No 5

THE CREATIVE MIND

Thomas Müller, "Untitled", 2020, ball point pen on paper, 29,7 x 21 cm

When do you feel your imagination sparked?

I learned about Müller’s art during an art consulting gig in Frankfurt in 2019. I was fascinated by the power of his works, how vibrating and mesmerizing.  This particular drawing triggered imaginary expansion of a perceived movement.

When you glance at the lively assembly of ink blue lines, do you also see forming rivers, rays or air streams, and feel your imagination sparked?
Where does it begin?
Where does it end?
Does it get wider, narrower, or does it fade out into a void of white, or a void of dark ink blue?

The lines are suggesting a change in direction, lending the drawing objectivity, plasticity and maybe something figurative.

Looking at this visual of a moment in time, it creates an impulse to follow a train of thought completely free, not bound to any preconceptions, except the very own. In this act of viewing, we may feel invited to explore, discover and acknowledge the creative mind, which exists in each and every one of us. Like an underground river, that is constantly flowing, but barely heard and not seen, we just forget it’s there.

German artist Thomas Müller creates stunning work with pencil ink, ballpoint pen, crayon and paint on paper, sometimes a shard of glass that serves as a ruler. He has widely exhibited and is represented by galleries Florian Sundheimer in Munich, WErner klein in Cologne, Michael Sturm in Stuttgart, Patrick Heide Contemporary Art in London, Bernard Vidal - Nathalie Bertoux art contemporain in Paris, Kristof de Clercq in Gent, and Galleria Torbandena in Trieste. His work in included in numerous institutional collections, including Centre Pompidou, Hamburger Kunsthalle; Staatliche Museen zu Berlin; Kunstmuseum Bonn; Staatsgalerie Stuttgart; and Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest.

“Attraction and repulsion,breathing in and breathing out, vigor and laxity are poles between which my work oscillates…My work generates its  energy and vitality precisely from these polarities and tensions.”

Thomas Müller

Müller’s piece is a true inspiration to be reminded, that creativity and flow are inseparable.

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Do you know what food design is? If you think it's about making a dish look pretty...not at all!

When I tell people, that I study food design, they often automatically assume, that I learn how to do food plating, meaning making things pretty looking on the plate. And then I get excited and explain, “no, no, no, it’s about using food as an artistic medium to convey one’s creative ideas... food connects people with people, connects us humans with our very existence, as we all need to eat, and therefore all need to grow or hunt or harvest or shop, or steal or beg for food. We have a body full of most intelligent senses, and I want to start creating experiences for all of them.

An elixir for a Birthday boy, during a 'Celebration of life' experience dinner I created, that is using the 4 stages of alchemy as a metaphors.

It started with Inés Lauber at Satellite Berlin. We had developed the module VITAL FORCES, a think tank exploring food culture of the past, present and future in connection to the arts and sciences. The topic took a hold of me and urged me to want to learn more. So here I am, calling myself a culinary explorer and investigator, and re-discovering my own creativity.

Satellite Berlin, VITAL FORCES - think tank, food culture of the past, present and future, 2016. photo: Annabelle Graf

“Food design is applying design thinking to the act of eating. In the latter the designer involves broad topics like politics, identity, health, culture and landscape into a design with food. The design can be manifested as a dinner, a dish, an installation, a workshop or a book. Many times, eating design is not about food directly but wouldn’t be possible without food."

Marije Vogelzang, the Grand Dame of Eating Design

I hope this enlightened you a bit?
Here some images of recent projects...

A glass sugar turnip I created in a glass moulding workshop at Berlin glass. I wanted to get a heart from a pig or a cow, but could not find one in time. Either way, it looks almost like it, so I used it as a elixir vessel in the Life Celebration Experience Dinner.

First course of Life Celebration Experience dinner, black beluga lentils on Black carboned rice = Purification, phase 'Nigredo'

Work in progress: Proteins, a visual exploration of structures and colors of proteins we eat (above), and protein strands as seen under a microscope (below)