Preparation Week

This is my last week in Basel and while I’m working off my todo lists and constantly making new lists, I’m trying to enjoy the time here again to the fullest.

In the end, everything always comes together. No matter how much I prepare in the weeks before I leave, new problems and tasks suddenly pop up in the last days and want to be done before I’m away for some time. So the plans I made always get mixed up and I feel a bit stressed.

Making Lists

Lists are a remedy for this for me. I’m a big fan of the iOS lists app and it calms me down to use it to get organized when I have as many different things to do as I did this week. Every time I think of something I need to do, I jot it down in my inbox list and then sort it into my corresponding lists later, like the packing list or the prep list. What I also find practical about the lists is that you can show completed items again. So I can easily reactivate the packing list from last year and already have a basis for this trip. However, it remains a packed week. 

Let’s start with some art

Nevertheless, there was still time for art. At the Fondation Beyeler, all 8 of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Modena Paintings are currently on display, and I attended a lecture there on Monday evening about how they were created. The paintings have never been exhibited together in their entirety before, so it’s a great opportunity to enjoy the works.

Time for memories

I was organizing a class reunion with some friends on the weekend. Forty years have passed since we left school. Unbelievable how time flies. In preparation for the evening, I’ve been going through the photos from back then…how many memories come flooding back! I am happy to meet some classmates that I haven’t seen in all these years. But I am still friends with most of the guys from my class and we meet regularly. This is very nice and I feel blessed to go through life together with them.

I spent one last day with my father. He is not very happy at the moment. He should stop driving due to his advancing dementia, but he absolutely does not see that and gets angry when you call him on it. I don’t yet know how we can convince him of this and we have now postponed the decision until after I return in late August.

The daily escape

Relief from such rather negative incidents and all the preparation stress is provided by my morning jogs. It feels so good to just start running when the air is still fresh and the day is young. Immediately everything is forgotten and I am completely in the here and now. I like the change between nature and urban cityscape I am surrounded of and always find interesting views that I capture on my runs.

Work in progress

After being so productive last week, working in the studio definitely came up short this week.   I had to admit to myself that I won’t manage to finish the complete series of Still Lives. The last painting is prepared, but I don’t have the time to finish it. Well, it’s not running away and I’m very happy with Still Life IX, which at least I was able to complete.

For all Photos of the week click here