“…February was the last month in the year, but 450 years before Christ it was placed after January instead of before, and became the second month.”  (Later it became the last month again when March was reckoned as the beginning of a year.)

 “Now it has settled down to its second place.  But every four years February has one day added to its twenty-eight, and so it remains the most restless and unsettled month in the calendar.”

These are fun facts to teach my children while they are starting to learn about months of the year.

“The name February comes from a Roman festival of purification named Februa, in honour of the god Lupercus, and suggests cleansing and purifying.  In our own time it is towards the end of February that the housewife thinks about her spring cleaning.  The Romans regarded Februa as a festival for spiritual cleansing, but they celebrated the occasion by overeating.” P 5336 from an Encyclopedia

Here’s a list of what’s happening in February so far:

• Some installation shots of my work at the Erdmann Contemporary Gallery in the show: Actuality and illusion which opened  on the 5^th of February until the 15^th of March

image courtesy from the Gallery

• Browsing through some old sketchbooks and journals and came upon this image:

photocopied image of Peter Joel Witkin’s work with added text from magazines

(back in 1996 I started my studies in art at the P.E Technikon and at their Library books like Peter Joel Witkin’s photography and Serrano’s “Piss Christ” used to be locked up in cabinets and so if you wanted to have a look you had to ask the librarian for a key.  At first I felt very akward and later felt ‘special’ cause you had to have a key to get access to their images.)  It was also the year my mom passed to  the other side, and so I was very obsessed with images about death and etc.  Now years later I wonder if he was not my first influence for my love of the ‘noir’?

 *  I’ve diagnosed myself as an encyclopediaphile (I adore these books for their hands on information and interesting snippets like these:

•  A dear friend send me this link about gender and toys see here: (very interesting since I adore toys and ones relationship to it.) Mom’s out there I would love to hear your thoughts regarding this.  
• I’ve borrowed this amazing book from another dear friend: Panati’s Browser Book of Beginnings
• Busy re-writing my ‘artist statement’ for 2014 

•  Been wondering what’s in a name….toying with the idea to rename my blog to something like: Rubber & Honey (rubber being my prefferd medium to work with and Honey’s a nickname from a friend)….People keep on spelling my name HannElie instead of HannAlie… wonder if it makes a difference? I welcome your thoughts.
• And last but not least: in the final stages of preparation for my solo show: “Rubber ever After”  Watch this space for details