Happy New Year! And now?

Silent glow: the snowman and me. We do our best

January doesn’t have a good reputation – too little light, too much stagnation. It’s like the big yawn after the party.
The music is off. The glasses have been washed.
Somewhere between tiredness and anticipation, I ask myself:
And now?
Yet every new year holds such great promise.
Everything seems possible. Everything should change. At the same time, the world seems so far away. The quiet days throw me back on myself. I am torn between what I want to do and what everyday life demands of me.
Maybe you’re like me: in January, I feel slightly disconnected from the world and sometimes even from myself. Yet an amazing amount happens in January. Just not loudly. The world withdraws in January. But it is not silent.

There’s only one thing to do now: listen

Because this is perhaps how I experience the opportunity to recognize: everything is alive and I am connected to everything. Especially in my artistic work, all elements are in contact with each other.

In art, nothing is isolated. Everything enters into dialog. Sometimes harmoniously, sometimes with friction – just like in real life.
A stick is more than dead wood.
A stone is not a mere weight.
A house is not a meaningless structure.
And a tiny plant remnant shows its lively shape.
Things enter into a dialog, react to each other. My works are not necessarily about defining things, but about setting them in motion.
Some motifs are cooperative, others are more… idiosyncratic.

This weird bird has fluttered away from one of my collages. Where might it be heading? Perhaps it is a sleepwalker – the forest is dreaming a deep dream – and the little pepperoni pipit looks a little sleepy too. I put him back in his place: once a tiny pepperoni pod, he now perches, precisely balanced, on a press stud in one of my works.

As I said, art is helping me to realign myself right now.
It awakens my senses and allows me to look at new, unknown and familiar things
from different perspectives –
and without immediately deciding what it means.
I find this a great relief. Free and creative thoughts are particularly invigorating right now! This is probably why the color orange goes particularly well with January.

Show your colors: Orange. Or: The inner hot water bottle

January needs warmth. And we certainly do – at least I do!
So the color of the month for January is orange. Like the glow. Like the sun shining in the winter morning mist. Like rust – the old iron that slowly gives up its resistance. Or like the sly lynx: glowing orange like a small torch in the white snow. He knows where he is going – and reminds us to trust our own path.
Orange brings warmth to what is happening and I perhaps give up some of my distance. For a moment, I no longer feel like an outsider, but part of a living fabric.
Orange is a friendly reminder: everything around me is alive.
And some of it could even support me – if I let it.
Orange doesn’t say: pull yourself together.
It says: You are connected. Even today. That’s already something.

Take five creative minutes! Now!

Okay. I’m going to take five minutes for a stone today. I place it in my hand, close my eyes and listen. It doesn’t respond immediately with words. Rather with a thought, an image or a feeling.
Stones are great storytellers. And amazingly close to us.

I love the idea that the minerals in stone – calcium, iron, selenium, sulphur, copper, zinc – are trace elements that form our own body structure. So we are related. Quite clearly. Stones were just there much earlier. They are our ancestors, so to speak.
Without a white beard – therefore difficult to recognize.
Our connection to stones and everything around us is not a crazy, esoteric idea.
It is physical. Chemical. Real.
This idea helps me to know that I am connected again.

Everything works together (even on cloudy days)

No big resolutions today. No optimization programs today. Just small, achievable movements.

• Treat a found object as if it has a story for you
• Pick up something that you would normally leave lying around.
• Place orange next to gray – on the table, in your head or in the picture – and see what changes.
• Listen before you have an opinion.

Maybe a new path will open up. Maybe just a new thought.
Both are perfectly adequate for a January day.

Creativity is a game with all the elements. Perhaps you create a new landscape in which the earth holds, the water connects, the air brings movement – and the fire breathes warmth into the scene. I do it my own way. In any case, this tiny creature in the picture is already in motion.

My artistic work tells me very clearly: I am not outside the world,
I am part of it – even when I’m standing in the kitchen in January with thick socks on, thinking about what I actually wanted to do on this gray day.
And yes, sometimes I find answers. But much more often I discover new questions.
Questions that broaden my view and make unusual connections visible.

Take time for art!

With best wishes

Magdalena Hohlweg

PS: Each month brings its own unique inspirations!

October is pink!

Art is dead in November?

The December has a special magic. For art too!

The February is still gray, but there is confetti

The March prepares the ground

The April doesn’t quite know what it wants yet

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