I have discovered my new favourite German word “Zeitraum”

Zeit = Time

Raum = Room

TIMEROOM….. T I M E R O O M….. a room, for time! Room for time.

Well, that is becoming my interpretation of the word anyway. The fun of not being very good at German yet is that I simply make it up! I have since learnt that “Zeitraum” is usually translated simply as “period” or “span” or “lapse”, but that is much less… expansive than my definition, so I’m sticking to it!

I can’t find it now but I’m quite sure that I read one translation of Zeitraum to mean the TIME between two points in SPACE….. It’s quite mind blowing if you think about it, which I have been.

These ponderings have led me to think about my journeys from A-B and the time they give me to think about things. Since moving to Berlin my “commute” down to France for exhibitions gives me two blissful days of driving, with nothing to focus on but the road. It is a kind of meditation, only with my eyes open!

Giving myself time to relax, not filling every hour with a Good Plan does not come easily to me (though I am making a concerted effort of late) so these days on the road are quite precious. This time alone, just me and Betty, (my faithful Honda Jazz, have I mentioned how wonderful those cars are?!) gives me time to think, talk my crazy plans, doubts and dreams out loud and sing along as badly as I possibly can to cheesy songs on the radio.

There are smaller “Zeitraum” moments; from home to the studio by tram or by bike and the return. Often I get to see the sun coming up or the sun going down. Nature makes her presence known, even in the city.

And then my larger Zeitraum, beginning with a walk through the Elm Forest which borders the village where I met the reason for moving eventually to Berlin is my point A and.. well, who knows the final destination?

Larger still… well, we are all contained between points in time, carrying out our lives as we move from A-B, or should that be B-D… which leads me to think about what comes next and how, perhaps, all we know and can conceive of in our wildest imaginations is only contained within the Zeitraum of our known universe and we can only glimpse at what might be beyond with a more spiritual intuition.

I am in the process of putting all these musings onto canvas and the resulting body of work “Zeitraum” will be exhibited at my forthcoming annual exhibition in at Galerie Inspiré France*, opening at the end of October, after a long drive down a familiar road.

…until then.

🙂

*The gallery has changed location. Still in Azille, now housed in a beautiful new space on 5bis Rue de Grippis.