{"id":14122,"date":"2026-01-03T20:50:44","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T19:50:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hohlweg.de\/january-silent-glow\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T17:59:44","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T15:59:44","slug":"january-silent-glow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hohlweg.de\/en\/january-silent-glow\/","title":{"rendered":"January &#8211; silent glow"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Happy New Year! And now? <\/h2>\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Silent glow: the snowman and me. We do our best <\/h3>\n\n<p>January doesn&#8217;t have a good reputation &#8211; too little light, too much stagnation. It&#8217;s like the big yawn after the party.<br\/>The music is off. The glasses have been washed. <br\/>Somewhere between tiredness and anticipation, I ask myself:<br\/>And now? <br\/>Yet every new year holds such great promise.<br\/>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.  <br\/>Maybe you&#8217;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.    <br\/><\/p>\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">There&#8217;s only one thing to do now: listen<\/h3>\n\n<p>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. <\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"636\" height=\"735\" src=\"https:\/\/hohlweg.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Kettenanhaenger1-1.jpg\" alt=\"Round silver-plated chain pendant with a handmade pair of birds made from dried plant remains on a designed front surface. Designed by Magdalena Hohlweg \" class=\"wp-image-7608\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The lovebirds as a piece of jewelry set in silver.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n<p>In art, nothing is isolated. Everything enters into dialog. Sometimes harmoniously, sometimes with friction &#8211; just like in real life. <br\/>A stick is more than dead wood. <br\/>A stone is not a mere weight.<br\/>A house is not a meaningless structure. <br\/>And a tiny plant remnant shows its lively shape.<br\/>Things enter into a dialog, react to each other. My works are not necessarily about defining things, but about <strong>setting them in motion<\/strong>.<br\/>Some motifs are cooperative, others are more&#8230; idiosyncratic.   <\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1536\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/hohlweg.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/WinterlandschaftmitPeperonivogel-1.jpg\" alt=\"Photo collage: Bird with pepperoni pepper body wanders through winter morning fog.\" class=\"wp-image-14151\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hohlweg.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/WinterlandschaftmitPeperonivogel-1.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/hohlweg.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/WinterlandschaftmitPeperonivogel-1-400x267.jpg 400w, https:\/\/hohlweg.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/WinterlandschaftmitPeperonivogel-1-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/hohlweg.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/WinterlandschaftmitPeperonivogel-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/hohlweg.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/WinterlandschaftmitPeperonivogel-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https:\/\/hohlweg.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/WinterlandschaftmitPeperonivogel-1-1024x683.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1536px) 100vw, 1536px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Slow, slow &#8211; across the snow <br\/>&#8211; the pepperoni pipit goes on a hike<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n<p>This weird bird has fluttered away from one of my collages. Where might it be heading? Perhaps it is a sleepwalker &#8211; the forest is dreaming a deep dream &#8211; 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.   <\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"565\" height=\"640\" src=\"https:\/\/hohlweg.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/PeperoniPieper-1.jpg\" alt=\"Contemporary art. Collage by Magdalena Hohlweg: Bird made from a pepperoni pepper with scribbled legs sits on a press stud \" class=\"wp-image-14147\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The pepperoni pipit has found its favorite spot <br\/>on a press stud<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n<p>As I said, art is helping me to realign myself right now.<br\/>It awakens my senses and allows me to look at new, unknown and familiar things<br\/>from different perspectives &#8211;<br\/>and without immediately deciding <em>what it means.<\/em> <br\/>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.  <\/p>\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Show your colors: Orange. Or: The inner hot water bottle <\/h3>\n\n<p>January needs warmth. And we certainly do &#8211; at least I do!   <br\/>So the color of the month for January is orange. Like the glow. Like the sun shining in the winter morning mist. Like rust &#8211; 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 &#8211; and reminds us to trust our own path.  <br\/>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.<br\/>Orange is a friendly reminder: everything around me is alive.<br\/>And some of it could even support me &#8211; if I let it.<br\/>Orange doesn&#8217;t say: <em>pull yourself together.<\/em><br\/>It says:   <em>You are connected. Even today. <\/em>  That&#8217;s already something.<\/p>\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Take five creative minutes! Now! <\/h3>\n\n<p>Okay. I&#8217;m going to take five minutes for a stone today. I place it in my hand, close my eyes and listen. It doesn&#8217;t respond immediately with words. Rather with a thought, an image or a feeling.<br\/>Stones are great storytellers. And amazingly close to us.     <\/p>\n\n<p>I love the idea that the minerals in stone &#8211; calcium, iron, selenium, sulphur, copper, zinc &#8211; 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.<br\/>Without a white beard &#8211; therefore difficult to recognize.<br\/>Our connection to stones and everything around us is not a crazy, esoteric idea.<br\/>It is physical. Chemical. Real.<br\/>This idea helps me to know that I am connected again.   <\/p>\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Everything works together (even on cloudy days)<\/h3>\n\n<p>No big resolutions today. No optimization programs today. Just small, achievable movements.  <\/p>\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Treat a found object as if it has a story for you<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Pick up something that you would normally leave lying around.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Place orange next to gray &#8211; on the table, in your head or in the picture &#8211; and see what changes.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Listen before you have an opinion.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p>Maybe a new path will open up. Maybe just a new thought.<br\/>Both are perfectly adequate for a January day. <\/p>\n\n<p>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 &#8211; 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.   <\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"588\" height=\"735\" src=\"https:\/\/hohlweg.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/AussschnittMoewe.jpg\" alt=\"Collage by Magdalena Hohlweg with a fragment of a delphinium flower reinterpreted as a hopping bird.\" class=\"wp-image-4092\" style=\"width:588px;height:auto\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The delphinium bird flits through the picture &#8211; its fluffy plumage caught by a gust of wind<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n<p>My artistic work tells me very clearly: I am not outside the world,<br\/>I am part of it &#8211; even when I&#8217;m standing in the kitchen in January with thick socks on, thinking about what I actually wanted to do on this gray day.<br\/>And yes, sometimes I find answers. But much more often I discover new questions.<br\/>Questions that broaden my view and make unusual connections visible. <\/p>\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Take time for art!<\/h3>\n\n<p>With best wishes<\/p>\n\n<p>Magdalena Hohlweg<\/p>\n\n<p><strong>PS: Each month brings its own unique inspirations!  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"has-petrol-700-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-4e7cda5e9ab6d52b45f49f751f887c75\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/hohlweg.de\/en\/october-time-for-art\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"12758\">October is pink!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p>Art is dead in <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/hohlweg.de\/en\/november-art-is-dead\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"12877\">November<\/a><\/strong>?<\/p>\n\n<p>The <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/hohlweg.de\/en\/december-magic\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"13437\">December<\/a><\/strong> has a special magic. For art too! <\/p>\n\n<p>The <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/hohlweg.de\/en\/february-diversity\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"14937\">February<\/a><\/strong> is still gray, but there is confetti<\/p>\n\n<p>The <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/hohlweg.de\/en\/maerz-die-kunst-des-hinschauens\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"16073\">March<\/a><\/strong> prepares the ground<\/p>\n\n<p>The <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/hohlweg.de\/en\/april-finde-heraus-was-du-wirklich-willst\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"16397\">April<\/a><\/strong> doesn&#8217;t quite know what it wants yet<\/p>\n\n<p>Click here for <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/hohlweg.de\/en\/mein-weg-zur-kunst-und-zurueck-zu-mir\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"15708\">access to my monthly notes<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Happy New Year! And now? Silent glow: the snowman and me. We do our best January doesn&#8217;t have a good reputation &#8211; too little light, too much stagnation. It&#8217;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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":14144,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[360,348],"tags":[350,492,534,445,535],"class_list":["post-14122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-collage-en","category-projects","tag-art","tag-creativity","tag-january","tag-nature","tag-silence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hohlweg.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hohlweg.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hohlweg.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hohlweg.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hohlweg.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14122"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/hohlweg.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16813,"href":"https:\/\/hohlweg.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14122\/revisions\/16813"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hohlweg.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hohlweg.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hohlweg.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hohlweg.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}