So I’m dropped into the middle of a strange German city where I know no one and have very little clue what I’m meant to do. All I have in front of me is a sheet of very blank paper and the vague idea that I have to do something with it. And there I was thinking that the only thing I had to fear from a sheet of white paper was a rather nasty paper cut.

If all else fails when you don’t know where to start, the easiest thing to do is take a deep breath, open your eyes and start watching. Usually something will come up and the city will lend a large concrete hand and gently wave an idea at you (unless you’re one of those people who litters. In which case I’m not sure you’re worth helping and the city will probably one day send giant rats to eat your face off in the night).

The first thing I really noticed when I arrived here was this:

Benjamin, my trusty skateboarding Augsburg city guide and one of the wranglers of the arty Godzilla that is lab binaer (a name I still want to add capitals to, dammit!) said the cat and flowers were indeed everywhere. There are rumours ‘the meow guy’ is keeping a low profile as the authorities aren’t too impressed. Lucky for him I was impressed. The street art I tend to fall in love with is the kind that blows raspberries at the usual tagging, boasting and ‘look at me’ style and does something simple, sometimes silly and smile-worthy. The flowers blooming where no flowers would grow, accompanied by a curly cat, did just that.

And so I peeled them from the walls and with a little handmade hocus pocus I turned them from flat painty blooms and drippy painty kitty into this:

At 5am as the sun heaved itself over the horizon and sauntered into the sky above the city I pootled out into the empty streets and planted my flowers.

The first one bloomed next to the knitty kitty, under the gaze of Jacob Fugger, one of the richest men of all time, who once lived in the city. I’m not sure he approved but the cat seemed to like him.

The others found cracks in the cobblestones and wriggled in to fit.

The sleepy city of Augsburg awoke to a Feline Flower Fest. Hooray!

And I made my first White Paper for defined by ________ which you can cast your peepers over here on the defined by blog.

(I am used to the lack of capitals now. Even though I still have to steel myself not to go about correcting defined by and lab binaer‘s signage with a giant red marker pen. I will bold them instead to sooth my internal spellchecker).

The tale of how long it took me to make the knitty bits, install them and then make the White Paper is best kept quiet to save you all from the utter madness, and to hopefully leave you with the image of all of this being as easy a wandering up to a wall and spray painting the same thing. It may have cost a tiny piece of my soul to do it but I don’t think I did too badly.

What’s that you say? I have to do one of these things every day?!?!?

*takes a very deep breath and heads off for the trails of White Paper Two*

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Other White Papers are being made too and they’re amazing. Here are:

Kaja Marie’s Augsburg Doors

and here’s her blog about them

and Keiko’s Japanese Flag

and her blog post about it