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!

places to go

I'm going away for a couple of days, a small holiday, discover a part of The Netherlands that I don't know yet. Hopefully to get some rest in my busy head and stop thinking about all kind of stuff. I wish you all a very nice weekend and a good start in the new week. Thank you all for your nice and sweet comments on my posts about the exhibition, my mother and the website. It means al lot me that you take the time to write something.

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.

if tention is too low

I finished a new drawing. I'm not sure what she is thinking, she could be shocked by herself that she actually is going to throw that thing, or that she is not trowing it. Maybe she is surprised.

One last picture of the exhibition my drawings where in. All the Pippi's are home again.

play with me

Maybe you remember that I'm a big fan of the work Niki de Saint Phalle, so yesterday me made a little trip to Brühl (Germany) to the Max Ernst Museum. It's the first and only museum worldwide dedicated to the large oeuvre of Max Ernst (1891-1976). It offers a review of his versatile work in a permanent exhibition. And now you can see a retrospective of the work of De Saint Phalle, concentrated on her early works, called "Spiel mit mir" (play with me). It is a small exhibition, they didn't had a lot of her work, mostly drawings, some paintings and assemblages. But it was still nice to see it: how she started to work and still had to find her way.

are they still in control?

Yes, I started another drawing, I hope you're not too bored by my fascination for big drawings and Pippi-girls with weapons. Well, I hope I can finish it this weekend. Wish you all a nice weekend and I hope you have better weather then me: rain, rain and some more rain. But the perfect weather to draw, so...

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.

how I wish you were here

This is a drawing in memory of my mum. This weekend it's been 4 years ago that she past away. And how time-worn it sounds, I miss her every day. And even more if "special" things happen, like an exhibition or when I'm working on something new, changes in my life. I'm lucky that I have so much sweet, funny, nice and beautiful memories of her: those who are dead, are not dead, they're just living in my head!

waiting for a sign or two

I finished the new drawing I was working on. This one is also a bit different then the ones before, I think. You can't see the weapon she used or what the situation is: is she getting orders, or giving orders, is she looking at what she just has done or planning to do?
What do you think?

everywhere I go

Early in december I gave these stickers of one of my drawings away. I never told you why I made them and for what I will use them. I planned to start a small Pippi invasion. I want them to appear all over town. I started in the city Heerlen where at the moment the exhibition is where you can see my drawings. Maybe someone who visited the exhibition will notice a sticker and wonder...

a new beginning again!

A new year, a new drawing: This is a start, that I know I'll believe in!

dance the night away

I wish everybody a festive night tomorrow. I always get a bit sad on New Year's Eve, but I try to think about the  new, great and wonderful year that will come and that I hopefully can share with you.
All the best for 2012 and till next year!

instantly more pretty

This is the wrapping paper my dad made for my christmas gifts. I often know what I'm going to get from him, so he makes his own wrapping paper, which I find great. Handmade stuff is always better. And this year he drew this sweet and funny angel and below it says: no surprise I (I also got a "no surprise II"), because I knew what was in it. One gift was a surprise, so off course the wrapping paper said: Surprise!
He also wrapped a gift for my sister, which gave a little bit away what was in it.....and it was not the easter bunny!

I hope you all had some nice days!!!

let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

Too bad, we won't have a white christmas over here. I love snow: build weird sculptures and just walk through the beautiful, silence landscape.
I want to wish you all some nice and warm days, enjoy being with your family and friends. And don't eat too much!

succesful opening!

Yesterday opened the exhibition at Schunck* and I'm really happy with the result. The museum hang up my drawings very beautiful, on a nice spot in the exhibition. There were a lot people during the openings-speech, which was given on a different floor. After the speech my family, friends and I finished our drinks and wanted to visit the exhibition and then something funny happend: it was to crowded and there were no more people allowed to get in. For the first time in my life I had to stand in line for my own work! Besides that I got a lot of nice reactions so I'm very pleased and the stress was worth it!

waving in and out of wind

The weather is starting to be really bad: a lot of rain and storm. The minute the weather is getting bad, people start complaining about it, even if we had beautiful weather for the last two months. People are wearing their overcoats, gloves, warm boots and off course very, very, very big shawls. Sometimes so big that you can't even see their faces. I made a drawing out of it: strangled and fighting with your shawl, blowing in the wind.

exhibition info

Next saturday, 17-12 at 6 o'clock, opends the exihibitions "De 'state of the art' in Parkstad". If you live nea by or you just happen to be in town, you're welcom to stop by. You can visit the exhibion until the 22 of January. For more information and opening hours, visit the website of Schunck*. Four of my Pippi-drawings are going to be showed in this exhibion and I'm very exited. I'll take some pictures for you!

stress therapy

At the moment I'm a bit stressed out because of the exhibition, my job, a lot of other appointments and christmas coming up and blablablabla. And just as I was running around in the house I saw our neighbours cat "Juul" at our back door, waiting for a cuddle. So I went outside (I can't let him in because I'm allergic) and spend 10 minutes cuddling him. Spending time with animals always calmes me down and makes me forget my little problems for a while. After that Juul thought it was time for him to relax:

No more cuddling with the cat so I visited my rabbit Pollock but he just wanted to eat my boots...

happiness hit her

I finished drawing number 8 of my Pippi-serie! It feels like I've done a lot more of them, but maybe that's because the drawings are so big (150 x 230 cm). Yesterday I had to say goodbye to 4 of them: they will be shown in an exhibition. More about that later this week. I find it hard to leave my work, but I left them with professionals who know how to handle precious work... I hope!

saturday night

Getting ready for the weekend: eating cheese on toast, dancing at disco's!
Wish you all a nice weekend!