Birthday Quiz - Claudia

Welcome to another quiz session due to Our Creative Corner celebrating the first anniversary under the lead of wonderful, lovely Laura! Wow - where has time gone? A year already?

This time it is my turn to answer some questions....and while answering them I got really really nostalgic and a bit driven away too...so I think you might learn a bit of the less "cool" side of me today ;) . At least more of it than I had intended to show you *smile.


What story do your friends still banter you about?

I still am being told the story when I drove my brand new (!) car down that one steep step towards a shop window. I had parked it there when it had already been dark outside (so I didn't see that step) and forgot that I had left the car in first gear (which I usually don't...but new car, you know?) when I restarted it. So my car almost "jumped" towards that window when it suddenly rolled over the edge of that step. Then there was a loud and ghastly shrieking of metal against concrete....I could just sit and stare at that window pane coming closer and closer, pressing down on the break with my foot like a madman - without any effect. Gladly there was enough space between the show window and the parking spot....*phew.

Luckily one of my friends had some logs in his car, so we could haul up my small car rather easily (at about 2 am in the night). I remember that I drove home (in the dark of night) - always looking into the rear mirror to see if any parts had fallen off my new car yet. But luckily I only lightly scratched the car's bottom side.


Whats the most unusual thing you've ever eaten?

Roasted termites. They were a souvenir of a dear friend's parents, who had traveled to Africa, and he presented them in a bowl without telling what it was. So they looked like some nuts or seeds. They were pretty crunchy and tasted a bit burnt. After I had eaten one I took another, but this time I saw the tiny curled-in feet....well, no need to say that I didn't eat another.


Do you believe in destiny, fate or free will?

I don't like the terms "destiny" and "fate" honestly. And within certain boundaries free will is an illusion we want to believe in so we don't feel too controlled by "fate" or "destiny" (or whatever it is we want to call it).
And it scares hell out of most people if they would admit (to themselves) or come to the conclusion that all the things that happen to them only happen accidentally...as the results of some unforeseeable chain reactions and without purpose.
But I do believe in the fact that we always have a lot more choices in situations when we feel trapped and think that there's only one way out (most of the time not an easy or comfortable one and combined with sacrifices). We just don't see them as they are out of our usual ways of dealing with that kind of matter.
And I also believe that everything that happens to us (even something bad or sad), happens to us for a reason - we only cannot see it yet. Having gone through more than just one crises yet, I believe in this even more, as I always found myself having grown and gotten stronger by enduring and getting through those hard times.


What makes you feel nostalgic?

The smell of box tree. The moment it catches my nose I find myself transported back to the age of four or five, "inhabiting" a castle at the lake's shore with my grandmother, walking through enchanted forests that still surround the castle and rowing the boat over the incredibly deep and dark lake. There was a wonderful big parkway next to the castle and it had lots of box tree hedges and paths and when the summer sun was really hot the smell of the box tree was everywhere. 
My grandma often used to take me with her to "Villa Castiglioni", which was at that time a recreation place for the employees of the company she worked for. It was a romantic castle, built 1881 by Franz Ritter von Winniwarter. It was bought by the rich Camillo Castiglioni in 1920 and has been called after him since then.
It was one of the most enchanted places I have ever been to and I still miss it dearly since it was sold to some independent gentleman in 1999.

The small girl steering the wheel of the electric boat is me (although I preferred rowing mostly), driving my mom and my granny around (being very proud of course). You can see a bit of the Villa Castiglioni and its surroundings in the background. And there were swans. A lot of swans and we all loved to feed them (and they knew...so they always followed us around). So swans do make me feel nostalgic too.


If someone could give you the 'perfect day' - money, events, people, places all available to you - how would you spend that day?
No hard guess after you have read the previous passage I suppose....;)

My perfect day would be spending it at Villa Castiglioni with all my loved ones to show them that special "world" I come from and the place that influenced most of my love for and approach to creativity, arts, nature and poetry. We would of course stay in that enchanted castle tower room with the lovely metal spiral stairs and the balcony, looking down at the lake at our feet and all the mountains surrounding it. We would stroll the parkways, smell the box tree hedges, have a picnic at that hidden spot with the mysterious obelisk in the forest and row the boat along the deep, black Grundlsee's shore until we reach that place where the large daffodil fields used to be (and hopefully are there still). It is the one place on earth where I left a piece of my heart back then - and still feel that I miss it.


Which of the four seasons do you prefer and why?

Definitely Autumn!
Not only early autumn when the trees' leaves start to create their fireworks of colour and also later drown the forest's ground in a sea of red.

But also late autumn...when everything has already started to lose colour, crumble, rot and fade away.

Autumn to me means the most colourful, textural and meaningful time of the year's cycle. It is decay and at the same time promise for re-growth...winter to me just seems to cover up what autumn has already prepared for spring to do its renewal magic. Autumn is the real source of spring's power. Autumn tells stories about faith and letting go. Autumn shows us that nothing is lost forever. Autumn slowly turns down the volume of nature's song and prepares our minds for a time of rest too I think.

Autumn is that time of the year when I love to hike the Vienna Woods with my camera ready to capture all of its beauty and miracles. To me it is the most inspiring season of all. I added some of my favourite autumn photographs I have been taking throughout the years. I hope they explain what it is that I so love with this special season.

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Thank you for stopping by today to celebrate with us! I loved telling you a bit more personal and non-art-related stuff (but in a way it is related to my art I assume - or rather the other way round...;) about me. And sometimes knowing more personal things about an artist also changes the way you look at the creations she makes, right?

As always: hugs and happy crafting,
Claudia x