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Magnetic Bookmarks

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April 2023

- The Magic Violin -

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For many years now I have been selling my reproduced watercolour motifs as magnetic bookmarks. They are not only suitable for books, but also as magnetic marking clips for sheet music. So not a market day goes by without me being asked for instruments as motifs. I couldn't fulfil everyone's wish, because only my guitar and the old piano were available. 'Oh, that's too bad,' lament my customers. How to get new motifs? Usually I 'come across' them somewhere. But in Berlin I don't know anyone who plays the violin, cello, saxophone, trumpet, drums, harp, zither or flute.

When I told my friend Barbara about it, she invited me to come and visit her during the holidays. At her music school in Bonn, she said, I would have access to as many instruments as my heart desired. A short time later I was already on my way to her by train. "Which instruments do you want to paint?" she asked curiously. "Preferably all of them. But first a saxophone, because I would like to be able to play that myself. Then a drum kit. No cellar or household with children should be without one. And a violin: my best school friend Sibylla had to practise even when I visited her, to her and my sorrow. Those are unforgettable memories." I laughed and Barbara grinned understandingly. "And after that, I just keep painting." But, of course, I just had time for my three favourite instruments. For already the weekend was over and the music school holidays had come to an end.

For the return journey, I chose a ship that took me from Bonn via Koblenz to Rüdesheim. On this spring day, I sat wrapped in a woollen blanket on the deck at the front of the bow. All the sounds that surrounded me – even the lively gurgling splash of the Rhine waves, the lumbering chug of the ship's engine or the many-voiced chatter of other passengers – seemed harmonious and melodic to me that day. Of the many pieces of music we had listened to together, Jan Garbarek's saxophone playing and Ginger Baker's drum solos still rang in my ears. And the enchanting tones of 'my' violin. Because Barbara's husband Alex had played something for me on it after I had finished my painting. The river and the Middle Rhine landscape flowed gently and movingly. I was able to listen to them, too, on this day, like a beautiful concert. Sometimes sounds create images and in turn images generate music.

 

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