succesful weekend

The KunstTour-weekend is over and now I'm exhausted, but it was great! I did not have such high expectations, but there were so many people and I had so many conversations and discussions with visitors and artists. The organisation wants the artists to be there to talk about their work and stuff, so I did. That is why I'm so tired: I spend to whole weekend there! The response to my work was also very good (even if it was hanging on these small walls, which I don't like very much, but it worked out) and it was so nice to talk to so many differrent people. I even met Helmi, who came to see my work, what blog can do! Maybe I'll post something more about it this week, when I can think again!

every then and now part 2

I finished the other two matresses I told you about in this post. I'm happy with the result and I'll show them in Maastricht during the KunstTour. Tonight is the opening and I'm a little bit nervous!

Art Tour

From Friday May 27 to Sunday May 29 you can enjoy contemporary art, design, sound and new media art forms in and surrounding the city of Maastricht during the KunstTour (ArtTour) 2011. More than 200 artists will exhibit their work across 60 locations, such as artistic breeding grounds, galleries, studios and art institutions.

The theme of the twelfth ArtTour edition is ‘Language, Sound and Art‘: The borders between poetry, painting and writing fade and disappear when painting poets and writing painters join their creative forces. From Gibberish to Esperanto, my mouth still speaks the tongue of my mother.

So if you live nearby and you have nothing else to do next weekend, it would be nice if you could visit Maastricht. I will probably be there mself so maybe I can meet some of you! You can find my work in the central location:  De Eiffel (Boschstraat 24). Here, the Art Performance Night, the Hermine van Bers award, the Gulpener Puurzaam audience-choice award, the Debate Without an End #3 and the exhibition Neue Positionen take place.

My first attempt to hang the "pippi" portraits ( I will finish hanging them this week):

the wonders of my world

I've been tagged by Barbara, owner of the wonderful blog Barbara's dogs and colors, to write seven things about myself. Well, that was a shock but here we go! (hope you still like me afterwards!)


*The first thing has to do with the drawing: say "hi" to my oldest stuffed animal. I got it when I was a baby and I still adore it! It's a sheep, which brings me to the second thing:


* I collect sheep.... I don't know if it has anything to do  with the stuffed animal, but I love sheep and anything that has to do with them....


*I'm a vegetarian for about 14 years.


*I'm allergic to nuts, I get really sick and I have to go to the hospital when I eat them. I go crazy when I think there was a piece in my food. I try to hide my fear  for the people around me.


*I wanted to become a professional dancer, but at the age of sixteen I broke something in my knee and my career as a dancer was over.


*I  work for the post office and bring people their mail to earn some money besides selling my art-work, which is really my job.  But it has one good thing to bring the mail: I have a really good condition!


*I have a crush on the actor John Malkovich ;-)


That's it, hope you enjoyed it and I tag the wonderful Lela and Annton.

every then and now

Sometimes new ideas can be so easy. You don't have to search for them or stay up all night, trying to come up with something great. It doesn't happen very often that an idea is just there, in your head, and you don't have to think it over, everything is just right about it. I'm working for the exhibition that is coming up and I thought about the mattress of an old bed that is still lying in the attic. And I realized that it has the same pattern that I create in the background for my paintings. The fabric of the mattress is almost the same! It's a great feeling when somthing like this happens, it creates so much new energy. Besides this mattress I have another two, they are all 100 x 65 x 20 cm, so small ones and now I'm making painted objects out of them.
And the funny thing is: last year I wanted to clean the attic and throw stuff away and I'm so glad I was to lazy!

"deliverance at last"

"deliverance at last" are the words on the cover of the magazine which Schunck* published on the occasion of the exhibition "Niki de Saint Phalle: Outside-In". I told you all about the exhibion in this post and that they're working on a "Niki zine" (from magazine...), and looking for pictures of  people who are inspired by her work in this one. And now the Nikizine is ready and they published my tattoo! I'm very happy with it, to be connected to her work and on a project like this. I want to share a part of the text about art, which I found very powerful:

"What makes the work of the artists who have been sidelined as "outsiders" so interesting and topical is that it indirectly reflects the way we deal with critical, nonconformist voices. As self-affirmed "insiders", we are all too happy to label those who think differently as "outsiders" in order to prevent our own convictions being placed in perspective, our fixed view of the world becoming unsettled and our carefully-constructed identity being placed in doubt."

from my window view

And now for something completely different (to speak with Monty Pyhton, I watched some of their sketches this weekend), these are some pictures of my garden. I think Mano asked me already 2 or 3 times to post some pictures of it, so here they are! Because the garden is so big, if I start walking it goes down for 150 to 200 meters, I'll post the first pictuers today and next week the second part and I guess there will be a part three as well!

how the birds will sing

Since we live in this house and we have this big garden, I noticed the birds and a started to feed them. Now I do that every morning at 6 different places.... a lot of work, haha! And now I feel really responsible since I red that it's also important to feed them in the spring, because they build their nests and the little ones are born and if you feed hem, they have less work... So now they wait for me in the winter, sping, summer and autumn! There're now so many of them, it becomes a paradise for birds and I think they bring even more friends...

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.

no room in my suitcase

Tomorrow morning I'm going away for the weekend. Together with my sister I'm going to the city Den Haag. We have to drive for two and a half hours but we'll have lots to talk about! I'm realy looking forward to it. We will spend the day in Den Haag and in the evening we go to the theater, so we have to look nice! And sunday we spend the day in Scheveningen, which is a modern seaside resort with a long sandy beach, a pier and a lighthouse. I haven't been to the beach for a long time. Wish you all a nice weekend!

let's not have a breakdown

As you can see: the first "pippi-heads"are ready and I'm already working on the next ones. And now I have a deadline when they should be ready and that's in about 3 weeks. Last week I got an email that I can take part in the "Kunsttour (Arttour) Maastricht". In that weekend you can enjoy contemporary art, design, sound and new media art forms in and surrounding the city of Maastricht. More than 200 artists will exhibit their work across 60 locations, such as artistic breeding grounds, galleries, studios and art institutions. And I want to show the pippi-heads as wel so I have to work hard!

Soon more info about the tour for those of you who live nearby!

where the grass is green

I wish you all a very nice and sunny Easter!

looking for true Niki fans

3 weeks ago I told you in this post about visiting the exhibition Inside-Out of Niki de Saint Phalle in Schunck*. After visiting this exhibition I e-mailed them a picture of my tattoo and I got a response! They told me they're working on a "Niki zine" (from magazine...), and looking for pictures of  people who are inspired by her work. If they can place my tattoo? Of course I said! And the funny thing is, now is the museum looking for more people with a tattoo of Niki's work. So if you also have a Nana of flesh and blood or if you know anyone or you are just curious, click here!

What is Art? Art is what? Is Art what?

I had an overkill of art this weekend and now I'm exhausted. I visited the 2011 edition of ART COLOGN, where around 200 international galleries will be showcasing Classic Modernism, Post-War and Contemporary art and of course the popular sections "open space, new contemporaries and new positions" will spotlight cutting-edge trends in contemporary art. Pfffffffffffffffff......I always like to see what is going on in the world of art, but in the end it just to much and you can't take it in anymore. This time I didn't see anything that I found absolutely great, but I bought a wonderful book! I'm a huge fan of the work of Jenny Saville. She is one of the famous "british artists" that became famous in the nineties as Charles Saatchi bought their work. She paints bodies that emanate a sort of state of in-betweeness: a hermophrodite, a transvestite, a carcass, a half-alive/half-dead head. She uses paint in a sculptural way and it's all about painting flesh. And the way she does that is just amazing! I wish I could paint like that.

your favourite girl

So...... This is the new project I wanted you to tell about. I started to make small paintings (40 x 40 cm) with only the head of "Pippi". In every painting she has a different expression on her face. I want to make at least 16 of them, but maybe it will grow to a project I can always work on so I can cover a whole room with them. We will see, maybe I'll get bored by the time I paint number 4... 
Soon I'll post the first ones that are ready.

stop walking into my dreams

Sometimes you dream about people who you don't want to dream about. You don't want to think or to be reminded about them, but they just walk into your nice dreams. I always feel weird and not very comfortable when I wake up and I can remember those dreams.  It makes you think about those people all over again and the memories stay with you for a while.  And lately I noticed that the people you want to see in your dreams, they don't stop by as often as you want them to visit. In my post about Niki de Saint Phalle I told you about my mother: I wish she visited more often. But maybe she does and I just don't remember it.
Do you recognize any of this?

lazy crazy dreaming

It was such a beautiful, sunny weekend! I live in the south of the Netherlands and it was over 20 degrees over here. It's great to be outside at the moment, it's starting to get green everywere. It will probably rain again tomorrow so I'm going to enjoy the sun today!

kinda bored now

I finished painting number 4 in the "Pippi longstocking" series. For me it looks like she is bored being Pippi, the super powers are not enough, haha! And the monkey wants her to get up again.
I'm working now on a new project with the same girl, but more about that next week. Have a nice weekend!

Outside-In

Today I went to the exhibition of Niki de Saint Phalle "Outside-In" at Schunck*, Heerlen. As long as I can remember I'm a big fan of her work. My dad had a book of her work and when I was young I just liked the colours she used at her sculptures: her Nana's.  As I grew up I became fascinated by her life, the things she struggled with. I love her Shooting Paintings, the idea is just great and wonderful that she shot her own paintings. That must have been some happenings! I love her way of feminism: not the pent-up, politically coloured form of feminism, but an unconstrained variant that celebrated a strong perception of woman in a way that was playful and full of humor. For De Saint Phalle, the feminine was first and foremost a mentality, an attitude towards the world rooted in intuition, openness, eroticism and feeling. In her eyes, this mentality does not exclude the rational, conceptual and dynamic that passes as masculine, but incorporates it and utilises the best of it. She believed this synhesis would eventually result in new, better human beings. Such a perception of woman, tending towards the androgynous, was new and provocative at the beginning of the 1960s.
To remind me that I can do anything as a woman and as an artist I have a tattoo of one of her drawings on my arm. It's the drawing of a Nana who has one arm and one wing: it's also a memory of my mother. She was a strong woman and she always said I could do everything I want!

a friday night

I had a busy week and I hope my evening will be as quiet as the drawing shows. I wish you all a nice and sunny weekend!