, shares, and hour-long dives deep into Zoom in with Frau KOLB, all help build this site into a lively destination, which keeps perpetuating its own happy image of getting on with the business of being)
Comments, messages, contact: are all welcome if you have a project, gallery, advertisement, you would like to place, please consider Talkinggrid as a venue for your intimate art related messages to the public. In other words, independent artists, poets, musicians, museum directors, curators, shop boys, and art peasants with trust funds bursting with bonds, stocks, and equity to FUND FUN and others interested in collaborating directly with Talkinggrid readers are welcome to contact us.
*** by the way*** please remember that this is a humor site and that NO THING said here is related to any specific individual or intended to harm or be medical fucking advice for any idiot that might be literate enough to read the grid but not get that FRAU KOLB is actually just an artist working with “the hard wood,” of words… well maybe more like the flimsy plywood of memory and the precious wood of flexible faith.
Frau Kolb and Talkinggrid are gratified and feeling more than rewarded by the fact of knowing that you return over and over to this obtuse little internet art chat cafe with no thing on the menu except the fine whine of cosmic understanding, heady brew, beware of intoxication. Addiction is also, an issue… so keep coming back, at your own risk.
Thanks for, again, for all the praise and support as we enter the third year of daily writing, and as of this May, Mother’s Day, daily uploads!
Giant Hug,
Frau K.
Memorial Day
Memorial Day is for Remembering Troops, Soldiers, & Veterans of WAR
I appreciate that martial mentalities tend to impose their wishes on other via WAR.
Thus, I write today about the realities of war. Here we shall acknowledge the elemental bellicose nature of some humans. Among us there are sadists and others that enjoy the pain they cause. They feed on it… for a time, until their turn comes and it always comes. Hitler was a happy camper until it was his turn to die.
WAR is very big business for a very few elites. The LORDS of WAR benefit from causing and sending boys and girls on the brink of adulthood into traumatizing situations. Veterans are routinely ignored and denied benefits. We see them begging on the streets in every major city.
Yet, let us not forget, that WAR has its benefits to humanity, too… including and not limited; to the improvements in medical technology, communications, and the arts associated with weapons, strategy, and battle are mesmerizing. Dazzling is EVIL and in its intricate glory it can seduce us. Of course! WAR is THE Siren. Yet, WAR is a MALE GOD! Always, searching for battle, looking to destroy innocence, seeing vulnerability and wishing to take advantage, yet… WAR is ever so willing to impersonate a lovely little juicy ripe maiden, beckoning the—always looking to penetrate–– - warm wet youth, with its toxic… yet, perhaps… like chemotherapy for humanity, its viciously curative seed. We are learning that perhaps the cost of human life is worth more than individual glory. Perhaps our leaders, men like Putin, and Obama, might be aware that… humans deserve defending, protecting, and that imposing laws and neglecting to enforce human rights is a crime.
War is old as prostitution. War is the child of Chronos, time. Born to burn… War learns quickly and humanity has benefitted from the fire, the roast meat, the protein… yet, when will it end? Is it possible that we might all evolve and out grow our bad habits together?
Perhaps, I might become a vegetarian… someday. I’m not ready for that change, yet. But, I am ready for letting go of other limiting habits and I know I will never be perfect. Yet, I know that by taking my own bags to the grocer’s and by planting food in my yard, by being true to my word, by reading, and writing, and sharing of the bounty that is my American Life, my privilege and joy to be here in the United States of America, celebrating today with a little poultry and sparkling wine. (YOU see, I’m NOT PERFECT.)
We are clearly designed for battle, sports, running, and long jumps. HUMANS are so beautiful. Everyone is priceless. Everyone has equal potential and equal rights in my book. Yet, I watch people make choices which end up necessitating their restriction. If you litter, please don’t visit my neighborhood. Everyone has value. Yet, many people cheapen themselves by not thinking, planning, and deciding to be GOOD. Yes, goodness, is what we ALL might aim for… the law might be less about prosecution and more about… LOVE. Yet… the system says that only a few are to be admired. Perhaps the human brain is wired to look to leaders, to bow to the strongest will. Perhaps… Yet, I continue to love a good fight, the campaign being rather glorious and fun; until brains and guts litter the battle fields, in desert sands, or wooded country; war breaks out and no one… knows who will… well… the generals now, they fight by remote control.
Be that as it may, Talkinggrid is an online cultural blog for people that are not particularly interested in mainstream media. Talkinggrid does not claim to be a source of TRUTH, but a source of various artists perspectives, or warm and fuzzy feeling emotional truths, and “intimate art chat,” on topics political, thereby personal, are routinely addressed here in a casual, informal, style which lends itself to conversation. WE are in conversation. (I listen. I write in response to my readers and I notice that YOU love the piece on Wes Anderson, by the way… I will write more on his films soon. I promise.)
Frau Kolb, the single author of all the content on this site is the persona of a New York City Native living in Southern California, looking at the world from the unique and always vivifying perspective of the true ARTIST. By and large, creative people are politically liberal, because most of us can see more than one side to any issue. I will speak for us when I say: we are not hetro-sexuals, we are not negroes, we are not white, or yellow… NO humans should never be reduced to a color chart that creates oppositional relationships. Race is the pulp fiction of genetics. Ethnicity, class, and other factors such as personal determination and social support determine humans ability to thrive. In other words, and for the record, BLACK is WHITE is WHATEVER, form life takes, it demands respect.
Repressive or aggressive policies taken by legislators hurt humans. The “WAR on DRUGS,” puts millions of undereducated Americans behind bars. Why not stop it and instead of “reparations,” which in some cases would only be fair, why not give people excellent educations, housing, medical care, and LOVE. It costs society more to imprison our own population when we could be helping our brothers and sisters to feel that they are (finally) WELCOME HOME.
Let us stop blaming the rich, the poor, the fat, the Chinese, the Germans, the Jews, the blacks, the WASPS, the gays, and/or whoever else we label “scapegoat,” lets get over that evil and lets LOVE the ugly and start taking responsibility for the day to day quality of our lives. If you look to celebrities and Stars for guidance, they are sure to let you down, stars are indifferent to you and your concerns. Grow up. Go shopping for organic food only, if you want the world to be better. You must invest time and energy in creating your own well being. NO ONE can or will do it for you. Therefore, stop with the frozen food and the quick car-meals. You must neglect the cheap fix of corporate junk food designed to KILL YOU. Anytime you eat a corporate snack you are feeding the machine that wants to pay people less than it costs them to join the “work force.”
Of course, these means that if you teach yourself to think: learn languages, do math, learn "scientific methods of inquiry,” you can immunize yourself from many of the obvious social traps. Yes… not everyone has raw IQ power, yet everyone could STOP WATCHING stupid shows, where killing and robbing are normalized, if not glorified, STOP Playing STUPID video Games, where dehumanizing others and killing is presented as a valid source of cheap thrills. Playing such games to “kill time,” kills your spirit and transforms you into a dreaded, “zombie.” Pornography is not sexy. Watching what is private and people being paid to… well; prostitution should never be a crime… but there should be no reason for anyone to feel forced into it.
Women, girls, and boys all over the world are prey for those that seek to impose their penetrating glances on others. We must respond to protect those that are vulnerable and to treat with respect all humans, regardless of their behavior. Human rights are sacred. (Some might say, that eating meat amounts to murder. This is a point I ponder…. yet, farm animals are born and bred to be eaten… they wouldn’t live without farming. Cows, for example, make great tasting food, yet… they seem well… I’m not sure… I see the human in my dog. He is a great person… so we can discuss this further, while I continue to eat bacon, I do so with an eye to quality of life for animals, as is the promise of organic farming… less meat… yes. That is healthier, anyway…)
“Memorial Day Chicken,” Photo by Dr. HC Kolb©, all rights reserved, 2014
You may not want to admit to yourself the incredible amount of power you have. This is why the super elites control you with your impulse shopping and credit card debt. While you are throwing out books, I am collecting. Because I know that my library is my garden, where I cultivate peace.
Yet, this does not mean that I don’t value and admire military humans for their courage and yes willingness to go to battle. I believe in WAR when it means defending humans. Thus, when the United States went into WWII and defended the Jews. WE were heroes in that context. Yet, contexts change… I am a proud American, specifically New Yorker, yet, I have real issues with some of our nation’s institutional folly.
The under education of the American people will lead to its easy surrender to manipulation and invasion if it were to come to that. I hear young people talking and they are tired of being ignored, sent to die, and kill. They don’t see the point in fighting for oil and other out-dated resources.
Together we can take charge of reality and grow an new future which is in the way of the natives of the world; in harmony with nature and generous to ALL.
"Memorial Day Flowers for Mommy,” © Dr. HC KOLb, all rights reserved, 2014
Happy Memorial DAY!
Sincerely yours,
Frau Kolb & The Talkinggrid
On Going...
HOLY MONDAY AFTER EASTER
We walked, Hiked.
Played in the park.
Found Easter Eggs in our back yard, which we planted…
Ate, together.
It was a perfect day…
My son read to us in German,
from his children’s bible, which told us a rather outlandish
Version of The Passion…
We watched this production of Goethe’s Faust. on-line.
In the evening, I made the mistake of watching a bad movie;
"The Wolf of Wall Street," with Leonardo di Caprio… a Martin Scorsee, not-so-funny, “black comedy,” about rampant wealth and greed only made more sad by the fact that they were… fairly accurate in the representation of the debauched mentality which, Scorsee’s late night romps with LA Ladies… are well we know about him… the BAD film was released as "a gift to mankind," on December 25th, 2013, nominated for not one or two academy awards, but five of them. It is a trashy, jammed packed with depictions of gratuitous sex; botched Faustian story; without needed gravitas, tales of breaking every rule and yet not paying any price for one’s actions are half-baked childish fantasies that encourage an understanding that grossly distorted overblown pleasure might be the HOLY GRAIL of human achievement… as though making money, gambling with people’s lives is FUNNY… Hah! Hah! NOT in my book, Mr. Scorsee… nope … not yet anyway… I mean, really who am I to judge this guy… I’d make just as bad a film… maybe…. but with such a big budget and great actors… some mainstream sadists must find it amusing to experience power over others, if only as a consumer in a movie theatre fantasy… the film is indeed worthy of a chuckle.
More over I’ll admit that being a rather handsome male of some European background, Polish, I think... with smashing curtain thick hair and shimmering eyes, Di Caprio almost makes being worthless look good.
“Limitless,” being another American film, in the similar language of , “OH FUN, we get to witness a loser become someone extraordinary because he did what… took an expensive pill… what? Is this a veiled ad for pharmaceutical companies or what? Strange:.. seeing that film, also at home in some brainless sleepy state; left me feeling that the convention of showing that drugs, cheating, and dishonesty are not FUN rather destructive forces, which was standard decades ago, when the agenda of getting film consumers to continue visiting theaters, downloading and paying for content, no matter what the price to self maybe in seeing such debased imagery which trumped the concept that empty humans whose achievement lies solely in circumstance, lies, magic pills, and special powders which give the protagonists super-human powers; had not surpassed the commitment to encouraging compliance with laws rather than the current program which seems to advocate lawlessness and “Brave New World,” pill popping as a means of achieving übermensch status.
Today, the day after Easter… I realize devoting any time or consideration to such fluffy stuff as these trivial and utterly forgettable clumsy films feels like a violation of the self. (Yet, note how I continue to prove myself a hypocrite by writing and rewriting this piece to a high lustre, before removing it to the achieves under, Zoom in with Frau kolb.) The ideals, the values celebrated in the film are nauseatingly cruel and sadistic, even its canned notions of blond beauty, are dated and tired (in the Scorsee film, specifically). Muses in my understanding are never icy eyed chiseled piece of porcelain perfection, rather an exciting being…on the brink of discovery… a true and honest MUSE is beautiful, anything else is superficial luster, sure to fade and tarnish. “The Wolf of Wallstreet,” is a lame film; so enthralled with its own decadent representation of text book glamour; steeped in the odious marvel of self destruction.; why would Frau Kolb or anyone else want to waste their precious time watching a film about souls being undervalued by sex and drug crazed stockbrokers?
Frau Kolb’s International EASTER Message
复活节快乐
¡Felize Pasqua!
Frohe Ostern!
Inquiring Readers ask:
“Dear Frau Kolb,
How does Frau KOLB celebrate EASTER???”
EASTER in OUR LUTHERAN GERMAN AFRO LATIN
American HOME is a BIG DEAL!
We start with a bunny-hop and backyard Easter egg hunt.
April is the sweetest month…. breeding bunnies
Our children run a monk. The colors of a plum.
Screaming Lilly’s blossom in the blazing light.
I wear my bright Dominican Doña skirt. Sparkles.
BLACK TULIPS… Dancing in the BACK YARD!!!
Sparkles, sparkling: 波光粼粼
The children run amok and discover a petal of Grace.
A clover of Wunderbar! We dance! RE-JOYCE! Re-cycle old toys from Easters Long ago, bring back the giant bunny...
WE stop and read the bible, we contemplate the life of
Christ; man, rebel, symbol, and ultimate ideal…
Übermensch!
We drink Wagner. We eat Goethe for breakfast!
Husband shouts quotes from Faust. Wife sparkles.
Hands washed we go for our Osten Spaziergang!
Wir gehen ‘raus und Wir rennen. Wie den Wind.
EASTER for ATHEISTS (Frohe Ostern, Everybody Else!)
How does an atheist celebrate Easter Sunday?"
Answer:
YOU Don’t.
Thank you,
F. Kolb
Another Avid Talkinggrid Head asks:
"How do you find the energy for so much luxury travel, art adventure(s), routine Champagne consumption, hotel hopping, organic gardening, book reading, harboring cinematographic ambitions, fine art inquiries, and blogging? How is it that you manage to grow this little far-out web-site with no real focus other than a profound desire to write about the little slice of life we, artists, daily creatives, burning or cooling in flames or waves of inspiration and desire to complete our many projects, know to be true?
Answer:
What a flattering question! The fact is that Frau Kolb is, “like a hummingbird,” buzzing around ideas, events, and people… getting to the nectar; here and there. Yet, not everywhere, not where you are… you NEVER see me in NEW YORK, these days… London, England, is beckoning. Dublin, Ireland is definitely on my mind.
Moreover, I’m thinking of doing an AMERICAN art tour, heading into the interior of the nation to meet art STARS I admire.
Paris: mon amie, je veux vous rencontrer!
I talk, a lot. I type, fast. I read, much more than most. I write, daily. YOU do it, too. Don’t you?
You read, a lot… actually, all of my actual audience are educated readers attracted by the wealth of FRAU KOLB’s unique understandings: just “ZOOM in with Frau Kolb,” or visit “Four Frau Answers,” for more on what the “F” is UP with this expanding and contracting, breathing and ALIVE, fun, entertaining and highly readable independent and meandering,
“tremendously creative,” and “much appreciated,” on-going intimate art-chat: BLOG!
YES, you can do it too. I recommend you do. It is very gratifying to get a press pass and attend art fairs and other intellectually charged spectacles… reporting only what you want and what you want… flaunting rules of GRAMMAR and conventions of type. YES!
I get up early, often before dawn. I write daily. It helps to keep the words coming. Which in turn makes it so that I’m ready, daily to face the world with a landslide of WORDS!
Seven Simple WAYS in which to The Sweet LIFE:
Dearest Loyal Talkinggrid Supporters, Readers:
Always remember: you are sacred. You are the throbbing heart of the universe. Yet… you are no more than I or than the man that serves you gruel in prison.
There are SEVEN sacred STEPS to a SWEET SUCCESS.
I. You must center yourself on caring first for yourself and then for others.
II. You must be free of need. Success, oddly, depends on certainty from start to finish. For you must be blind with faith that the wishes you work toward, daily, do come true.
III. Being idle is unhealthy. Too much desk/computer/couch destroys the body, the soul, and leaves one a wreck. Every adult human must walk, daily. Work. Carry. Cook. Clean. Groom themselves in order to feel right.
IV. Be Creative. You can do it. It takes practice. HERE I am writing, again. SEE FRAU WRITE, again. The more I do it the better I get at doing it without having to think way too much. Getting up before dawn to write or writing for hours each day is… easy when you simply bask in the silence of pre-dawn. Loading and re-loading, writing and re-writing of this site a successful habit. By doing so, I have built a venue, a platform, a place for discussion and a means of communication. I wish to share with you my thoughts and I welcome your comments and donations.
V. Allow yourself to play. Failure is not an issue in play, because it is obviously NOT SERIOUS! I dance. I dance in public and I am willing to do it anywhere, anytime, and I do not need music beyond the noise of being FRAU KOLB, which by the way, is not me… Frau Kolb is a work of art, a character, a construction. We share some facts: I am Frau Kolb, yet there is more to Frau Kolb than meets the eye… a trail of veils, a shimmy of the hips, a dip to the ground and several high-kicks, later…
oh… yeah… SEVEN STEPS to SWEET LIVING…
5. Mix it UP! Please don’t be bland, man. Make friends with people that did not grow up on your block or mountain. Grow beyond whatever lies were told to you that divide you from fulfillment. HAVE FUN and follow the alluring rhythms of foreign lips, hips, trips, and cinematographic and literary travel to distant made up countries is also… a way to MIX IT UP!
VI. Don’t forget the SEX! Masturbation counts. Keep it going. Keep it private. Keep it off the streets and keep it safe. Condoms. Monogamy. All good, just remember NOT to be a selfish lover and to make sure and service your (adult and consenting) partners nicely if you don’t expect them to stray. By the way, physical affection, hugs kisses, touch are requirements for happy relationships. Sincere praise is essential to ensure loyalty!
This advice, on sex, will influence all other aspects of life… Always remember: sexy and wealthy go hand in hand. Your ability to give and get love enhances your ability to work, to walk, to read, write, and compose the you that is constantly in formation.
VII. Quit comparing yourself to others. You will always be less than the competition you imagine in your head. You doom yourself to sadness when you believe others are better off. EVERYONE is struggling. We all have problems, affairs, issues, asshole toxic parents, addictions, worries, and anxieties to deal with yet… we can cultivate peace in our lives by unplugging ourselves from unhealthy, negative, mind polluting sources of information and connect with the ever lasting truth which is that LIFE is delicious if lived with gusto!
In addition:
Pleasure must be subject to respect for life. Any drug, habit, party, or practice which harms self or others is subject its ability to provide comic relief; without some form of redeeming quality on must avoid cruelty or humor that hinges on harm to others… this is beyond “political correctness,” it is a call to humans everywhere to respect that we each have a right to live, learn, grow, and continue.
Eat healthy. Organic food is not a luxury. Try planting some organic seeds in dirt. Buy organic dirt. It matters. Demand organic food. Why not? Why don’t you deserve to eat food that can actually sustain your well being.
Every human has a right to be refined, educated, and at ease in being beautiful. We are all specimens of such rare and intricate grace that to bask in this truth is our everlasting duty.
Yours truly,
Frau Kolb
Happy St. Patrick’s Day: Project Dublin
I was just on Facebook with a dear old friend in Dublin. We decided that I absolutely must visit Dublin later this year and check out the IRISH ART SCENE!!!! YES! I will.
Now we have a P R O J E C T!
Let’s get FRAU KOLB to DUBLIN by September! How does that sound?
Do YOU LOVE the idea of Frau Kolb, hitting London, first——of course— I mean, I can’t get that close to the Tate, and the Rothko Room, there and The Turners at the National Gallery… Ah! I love art and I can’t wait to learn more about contemporary art in Ireland!
Maybe I will have the pleasure of meeting Bono, again. Thanks to a teenage best friend’s father’s connections I got to go dancing with the lead singer of U2 when I was a wee lass growing up in very IRISH Manhattan. My maiden name is Irish and you know I got faded yesterday, in anticipation of today. Thus, kiss me…
I’m like Barack Obama, truly and honestly BLACK IRISH at heart, forever!
Keep rockin’ the DONATE button! Thank YOU!!! Please share the link and leave messages with questions, topics, comment, and feedback. I appreciate the hit rate spike and shower of generous contributions from friends and former enemies, too. Hah!
Dearest Loyal Talkinggrid Supporters, Readers, Joyful following…
I’m happy today because I’m able to show up and do what I do in the world. Thank goodness!
The last few years have presented me with too many opportunities to expire. We all face that possibility on some level everyday. Violence, bad art, or disease might be a sudden end to anyone that isn’t careful.
Thus, inoculate yourself against the dangerous world. Retreat into contemporary art. (Hah!)
Readers! Frau Kolb is blown away by the fact that you keep coming back to read this lowly and scattered, strange and too personal, art infused blog by artist and personality, Frau Kolb. YES! WE make a great pair, you and eye. YOUR eyeballs keep rolling over my early morning words. Thus, I’m inspired to keep writing them. We are a symbiotic unit. Thank you!
Finally, I’ve achieved one of my life’s most important and previously unattainable goals: I write daily. Writing, traditionally is a solitary practice. I love reading and practice this on my own, quietly. Yet, writing for me is best like this, in flow, daily and knowing that someone, one of my many friends, will read what I write and let me know if it is shite or true gold that I have spun. I have written, almost daily, for several years now. I have to admit, however, that i achieved this lofty goal, in the most unlikely place, and least exclusive, on-line venue Facebook.
It was on Facebook that I tripped into an incredible circle of amazing artists, art critics, consultants, power personalities one and all; many of whom I’d never heard of before, some I’ve known since my teens… all are active, moving, pushing, edging forward. It is fascinating to observe the Machiavellian style with which some wield their on-line art might.
After about a year of dancing around the armies of humans flaunting their visual art prowess and connectedness… I became fatigued. I went on a campaign to rid myself of all the deadwood I’d amassed in a friend requesting frenzy which took a big part of a year to initiate and then another year to prune this wild garden to what it is now: a tidy plot… my Facebook list is now, reduced to the kindest, sweetest, and most uplifting people. I recently, friended someone I’d un-friended because, frankly, the woman is sharp, even her name suggests it. I unfriended her and so many others because, I don’t want to be an aspiring big personality’s Bitch. That is right, I’ve said it.
I’m competitive and IF I’m going to write everyday it is nice to know that you come because you dig my words, perspective, art adventures, and quirky personal Caribbean history. We may be fans of each other. Yet, no matter how often I decide to take out my, “SEND MONEY HERE!” placard and brandish it in my most obnoxious Dance of Desire, I expect you to simply respect my wishes and click the freakin’ donate button, regularly, so that your $23.00 donation, or better $69.00 gift, or 200 bucks, or… do something NUTS and send Frau KOLB millions, I promise to invest it in entertaining myself and others, learning more about art, buying ART… furthermore, your generosity will aid in legitimating my continued commitment to showing up here for you with new MUSE NEWS and ideas, which—admit it— you find so stimulating and rare. I think I’d create a type of artists colony where we creatives cold chill out and get free spa treatments or some other RADICAL UTOPIAN art fantasy…. just send the GREEN, if ya’ know what I mean.
Happy Birthday Talkinggrid! Frau Kolb HITS the ONE YEAR Mark as a reliable source of intense ART Chat!
YES! WE made it!
Catching the plane, yesterday, at the very last minute Frau Kolb–––almost––– allowed the opportunity to bask in art intensity with ART WORLD notables slip between her slender cafe con leche fingers.
Imagine THAT! The HORROR! THE HORROR! You are so looking forward to seeing what FRAU had up her long and elegant sleeves. Because, in the back of your mind, you had filed away the information that TODAY we officially mark the ONE YEAR anniversary of Talkinggrid as a reliable source for alternative ART NEWS in America!
JA!
Now, we got our par-tay hat on! Ladies and Gentlemen get ready for MONUMENTAL COVERAGE of ART Miami BASEL 2012!
IF you were concerned or angry because it seems to you that Frau Kolb has too much fun being herself this is the time to bail, Mister, because Frau Kolb is ready to DIVE on behalf of the Talkinggrid and swim deep into the thick of ART Miami Basel 2012 with the gusto of Ponce de Leon diving into the fountain of youth! Frau Kolb is on a mission to BLOW you away with her energy and unending capacity for silly, yet sincere, pomposity in the realm and ever re-generating field of contemporary ART.
ART you ready?
This year’s most exciting and vast art fair, ART Miami Basel 2012, is sure to be sensational. Just think of all the insane FUN Frau Kolb had last year! This year will be even better because despite all the obstacles, all the set-backs, all the changes in crew and re-positioning of the TALKINGGRID as an older impulse in the history of Frau Kolb, WE MADE IT!
We are here! AGAIN!
The dream is now reality, Folks!
You may lack the background in “Who the F*CK? is FRAU KOLB,” butt rest assured that Frau Kolb is uniquely qualified to be the Dante to your Virgil by sharing with you some of her off-the-cuff, RAW, art-insight with you. JA!
You may not be interested in the history of a young NEW YORKER... a girl who HIT the streets in search of Punk ROCK splendor at the age of seventeen and somehow wandered into Soho. The rest, my friends will be available in my full-length biography: “ME!, ME!, ME!,” by Frau Kolb.
Anyway, I gotta get ready here!
I got ART to see and people to meet.
Love,
Frau Kolb
Happy Thanksgiving: Greetings from Los Angeles! (Happy TG from the TG!)
Dear TalkingGriders,
Thank you! Thank you for frequenting the TalkingGrid. Your letters, notes, LIKEs, and LOVE mean the world to me, Frau Kolb. The many friends that give us regular feedback are my favorite people! Thank you to ALL that have made time for an interview, inviting Talkinggrid into your exhibitions, events, galleries, studios, and–––best of all––– warm hearts.
The ONE, who receives daily thanks is my sweet husband, Dr. Hartmuth Kolb. (He is a scientist from Germany.) Thankfully, he believes that the publication of the Talkinggrid is a worthwhile endeavor and that Frau Kolb is doing a good job. Thus, he partially funds and often supports the operation of this alternate art news web site. Being that writing, publishing, filming, and editing have become as much or more a part of my now full-time art practice it is miraculous that my LOVE would allow for me to get up to write before four in the morning several times a week. Since October 1st, Talkinggrid, has published original content on most days. This tremendous spike in focus on Frau Kolb’s part would not be possible without my LOVE and his camera, editing, and provisional financial support. Thank you, Dr. HC Kolb.
This year has seen TalkingGrid grow from a one-woman (albeit often supported by ONE man) acrobatic operation, a gigantic handstand, which only a handful of progressive souls, hungry for alternate art experience and (YES!) art adventure were following to a group hub, a virtual yet thriving hangout where friends frequently add content, insight, and vision. The warmth of the fire of inspiration, intelligence, and excellence which is the focus of this happening hotel of on-line art connection and mapping of NEW art worlds which continuously POP up in the field of forever. The talkingGrid is a flexible creative circle. Frau Kolb invites art writers, personalities, mega-minds making creative strides, exploring their limits, and trying NEW approaches to being artists NOW, to share of themselves via digital video interviews, art chats, select writings, photographs, and more. YOU, choice and select humans, have encouraged the TalkingGrid to EXPAND. Yes, we are growing.
Yet, for example growth is NOT always a good thing. The expansion of a cancer is not good news. Neither is what happened to me, last year. I ate like a fiend. I cooked for three days straight. I served a smoked salmon appetizer, followed by my famous butternut squash soup, served in bowls carved out of the goards. The gargantuan organic turkey, a bird I brined and stuffed with a shitake mushroom, cranberry, and chestnut stuffing before blasting and drizzling with honey was served surrounded by an army of fingerling potatoes baked in truffle oil, shallot and cream reduction of whiskey gravy, roasted sweat potatoes in a buttery glaze of Hawaiian red sea salt , skinny and elegant French style haricots vert with almonds, cranberry sauce with Amazonian berries ground up and added for their anti-oxidant power, various pumpkin pies, (yes... it was) NUTS. It was labor intensive to cook ALL this food, butt it was NOT ass labor intensive as the double duty eating I dove into mountainous piles of food like a starving beast, hungry for pleasure.
This year, the only massive expansion on the schedule is that of the TalkingGrid. I see the TalkingGrid adding up to a maximum of eleven art inspired and focused writers/personalities/social-butterfly/introvert book hounds/ full time experts on various facets of the ART universe. Together WE will feast on art world offerings, always from a fresh, un-central, yet informed, perspective. Embarking on unexpected art adventures, which will take us all overt the world, literally. We have, Ron Schira. His three original stories revolving on, Frau Kolb’s request, around issues of NUDE experiences in ART viewing are an invitation into the mood of this playful, sexy, far from mainstream, timeless, ART adventure which is The Talkinggrid. Furthermore, it is our intention to shed some light onto issues of censorship, exploring boundaries, and finding the essential truth, sometimes cloaked yet always present, that THE BODY of Western ART, is sparked by the changing yet perpetual presence of the Body in ART. The most abstract of artists, uses his or her hands, heart, and BRAIN to paint and if the painting is erotic, or of a hot body, or IF the artist pierces the barrier of creative control and submits themselves ass nude model for others to paint... HEY! The experiences, the life, the thinking of a true artist IS always INTERESTING... again and again, the BODY fascinates us in art ass concept, the BODY is always central to the discourse of art, found onlyat The Talkinggrid.
We also have a brilliant article from Ola Manana and her deeply personal perspective on Obama-Care, of real charity, and her sister’s choice to donate a to a neighbor during hurricane Sandy’s rage. We are eagerly awaiting her coverage of our Sunday visit to the Barnes Foundation with La Suzy, Los Angeles native, currently based out of Brooklyn New York, artist that Frau Kolb had the pleasure of meeting at Perform Chinatown, earlier this year. Amazing, Ola!
This year TalkingGrid published a solid series of artist interviews, art chats, informal dips into the cosmic expanse of individualistic vision and drive to manifest public renditions of artistic excellence and personal aesthetic understanding, a prowess demonstrated through exposed and original philosophies of ART, made solid, open, and available for collecting! Hah! Looking UP close at artists working TODAY and everyday makes me a richer person and for that I’m extremely thankful.
There is so much to be grateful for. Including that I’ve decided to forego cooking at home this year. Instead, we have other plans. We will celebrate the holiday within a framework of our history. WE will celebrate the holiday ass we do each year buy eating and feasting and gorging ourselves on LOVE, so let’s leave the credit card at home (impossible) and lets LOVE the ones that are with us and the ones that are not! Let’s send love to our brothers and sisters around the world that decide that WAR is a path toward peace, each day. Let’s work toward full tables laden with fresh organic food for every human that wants it. Let’s embrace the idea for even a second everyday that there is hope evidenced in our collective HORROR over human rights violations, poverty, natural disaster(s), crime, and any human that finds themselves alone, neglected, or needing a manicure before the holiday and feeling that a single hang-nail is cause for tears. Pain is relative. Universal. And... always a reminder that we are alive, for which we can be eternally grateful.
Thank you,
Frau Kolb