the fisheye view

Ever heard of Lomography? Well, I didn't untill my dad came home with a lomo-camera...

In the early 1990s a couple of students discovered a small, enigmatic Russian camera, the Lomo Kompakt Automat, and created a new style of artistic experimental photography with their first unorthodoy snapshot cavortings. The approach: taking as many photographs (lomographs) as possible in the most impossible of situations possible and from the most unusual positions and then having them developed as cheaply as possible. Exhibitions, interactive projects, events and live visual performances have been the most significant forms of Lomographic communication over 12 years. The basic Lomographic idea is: be fast, don't think, be open-minded towards your enviroment, absorb everything.

You can buy the most extraordinary snapshot cameras: 4-lensed cameras, colorsplash, holga or the fisheye camera, which you can see in the first try-out photo's above.... And I must say, it's really a lot of fun. You never know what the result will be, it's a lot different then taking a picture with your digital camera.

if you show you show

I made another bag, this time a red one. And I thought I make a funny picture to show it to you. A bit like Pippi going strong and full of power and joy. So I dressed myself in green stuff and walking and jumping in the grass with a green background so that you could see the red bag really good.... Well, you don't, haha! So because it's all about the bag and not me: a close-up picture off the bag below:

it comes to you in slow attacks

A few days after the exhibition and my head is full of ideas. At first I just thought: well, back to work and finish the drawing I started. But now the new ideas just keep coming and I have to write them down and make some new sketches so my head settles down. The funny thing is that if I have a lot of new ideas, it paralysis me at first and I can't really start. It's like I can't get a grip on it. But that's over know, back to work, now for real!

rise and shine my sister

As I showed my t-sirt experiments to my sweet little sister she immediately said that she also wants one, even if I'm still in the try-our phase. So off course I made her a shirt and I hope she's happy with it. And me too: my first order, even if it's not an official one.

pack my bag

After making two t-shirts with my drawings on it, this time I made a drawing on a bag. What do you think of this experiment? I think I like it.

At the same time I'm still working and thinking about the t-shirts. I did some research on printing the drawing on the shirt, but that was not really what I want or what I'm looking for. Maybe I find a place where I can do some tests with silkscreen. But the real question here is: do I want to make a lot at the same time to sell or do I want to make an artwork on a t-shirt? Which means it will be more expensive but exactly the way I want it to be. Or is it just an experiment and for me? Well, as you can see: I have a lot to think about...

What do you think? and more...

As you can see I made a second t-shirt with a drawing on it. In this post I showed you my first steps into the world of t-shirts, fibre-tip pens and fabric. I told you of my concern that the drawing would fade or even be totally gone if I washed it. Well.... It's not gone, but the drawing is fading away. I did some research and the first shirt I used was not 100% cotton. Even if it's only 95% cotton, this could be the reason. So I made this yellow version on a 100% cotton shirt (it's not easy to find a nice cotton shirt for a woman...) and I washed it twice and it's looking good! I'm going to wash it a bit more, because I want to sure. And by the way: I'm standing in front of a new finished drawing.

What do you think?

As you can see I'm going into fashion-design, haha! No, I just have this new idea for my drawings to put them on t-shirts. This is the first shirt and it's just a try out to see how the fibre-tip pen works on fabric and if the drawing has a nice effect on a shirt. Now I have to wash it and find out if the drawing is gone or still on the shirt.... I like to draw it on the shirt myself and not have it printed. This way it has almost the same effect as in my drawings with  pencil.
So, how do you like this new idea?

only in my head

These are two of my new drawings. As I started them I was absolutely convinced by the new directions the drawings were going. As I finished this one, I already wasn't so sure about my new idea, but I told myself that at least I have to finish the second one. So I did and there should be a number 3, but I don't know if I will ever draw that one. I'm already started a new drawing in another direction. This is not what I imagined them to be. Maybe the drawings will work if you see them all 3 hanging next to each other, like a triptych. Sometimes the images in my head turn out to be a bit different in reality...

welcome in 2012

Yesterday I bought a new mobile phone. "So what", you might think, but for me it was a big deal. I never in my live bought a phone. In 2003 I moved to Switzerland for 3 years and my mother didn't like the idea that she couldn't reach me in the train during travelling. So she bought me a phone. I used that old phone until yesterday. People would start to laugh if they saw it, but I call it vintage, haha! And as I told you before, my mother passed away, so this phone became important for me, because it was a thing that showed that my mother cared about me (off course she did!). But now it started to fall apart, I didn't get phonecalls or messages so it became annoying. Well....I had to get a new one. And if I had to, I thought by myself, I might go from vintage to smartphone. So now I'm sitting here trying to figure it out and my Teddy is taking care of my old phone.  Good I still have my Teddy.... I might as well keep the old phone;-)

and winter comes

My little holiday is over and it was great. We went to a national park were you can make wonderful walks. And if you're lucky and it's very cold and snowy, you can sleigh and do some ice-skating. And in the week before we left, winter started over here! The weather was perfect, just very cold and the landscape beautiful. And because I love snow, I wanted to make something. Just to bad: the snow wouldn't stick. I couln't build I giant Pippi-snow-girl out of it. So I tried to make a polar bear coming out of the water, haha!

putting in change

I updated my website, you can see all the drawings I made until now. Before you could also see my older work: paintings and pages of my sketchbook. Those links are now gone. I use to show everything I ever made on my site: paintings, drawings, performances and videos and even a big archive of really old works. For the last couple of years I feel that I only want to show the new stuff. I still care a lot about all my work, but I don't feel like showing it anymore. This time it started to itch inside about 3 weeks ago that I just wanted to show these drawings, so now I changed it. If I apply for an exhibition or so, I want to show my new work, because you always think that this is the best you ever made... Maybe it's because of that.

take it from here

I thought I show you a piece of my "inspiration wall", where I collect newspaper articles, pictures of magazines, sentences that I find interesting and some of my sketches. I like to see this kind of stuff when I'm in a studio of someone. The problem I have with my wall is that I find it difficult to change it, put some of it down and hang something new. I always get so used to it.

oh so sweet

For my birthday my sister made me something sweet: Cake Pops. Do you know what that is? It's perfect if you want to make something smaller than cupcakes and you can be even more creative in decorating. Cake pops are small balls of cake on a lollipop-stick and you can make the most funny things out of them. I like sheep, so she made me a whole herd and me in the middle of it. In the piture below you can see the work of art. My sister loves to bake but it was still a lot of work. I loved it!

tomato-girl

In May I introduced you to my red hot chili pepper-girl. I got inspired because I grow my own vegetables and I thought a sculpture in as always nice in the kitchen! Now the pepper-queen is no longer alone: I made a tomato-princess. She's a bit bigger, about 100 cm. Because of the bad weather this time no pictures of the sculpture in the garden. Both sculptures are standing in my kitchen, on the window sill.

they say the world is round

I finished the drawing and I just hope that I don't scare you away with this one... I know it's a bit violent but at the same time: what can shock us these days? And that is a bit what I'm working on now. I take this figure of Pippi, and this time the younger, child version and not as in my paintings where I made her a grown-up. And I wonder: how much longer does it take before they take away our childhood heroes and make them also "bad", along with the rest of the world. And at the same time I wonder if the heroes maybe did'nt want to be heroes at all! I want to make at least 5 of these big drawings and all in the same style and theme. I find it a bit stange myself that I'm working on this now because I hate weapons. But I feel that I just have to finish them.

red hot chili pepper-girl

The season of growing your own vegetables has began! I grow my own tomato's, peppers, cucumbers, salad, strawberry's, rhubarb, herbs and hot chili's peppers. I still have a lot of peppers left from last year. They're hanging in my kitchen, I dry them. And we just finished the last tomato's from last year. So I made a sculpture for in the kitchen, the chili's need a queen! She's about 75 cm and I used one of my old barbie dolls. Now I'm working on a tomato-girl.

color and madness 2

The last couple of weeks I just love to draw in my sketchbook. Every time I want to start a painting I find myself sketching. At the moment I prefer doing that over starting a painting. Just draw and trying some new stuff without the pressure that is has to be "good", which I almost always feel when I'm working at a painting.

stich 'n bitch

Two weeks ago I thought I could try something different. Instead of painting I could stitch my work. Well...the above works are only 18 x 24 cm, but it was a hell of a job! And I'm not sure if it was worth the trouble...