Gregg making a rubbing of a manhole in Berlin. You may think why? Well, that rubbing is an excellent image for us to make our OWN silk-screen in order to make our OWN Berlin t-shirts, instead of buying mass produced touristy ones! Once we have our t-shirts made - I'll post them here for you all to see.
Some of the best gummy bears I have ever eaten in my whole life were from Potsdam, Berlin. They actually tasted as though they were made with real fruit juice - not to mention they were mammoth in size.
Berlin's mascot/national-animal is the bear - hence we saw lots of artist renditions of the form. Like these! Since these particular bears were in the lobby of our hotel - they 'embody' paintings of all the popular tourist attractions in the area.
Now for another kind of street art...see that building- that is the Kunsthaus Tacheles. If you look closely you can see the name of the building written on it.
Tacheles is not so simple to describe, although the tourist's books try to do it justice. It is a counter-culture artist space. A former department store, it now looks like an abandoned building that has been taken over by a self-organized collective of artists. There are studio spaces, a cafe, cinema, performance space, workshops and exhibition space. In the evening it is a night club. The grounds, hallways and ever architectural feature has had an artistic mark placed on it. There are stunning sculptures out back, in addition to surrounding buildings used as canvases. I was so enthralled I took so many pics. SAdly, we saw many petitions out while we there and upon returning have learned that the lease runs out this year - it seems that the future of this space is yet to be determined. For the 'creatives' out there that read my blog, this is sure to be a treat.
Here I am out in back of Tacheles in their sculpture garden. I love charging bulls so when I saw this I knew I had to have a pic with it! There were quite a few welded- sculptures out back that were beautiful in their execution. There was also a train, automobile and helicopter covered in graffiti.
Here is Gregg out back in front of the helicopter
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This is Gregg in the Tacheles hallway. Now you see what I mean about every iota of the space having a mark on it.
The surrounding buildings are used like mammoth canvases. This soccer mural below is mind-blowing. Click on the thumbnail to see the soccer image up close.
Gregg and I discovered these small paintings by painter and graphic designer Andras Bartos and we bought one! His paintings are whimsical and also somber takes on humanity. While walking around the neighborhood we also saw his studio.
Well, I have more images but I think is this enough for today. I hope I haven't drowned you all in visual noise!!