Dear friend,
I am happy too to hear from you. And what a devoted response you made! Thank you so much. I will one day visit you in your café and hopefully, you'll invite me into your studio.

Frühjahrsmüdigkeit: I thought about it yesterday on my way to work and cursed the tiredness. The winter took all my energy away as always and now I must gain back my strength. Good that I am not the only one :-)

Thank you for coming up with some really good examples of yours and your father's. I really liked to read that.
Sometimes I had wished to say that words out loud, too (Kiss my ...) . Your dad made a big impression on you and the fact that the two of you weren't fitting in one room only tells that you had to open your own business which turned out to be just the right thing.

Pride can be a nuisance and not always is the best attitude so I more think of your rejecting clients as integrity, too. But well, it's just a word and I truly understand the meaning. I would even say that there is the resistance not to prostitute oneself to a "well-meaning" client who promises to buy even more once he gets your "cooperation". As I can imagine you might have managed that so well that even a soul seeking client was turned into a friendly one.

People behave surprisingly well in reactions of integrity and that is what was and is always the greatest gift to me. Resistance does not always attract a conflict but a further friendship or respect to one another. This experience to overcome the anxiety by saying "no" and the surprising and refreshing result of it! Priceless.

Basic income: Did I tell you that I was running my own blog on this particular topic? I started it in 2008 and wrote more than one hundred articles on it (not everything I would write and see in the same way today). All related to basic income. I deeply dug into attached themes. Yes, I think to have one could lead to much more freedom. But from what I experienced through exchanges on that topic is that those who are against a basic income fear even more consumption and also damage to the natural resources of our planet. It's funny how much distrust is out there.

Whereas I think that a UBI (unconditional basic income) would or should lead to more environment-friendly production and consumption others think that people will behave ever crazier. That might be the case and from what I think people are so different and so many variations in beliefs and habits are out there that there won't be a homogenous reaction to it.

Basically, I think of a UBI as a bridge to an even more advanced way of living. Indeed, I think it will happen what people believe will and should happen. If a UBI comes with the price of mindless shopping and consuming I'd rather won't have it. But who knows. If Switzerland will have another referendum and will be the first country to install it in Europe this will have a great impact on us, too.

To have less financial sorrows I would have to triple my income to overcome the big gap between income and having to pay for insurance and taxes. As long that is not in sight I must stick to my scarce existence. The only way out of it would mean to take on employment. And that I would like to avoid as long as possible. I think I got too old and too used to freelancing to bend now again to a company structure.

Yes, I would rather buy a piece of art. And I will. I actually was thinking to purchase another picture of yours.
Lovely also, that my friends gave me for my birthday a coupon for an artists shop nearby where I now can afford to buy a frame for the one I already bought from you. I was so in love with it that I told all my friends about how this purchase happened that they got impressed (of course I showed it to them, too).

I send you my love.