End project

Today I gave to Johan van der Werf from Aegon the portrait of Harry Lockefeer that I was asked to paint last year. And it was directly given to the widow and children of Mr. Lockefeer.
It was a pleasant and slightly emotional afternoon, I painted someone that I had never met just after he died and his family were confronted to an image of their not so long ago deceased loved one.

Luckily they really liked it and they saw the resemblance. For me it was very strange to meet his son and to see that he looks just like his father!

Artist's business

It is quite interesting to take a look on how is the painter Duane Keiser doing his art business. He is no shy of e-bay, reproductions, studio web cam, videos or a blog on the painting process. There are no digital borders. All these apart if you like his style or not, but I have to say I got hungry as I saw the paintings...
Needless to say it seems he works really hard.
What a coincidence, freshly opened -could you eat not fresh opened?- oysters are waiting for me...bye.

Talking about fathers

Yesterday I was happily surprised to find an art program on Dutch television, often seems to me that the rule is NOT to show any art at all.

It was a rather personal portrait of the photographer Sally Mann. She was followed for many months and we were allowed to see some personal moments and many of her complex creation processes. Sally Mann seems very much a New England-like intellectual and with a very easy and clear way of talking about her work. She tells about her frustration of a canceled show, talking about herself feeling a 'passé' artist and the evolution of a theme.
What stroked me the most is as she described the probably 'genetical' fascination she had about the death just as much as her father did. And as she described her relationship with her father it came as a flash the answer to a question I had been having. I knew what I was going to start making the day after: I had been collecting transparent food plastic boxes from the supermarket and other shops with the plan of making some kind of sculpture with them, but I still couldn't come to the right answer on how to use them. But as she referred to her father the idea came into place, I would make an 'hommage' to my father with a Box of boxes. The link was that I also have a 'genetical' fascination on boxes just as my father did.

Well, easier said than done, now I have to work on it.

PS: The photo come on her series about Death and is, I think of one of her children.

Graciela Iturbide

Mexico. Wikipedia


'Sitting on a stool is pretty much just standing on your ass.'
John Gruber

Alejandro Arguelles

Argentina. THAP



'I write short stories and I live long stories.'
Ely Guerra

Bernd Ribbeck

Germany. Galerie Kamm



'Lo retro es lo actual.'
Nona Olmedo

Frustrations of a tea drinker.

Why is it that at a dinner party you are not offered tea? And when you ask for it you will receive it when everybody is already putting their coats on. In a way I understand it, I worked as a waitress and at my own home after having prepared the dinner and all, the only thing I don't want is to serve the tea and the coffee.
Years ago in the Dutch trains there were very few compartiments for non smokers, after sometime there were about the same smokers and non-smokers seats when there were actually far less people at the smokers carriages. In a way it is the same inconsistency now with tea drinkers, within my own friends. After dinner some times even more than half the guests would want to drink tea but thy still get coffee.
Another big frustration is going to a restaurant o a decent "coffee house" and order tea, getting a very small quantity of warm water in a coffee cup and tea that only gives color. So for me, unless I am sure they serve some kind of decent tea I will ask for another drink instead of getting annoyed.
But probably the worst disappointment for tea drinkers is getting served tea from a thermo that has been used also for coffee. That is really a rather disgusting drink. I just had one of those yesterday. That is why this superficial text today.
Forgive me.

Amsterdam Sur

A new digital magazine in Spanish. You can reat about literature, art and photography.
Written from the Amsterdam channels.
Revista Cultural Amsterdam Sur (Primavera 2008)

menoni_sur@hotmail.com
www.amsterdamsur.nl

Dordrecht before and after

Beautiful comparison of a painting and a photo and centuries in between. Take a look:
Dolfpauw.
"Jan van Goyen painting from Jacques Goudstikker collection back to Dordrechts Museum?"

Kate Gilmore

USA


‘Memory is an exercise.’
Marisa Polin

I still think of the song of the Cyclops...

Youth theater Hofplein in Rotterdam

We were invited to a 'Hoflunch' and to see the play Odysseus at Hofplein youth theater. I had no idea it was going to be so nice and fun. The young actors and singers were very good in a very professional and creative setting.

I still think of the song of the Cyclops...
Every time I go to the theater I am reminded of how much I like it. Why is it that I don't go more often? By the same reason I don't participate in other enjoyable activities in life: there are just to many things I like...
The photo is of the speech moment by Alexander Rinnoy Kan. I was not allowed to photograph in the theater that is why I am not showing more images.

Ever, ever?

The opening at ArtCube of 'Ever renovating city' was cozy and friendly even though I always get nervous. I suppose not many people see it, but I was nervous.
The works of Willem van der Hofstede shined on the sunny Saturday afternoon.

I have no photo's of the event, but from yesterday as the Sun stroke on walls and paintings: