A.I.R Madrid

Hi guys!

Here is an update of already 3 weeks in Madrid! At first as I arrived, you can imagine, I'm immediately falling in love with the neighborhood Malasaña. Everything is just around the corner. The grocery shop, the 1 euro shop, the post office etc. I walk everything and as much as I can and get pleasantly lost every day. I take photo's, as a way of collecting, of streets and houses. Today I decided to collect the artificial flowers i keep seeing on the floor and start a new collection for possible work. I have a lovely apartment all for myself where I do my drawings, but I also have a favourite square where i sit and draw buildings called Plaza Dos de Mayo. When I arrived I started drawing right away and I want to draw at least one drawing a day, but that's not happening in the second week already. That's because social life is also catching up here! Also: I want to draw with content, something meaningful. So I started placing God in the center on day 1 and that took effect right away: God gives me something to draw about if I start and end the day with Him, awesome. It gives meaning, cause now I feel I'm on to something, together with God and that's exciting. The drawings are in that way prayers or discoveries with Him.

Decoupage I met Chris and Gloria, Kelly and April and their 3 kids, and the other members of the community Decoupage: Paz, a Spanish girl who lives a street away, Adriana, a lady from Colombia who is of course very warm, enjoys hugging type of person, and Alejandra and Johnny, a Colombian/Spanish couple, all supernice folks. The theme they are discussing is homosexuality. We are all reading a chapter a week from a book called Walking with Gay Friends, by Alex Tylee. As Christians in general we haven't pulled it off so well how to deal with this theme towards homosexuals or towards Christian homosexuals. The author of this book is a lesbian christian. The community feels like the art community back in Amsterdam: we eat together, pray together and after discus a theme. But before that we go to the Plaza 2 de Mayo (square) where we pray for the neighborhood on the spot. The rest of the week is not necessarily about connecting with people and eventually pull them into the Decoupage group to expand the community, but it's the other way around: the connecting happens where the people already are. Seeing each other regularly at the park, cafe, club etc. This is for me a new approach I'm learning from. Kelly Crull has introduced me to the neighborhood by taking walks and showing me all what's going on here, while giving me also historical and demographic background information. Last weekend he took me to the community garden where I had a nice talk pulling out weeds, until my violent hey fever forced me to leave the place.

Meeting new people I keep running into René who lives in the area i like to sit and draw at the Plaza 2 de Mayo. He is an American with most family in Panamá, and he travels and lives here and there. He has two funny Jack Russel dogs always with him. He shared his concern for his housemate and friend who is hooked on cocaine and wasting hundreds of euros per week, also the rent. Would be nice to connect him to Decoupage or other christian friends I'm meeting here. (I still work like that ;)

One day I locked myself out and I had to get a copy of the keys at a friend of the girl's apartment i'm staying in. This girl Maria is such an open and nice person and we were just talking and talking that she almost forgot to give me the keys. I might invite her for something too, but she already suggested to have coffee in June. Also one day, late on a Saturday, on my way back home, I passed a catholic church that was open at 2 am in the morning on a very busy square where all the Spanish were partying the weekend. I walked in, curious, about how late it was open. A friendly girl told me all about how they just were open so people could have a quiet time and pray. And so I told her what I am doing here and she prayed for me and was very excited that we both wanted to share about God's love to others. We were saying how much we have the same God, same Son and same Holy Spirit and how He works thru us. I could grab a folded colored paper with a bible text inside and open it at home (as a fortune cookie message kind-of-thing). The verse is in Jeremiah 29:13: If you seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. Me buscarán y me encontrarán, cuando me busquen de todo corazón.  

Guerilla art
I'm doing 3 things here: spreading my drawings in an guerilla art way, exhibiting work where possible and doing an drawing event during a 2 day concert of the music band of Chris Peterson. The drawings I make, I copy and spread as gifts thru jars or in big ziplock bags and leave them behind on benches or on walls for people to take with. Guerilla art works excellent for christian artist: you spread your message, anonymously and as a gift in the environment that you would like to influence. Anonymously: The glory goes to God and it's just about planting a seed at that instant. I am reading a book about this that inspired me alot: The Guerilla Art Kit by Keri Smith. A lot of her ideas i have actually been doing since years.

I also once as I am working a lot in cafés (no internet at home) was in a art café and I asked the owner if I could exhibit. She pulled out her agenda and said: yes, i have a spot in March 2013. Well, I'm not that long in Madrid (or AM I...?) so I suggested if I could screen my animations since they also have a screen. She agreed ant the 2nd of June I get to show my animations in the heart of this neighborhood. Great! Besides that I'm making a promotional short movie for Serve the City Madrid and all friends (the new ones and the old ones) are involved in the making of. It's very short notice but very much fun to do. I'll post the end result as soon as it's done. Tomorrow I'll give a workshop 'Praying in Colors' to the Decoupage group, this is also something new for me, so I'm happy to get more into this way of praying. Decoupage is very interested in the art ministry as a whole, as it's not happening anywhere in Spain yet. Finances I reached 95% of the target raised money for my stay here in Madrid and calculated that I spend like a 80 euro per week on daily expenses if I watch it. So that's just 40 euro more then budgeted. Because the social life takes merely place outside in cafes and restaurants, my wallet fills up quickly with receipts :) Any support is still possible (A.M.A Damberg ING Bank 9242014) til end of June.

Thank you for all sorts of support an prayers so far! I feel super blessed where I am at because of you. your servant artist reporting from Madrid, Avantia