All my Treasures

I don’t posses much. I moved so many times all over the world. Everything we moved, we moved in suitcases. A lot of things had to stay, got lost or are buried in boxes in someone’s cellar.
There are only a few treasures that are valuable to me and I know, I can only keep those pieces that fit into a suitcase.

My friend and artist Ursula Döbereiner made this and I think she gave it to me as birthday present long time ago. I am very glad it survived all the moving and didn’t break. I so love her drawings.
I met Ua, that’s how I call her, in Berlin. We were neighbors and she came over to borrow a pot. We found out that we had been together in the same class in primary school. Simmernschule in Schwabing, Munich. We weren’t friends than, but we are still now.

I love this stone, I don’t remember where or who found it. It looks like a grumpy old man.

I love this postcard. I have it for a very long time. It always meant Heimat to me, the first years when I lived in Berlin and it still does. Even I am not from Switzerland, but I am from Bavaria and I grew up next to the mountains. Now I live close to the mountains again. Tiny mountains though. Compared to the Alps. The funny thing is, I didn’t get the joke for quite a time and when I realized it, I liked it even more. For those who didn’t get it either: The mountain on the picture is the famous Matterhorn.

My husband brought these stones from Dyer Island, an Island where penguins live and breade under observation and protection of the nature conservation. No one is allowed to go there but our friend Lauren is a Penguin Forscher and she took him one day. These stones are completely smooth, polished by penguin feet and arses for years.

This is a drawing of myself (not very flattering) by great artist Martin Kippenberger. He made it one night at the Paris Bar. My friend A. studied with him and every time he came to Berlin, he came to see Kippenberger. A. stayed at my place and therefore he took me to Paris Bar oder Exil where he met with K.

The evenings where exciting but became quite ugly almost every time when everybody was very drunk and K. ended up insulting people. Usually there were a lot of people around him. The night he made that drawing it was only us and B. K. also made a drawing of B. and when he handed it over to him, B. couldn’t believe it and asked: Is this for me? Can I keep it?”
K. took the picture, crumpled it into a ball, threw it away and said: “You Galeristen, all you think about is money”. B. immediately got on his knees and crouched under the table to get his picture.

I am still pondering on the meaning of the sentence K. wrote on my drawing: “Frauen können weil sie wissen gut sein.” Women can be good because they know.

My son found this shell on Grotto Beach. One of the most beautiful beaches in the world. He and his friend fought about who had seen it first, and Anton won and kept the shell and gave it to me. It is very seldom that you find these shells (I forgot their name) this big and whole, because they are very rare and thin and fragile. I always wanted to find one but never even found a piece. Unfortunately, someone broke it at the bottom. I was very cross when I found out but I made peace with it. It is still beautiful and I know it was whole when he found it.

My friends Nici and Sebastian gave me these beautiful bowls for my birthday. I was very moved because I didn’t expect it. I find them exceptionally beautiful even though I am not into ceramic at all, that makes them even more special. They were meant to be used, but I keep them in my room and let nobody in this family touch them, because they break everything.

My friends gave me this Aquarell by Florian Süssmayr for my 40th birthday. He is a friend of my friends and we all used to drink our beer at the Bader Cafe in Munich. He just had become an artist and is quite famous now. At first I was a little bit disappointed because It was a collective present and therefore I didn’t get anything else, but I really like it. It is a reminiscent to my home town Munich and it says Wednesday Ladies Day as it was painted with chalk on a black board in front of a Bavarian Wirtschaft.