That year is worked on the play “Schöne Blumen”. This play became notorious among those who worked on it. Bad mojo. It was the first time a play I worked on was completely dominated by commercial managers, on every level, actors, set design, music etc... As I was saying, bad mojo all around. It already started when they commercial managers turned down the poster design because it wasn't how a poster for a play should look like.
“Schöne Blumen” turned out to be a difficult process because of the commercial strains that got hold of this play. The original idea of an inverted tower of Babel, a bit like Dante's Hell, but executed as a sports hall, was turned down. Mind you, not because it was bad (it wasn't) but because it didn't suit the commercial managers. Again.
Finally I came up with the inverse idea of the Babel Sports Hall, namely floating platforms that invaded some of the public seats. It was built out of bamboo and wooden planks. The play flopped. Later I promised the playwright and director, I would never give in to bad influences anymore. It doesn't serve me nor him. And I never did.
Back to the enamel paintings. Mind you, these paintings done with enamel were always painted laying down, using a bridge. “The Great Fire” (enamel on canvas, 175 x 200 cm), after the terrible firestorms they have in Australia.
“Petals” (enamel on canvas, 200 x 240 cm), petals floating on the water, inspired by a Haiku. “White petals Falling, falling now! On water music”
By the way, I still made Sumi paintings (enamel on pvc) albeit with irregular intervals. In a way, they were my manner of creating a Haiku. “Wolf! Howling over the hills, hunting.” "Cry Wolf" (enamel on pvc, 100 x 140 cm) was the only one I did that year and even this was a commission. My wolves always were popular.
As a matter of fact, I like the Wolf Sumi so much that I decided to make a painting of it, also using enamel. “Cry Wolf" (enamel on canvas, 175 x 200 cm).
One of the last multicolored fur paintings I did was "Red Room" (135 x 160 cm).
In this multi panelled fur painting "Cornfields" (240 x 260 cm) I took a step closer to the monochrome again. Instead of several colors in one single work (canvas), I divided one image into different panels (50 x 70 cm each) and painted each of them in a single color. From dark yellow-orange (foreground) to a very light yellow (background).
One of my recurring subjects over the years were wolves (mostly in fur paintings, wolves worked well on fur). Since 1994 I made several series of them. This is one of the oldest, “The Pack” (oil on artificial fur,130 x 200 cm, 1996).
These silver wolves were done in end of 2005.
Moonlight | oil on artificial fur | 135 x 200 cm | 2005
Brothers | oil on artificial fur | 140 x 140 cm | 2010
And in the meantime life went on, as they say...