Dear Friends,

Thanks for visiting my blog!

Since I'm a very slow blogger and keeping my website updated is a challenge of its own, I moved my blog to www.dark-smile-studio.com, my home base. Thought, keeping everything in one place won't be that overwhelming... ;-)

You are most welcome and heartly invited to visit me over there at http://www.dark-smile-studio.com/blog.html, I'll do my very best to be more entertaining in the future! ;-)

Hope to see you soon, thanks for stopping by!!!

Keep bleeding, Heart...

Mourning Magdalen, Banshee Of The Broken Hearts

She cares for all, who died of a broken heart.
Guiding them safely to the other side, she's singing the most beautiful lovesong.
Unfortunately the living are not able to stand the cruel beauty of this unearthly sound- it would smash their drumheads.
Only the dead, loving souls are able to hear the Banshee's voice,
and so she rewards their loving hearts, showing them,
that every love is worth to be loved.

How Wood Comes To Life - Marionette Carving Workshop Summer 2010

Vlad The Pale One, always craving for something fresh...

There are places in the world, where you know immediately that you are in a good one, one, where good people doing good things.

One of these places is Mirek Trejtnars workshop in Prague, where wonderful classes in marionette carving, manipulating, animated film, etc. take place once or twice every year.

And so did I. Doing something good by taking part in Mireks summer carving workshop in Prague and with me 11 other fellow carvers from 9 different countries all over the continents.

This was the time of my life. Nothing more and nothing less.

And Vlad The Pale One is the living proofe, that it wasn't just a dream...

He immediately became famous (ok, not only he) by his legendary interpretation of the bloody, cruel, creepy, scary story of Snowwhite and the 7 Dwarfs.

The Czech Version of Snowwhite - for adults only ;-))

And here they are, the wonderful fellow creatures of Vlads:

ADO mini monthly challenge Foreign Objects

All started with a bottletop - not a usual one, of course, more a Kreml-like - and it ended as an opera diva.

The studio of the muse proudly presents:

Dame Joy Fuller, full of joy, passion and... well, to be honest, her voice is not her biggest talent ;-))

But she refused to stop singing under the Queen's balcony, so, there are many different ways to gain a title...
And when she sings that is an eruption, nothing stays at its' place ;-)

 

On Wings of Desire...

What is bliss? If your desires show you the way to happiness? If you follow your dreams?

Or if your dreams show you who you really are?

Who knows. But whenever bliss is involved everything you are doing feels completely right.

And when you are in the right place at the right time things like that can happen:

The same time I've been in my beloved city again, the good fairies - of ADO - cared for me and my work. The next morning after I returned home, I found this among the blogs I'm following:

New Member Spotlight 

Well, that's actually me!

What a bliss!

Work in Progress

Well, there's something creepy going on...
Don't want to let the cat out of the bag, yet, but here are some tiny peeps, stolen from the studio of the muse...

Soon to be continued! :-))

Prague in September

A Gift:

The city always cares for me, is guiding me to make sure, I'm finding the places, I ought to be. Drawing me to the right place at the right time. Always.

That's, why I have to walk each and every cobblestone instead of taking the metro or the tram -  everytime, I'm there. Otherwise the magnets underneath the earth wouldn't find me.

Leaving my beloved city in a sentimental mood this time. Days full of magic and joy were about to end, and I was praying to my city for a sign to reassure me, that I'm always welcome within her ancient walls.

I sat on a bench under a tree on a very special place, just waiting for a traditional Czech marionette store around the corner to finish its lunch-break. Watching the people around me, listening to the stories these old benches are telling the one who was able to hear, it was too peaceful there, so I was about 30 minutes later than the shop was opening its door.

The moment I arrived a young Asian woman was wrapping herself into a weird looking costume - the Golem, maybe? Any tourist-animation?

Not long after I entered the store a wonderful medieval music started to play, and the freaky creature on the doorsteps began to move. Very slowly.

Heading outside with my camera, I was present at one of the most beautiful pantomimes.

A game, a dance between young and old, yin and yang, life and death, horror and joy, love and hate, man and woman took my breath away.

To win and to lose, to find and let go.

I had to fight the tears in my eyes facing that timeless, beautiful and neverending story.

Staying vulnerable enables you to embrace life to the fullest... 

  

  

  

About inner peace: 

The guardians of this old cemetery in my beloved city appear in a variety of guises. 

I didn't notice that, when taking the picture, but the word written on top of this tomb is "Friede", the German word for peace. Waiting silently underneath its crown of Ivy until I was ready to find it.

Is it a gate that we can simply walk through? Waiting for us patiently? Just to be discovered between the layers of heteronomy, unfulfilled dreams, fears, daily sorrows, it invites us into our personal, individual kingdom of inner peace.

Follow.