King Kalle

King Kalle is back. Not the Kalle you all know. But one of my plastic friends I have been traveling with. King Kalle and his little red bike. I first bumped into King Kalle when visiting Drottingholm just outside Stockholm somewhere in two thousand fifteen. He was bicycling around in the garden, we connected and he decided to tag along. 

Fast forward to the spring of twenty sixteen and King Kalle ran off. I looked for him, but the only thing I could find was a letter that he was off to discover the world. King Kalle and his little red bicycle. And while I missed his companion during some of my travels, I fully understand that even Kings need to broaden their horizon, discover new worlds, and learn from travelling. 

Last Month

And then last month we traveled to Skærbæk for a pop up exhibition with the rest of the crew of Stuck In Plastic, and guess what. King Kalle bumped into W. and the rest is history. Or at least we are traveling again together. Reunited. Until such time little King Kalle and his red bicycle are off again.

We had some great fun shooting plastic selfies in Skærbæk with our bowl of awesomeness and I could not resist putting King Kalle through the same today for me getting back on track with SiP goes52. You may remember what it was all about. One word a week. One reflection. And one image. I kind of succeeded to somewhere around the word Respect.
Which was April. 
And we are now October.
Week 42 and a new word.
I for sure have not been leading by example. 

Week 42. Leadership

A little known fact is that when we started with the idea for SiPgoes52 I got inspired by a leadership training I took part in the year before. We got offered a deck of cards (which is made up of 52 cards, equally as much as weeks in a year) with human values written up. And we had to select our top five.
Not an easy task.

Humanity

Down-selecting them to twelve is easy.
But getting to the core.
To what really matters for you as a human being was (and is) not an easy task. I remember Humanity jumped out for me.
Then.
And still today.
But back to leadership.

King Kalle

I selected King Kalle as my image for Leadership, as he combines a lot of different viewpoints and opinions. At one hand he carries with him the legacy of what is called the Divine rights of Kings. The blue blood thinking that one has the birthright to lead and truly not my cup of tea (although I have grown to appreciate the role the royal families in Europe play today, that is a completely different post).  Other leadership models are based on individual talent and skillsets and put the individual first (regardless if she is a natural born leader or one that has been nurtured into her role). However, the individual leadership styles continue to greatly differ.
From authoritarian (we have quite a few of those types today, even in the next category) over democratic to laissez-faire.

King Kalle. A leader with a little red bicycle. 

King Kalle on his little red bike has a little bit of everything. The red bike has for sure a reference to being one with the people. Exploring green ideas to preserve the planet.
Yet he continues to wear his crown and his red winter cape with Ermine
And he loves to travel and explore. 
Listen and learn.
And be a runaway.

A new project. 

And that is not all. 
King Kalle just accepted a new mission.
A secret project I will tell you more about in the not so distant future. 
But for now, back to packing and the little Riddikulus challenge we are running on SiP. 

O’Kay

Every year we have a little photo project running during our summer holidays and this year is no different. We had a new friend joining us in our little adventure. A security droid with attitude, listening to the name of Kay. I talked about him in that other famous blog of note (joke intended).

Kay waiting at the steps to join the crew at the ferry to Kiel.

A droid with attitude that will make a prominent place in this year’s coffee table book.

Kay taking selfies in the Colosseum … one of the many places we visited this summer …

Enjoying the evening cool of the city …

A droid that socialized pretty well after being hand painted by our chief builder and master painter Birk. Maybe he socialized a little bit too well …

Our little droid took the cider serious on day one … a true new hope …

And demanded his own little Espresso on the Piazza of Turin.

Kay taking pictures of tourists …

Okay Kay.

You are a true family member …

Wonder Saga

You know who you are.

It was amazing to create this one for you.

Wonder Saga, the world is yours, unlock the challenges ahead, there are no limits. Only red balloons to take you to the next level.

B.

Seattle

Seattle (/siˈætəl/ see-at-əl) is a coastal seaport city on the wbest coast of the U.S. in the state of Washington. With an estimated 652,405 residents as of 2013, downtown Seattle is the largest city in the Pacific Northwest region of North America and the fastest-growing major city in the United States (did we mention the Seattle metropolitan area has approximate 3.6 million inhabitants including some of the world most famous geeks and AFOLs alike).

The city is situated on a narrow isthmus between Puget Sound and Lake Washington, about 160 kilometres (100 miles) south of the Canada–United States border. A major gateway for trade with Asia, Seattle is the 8th largest port in the United States and 9th largest in North America in terms of container handling and the very first city to hold the very first fine art LEGO photography exhibition in the Bryan Ohno Gallery.

A city with a Space Needle, a Ferris Wheel and new Friends.

Seattle

A month has gone by since we were in Seattle for the grand opening of the In LEGO, We Connect exhibition (the very first one) and only now could we take a break, pause the rollercoaster and share some cityscapes for you to enjoy this fine Sunday together with the chocolate*.

Happy Easter !

Boris

(*) Easter Egg Chocolate can seriously damage your health. Only use in sufficient qualities and indulge in the cacao.

In LEGO, …

Lego (/ˈlɛɡ/) is a line of plastic construction toys that are manufactured by The Lego Group, a privately held company based in Denmark. LEGO consists of colorful interlocking plastic bricks and an accompanying array of gears, minifigures and various other plastic parts. LEGO bricks can be assembled and connected in many ways, to construct such objects as vehicles, buildings, bridges and wonderlands of imagination and long forgotten childhoods.

The most interesting aspect of LEGO and the long forgotten wonderlands is that it can be captured and explored in what is called Toy Photography.

Toy Photography which will be featuring yours truly in Seattle next month (read March), in the art exhibition “In LEGO, We Connect …” in the Bryan Ohno Gallery next to the fantastic Avanaut and the awesome Lady Corbett.

inlegoweconnect

I am excited !

A New Hope – Part II

It has been awhile.

Almost 4 years ago a new “little” creative project was born here on this same spot when Me2 was introduced into our family.

While our “little” companion did not yet had its own website(s), he soon started to engage in my own IG account and spam my Facebook timeline with his plastic pictures.

One of the most epic shoots of Me2, never published on IG, is Me2 and the Sfinx shot at location in Malta, still available here on my own “livefeed”.
It was the beginning of a new era in Plastic.

Soon thereafter Me2 got his own IG account, followed by Flickr, WWW, SmugMug, Twitter, … (the whole package) and our little friend got wings of his own. Clearly separated from my own doings.

I have never made a secret here I am part of the Creative Crew behind this little fellow, yet Me2 has been kind of secret about it, putting rightfully the focus on himself.

When we were discussing the year ahead in the latest selfie shoot of Darth, Me2 flagged to me I should get more actively engaged again (he needed some “outing”) as he would have difficulties in getting his own ESTA approved to visit the USA. I must admit I was slightly flabbergasted.

A little plastic man of about 4 cm that has no problem in getting to travel to The Death Star™ and Beyond™, and post pictures on IG needed me for an ESTA.

Why ?

And then he told me.
He got himself not only stuck in plastic, he also got himself exposed in an art exhibition.

In Seattle.

I am soooo very proud to announce that Me2 (and so his  Chief Creative Crew Member, read me) got an exclusive Art Exhibition in Seattle together with Shelly Corbett (aka xxSJC) and Vesa Lehtimäki (aka Avanaut).

Darth
Running errands for Big Inc.

Expect some more Plastic in this New Year.

Me.

PS. If you are close to Seattle, Planet Earth do reserve the date. March 5th.