The Impact of Things

When I was twenty-two years old, I was walking through the mountains in France with my then German husband, and his father. We hiked all day to a small rural village, got cleaned up, and dined at the well-hidden, three star Michelin rated restaurant there. It was a divine food experience. My father in law had been an art collector his entire adult life. While we dined, he told us the story of the German artist who owned this restaurant hidden in the French hills, and spoke vividly of the things that drew him to his art. My father in law was an art history teacher to me, and I admired his taste in art. At the time, I was an art student, and it was his interest to impress upon me his artistic ideals, which I accepted honorably. Klaus Fussman, the German painter, was the subject of that dining experience, and from that point on he was an artist I watched closely and studied. Since then, I have acquired three small Fussman pieces of my own, and have several of his exhibition books which I refer to often. I don't work professionally with water-color paints, as Fussman does, but in making art with my children we use them and discuss how Fussman achieved certain looks. I'm grateful for the exposure my former husbands father gave to me, and for the beauty and liveliness I experience when viewing Fussman's work.