Open Studio coming Friday and Saturday

The 18th of december, we're busy for Christmas. Or perhaps you're not. For people still looking for presents, I have works under € 100 and even some of € 10 at the moment, so for every budget you can find something. In my studio at home I've made a sale-exhibition. Reliefs of porcelain, original drawings in passepartout, Forget-Me-Nots in a wooden frame, The Family; tiny portrait reliefs in reclaimed wooden frames. Masks of people and animals. If you want to spend more, that is also possible. On Friday december 20th between 2 and 7 PM and Saturday 21st of December between noon en 7 PM at Dorpsweg Ransdorp 117. Would you rather come at an other moment? Please call to make an appointment; +31642350194.

Banana

Last week the art world was shaken by a ducttaped and eaten banana. The most expensive banana in the world. Hopefully it was an organic one, I thought. Especially in the banana industry massive use of chemicals is normal. Very bad for the health of the workers of the plantations. For them infertility, birth deficiencies, stomach problems and skin cancer as well as diseases of nose, eyes and fingernails are very common. And there is another side. Dutch fashion student Merel Engelman made work for a school project in 2013. ‘We had to make a look-book and I wanted to create an aesthetic image where trashy and high-end would meet. I made up the image of a banana taped with ducttape on a marble background.’ The bizarre game of money and power and status that I hate and detest; making a an image, the banana, marble, ducttape; being young and therefore worthless and unprotected; being unknown and just a tool and therefore worthless and unprotected; being famous so every fart you produce is worth loads of money… Art unveils all of these layers, makes them visible. Meanwhile I continue making my work, that does not roar and still is Real Art.

Gift Season

Gift Season... Along with the wind and the rain thoughts of ‘The Lists’ trickle into my head. What would who long for, what would I wish. With all of the plastic whirling around our heads and all utter nonsense we so seem to need it appears to be a challenge to make the giving season a nice one once again. But it is possible! You can ask for donations to plant a food forest or for the Green Wall in Africa, you can ask outgrown good and clean wintercoats for a good cause in your community but you might also give home made jam or socks you knit by yourself! If by any chance you’re no part of the handy crowd there are several people that make beautiful things. They work locally and take care of the environment just like you do and they pay taxes, just like you. Your money won’t flow into the deep pockets of Amazone and Bol who keep some people wealthy and underpay the rest. For the sweetest mirrors you can go to SophieLanham.com, for the funniest bags to SashaWendt.nl, for lovely graphics to ErnaKuik.weebly.com and for sculpture here with me for sure. And, don’t forget, when you buy art from a woman, you’ll get more for your money’s worth! hashtag#buyart hashtag#beauty hashtag#gift hashtag#woman hashtag#life hashtag#beautiful

clockwise; work of Sasha Wendt, Erna Kuik, Saskia de Rooy, Sophie Lanham

This summer

Last summer Joost (Lijbaart) and I were married for 20 years. The camshaft of our car broke on our anniversary and instead of going out for dinner we were waiting for the tow truck service to pick us up. This appeared to be an adorable guy who was taking his (Sunday)shift with his wife and daughters. We got a replacing car and our car was put on a transport back to NL. A few weeks later my bag was stolen with an overload of important things in it. Plus the key of the borrowed car and the key of the borrowed house. I was invited to stay with people I met only that day, organisers of the market I was in. The day after the portrait mask of Frida Kahlo found a home. Again one week later I was travelling to Africa with Under the Surface (Sanne Rambags, Bram Stadhouders and Joost Lijbaart), my first visit to this continent. I saw trees that were doubling as shops, filled with baskets. I saw elephants bathing, lions eat and zebras and gnoe and red dragonflies. I saw Mango and Kapok trees and mahogany and ebony trees and sisal plantations, lasting from colonial times (isn’t our entire world lasting from colonial times?) and a turtle of 194 years of age…I talked about compost and slave trade, about bananas and cashews and got the great music as an extra gift.

Such a great summer.

Cologne 17 and 18 August

The latest heads I made are of insects! The Kölner Keramikermarkt has put out a competition with insects as a theme. It has been great to study insect heads and I will probably not stop making them. Aren't we all living on this earth together? If you are around Köln (or Cologne) or just longing to see some great ceramics and sculptures, please visit my stand nr. 42!  https://www.keramikerinnungnordrhein.de/koelner-keramikermarkt

Kölner Keramikermarkt

Good art is everywhere

I’m browsing through a catalogue of Documenta 1992. Loads of art, it was great to be there. And I am part of this, even if a lot of people don’t see the value of my work, I’m making the art-world as well. I am looking for one of the tiniest and most touching pieces of art etched in my memory, an egg in a glass of water with a sailing boat floating over it. Small. Vulnerable. You might think it insignificant. It tells about dreams. I do not hear all these things while I watch this sculpture but I feel moved and beauty and vulnerability. It is a sculpture to be overlooked easily. Like many things in life, small things are easily missed. The world of the moment (perhaps this is the same in every era) roars down on us over all things important it seems.

For me art is bringing us back to the things that are usually hidden in our heart. So we might feel once more what is really important.

‘You always have to start anew’, 1991, Belu-simion Fainaru

Stands are terrible things

Stands are terrible things. Boorish blocks, most often with as sole purpose to lift the sculpture out of the ordinary. Away from the table or the floor. A lift without beauty. Many sculptors feel this reluctance and take other options. Brancusi made his stands as the corps de ballet that would lift his solo piece; The Sculpture, into space. Exciting and refreshing to behold. Inspiring. Lovely. As I am not Brancusi, I go for another option, I like to use small tables. Made my me preferably, so I can choose the seize, and because I’ll be at Art Eindhoven soon I wanted some new ones that are easy to transport. Foldable. I was having a stagaire over for the first time, so I thought we’ll try some designing. But, hey, it went marvellous and at the end of the day we had a prototype finished! He was happy, I was happy and almost ready for Eindhoven (have to make 8 extra ones still). Art Eindhoven, nr 29, 13 and 14th of April. If you like to come, please let me know I have some tickets to give away!

Stand with a head

Irresistible offers...

Sometimes I get an offer; a gallery really likes my work and I can take part in an exhibition in Hamburg. It will last for a month, the fee is € 659 (ex 19% VAT) and the commission will be 20% of the selling price. So to get an idea of my profit I calculate when I get even. A work or some works with the total value of € 1200 will have to get sold (I don't know what VAT to consider doing this). The costs for the fee, the 20%, bringing and getting the works (700 km two times) will be covered and I'll have earned € 34 for a sandwich and a coffee on the way to and from the gallery. None of my everyday costs will be covered. My studio rent, the clay, firing the kiln. Let alone living or feeding my kids. Some days it is hard not to be very cynical.

Easy going; Ronald Snijders

The portrait of Ronald Snijders was taking quite some effort. Luckily for me I needed Ronald twice to model for me. To have someone is modeling is always special. We talk about loads of things but it is never small talk. In the intimacy of a work that is born into the clay, we always talk about things that make your life (and mine) worthwhile. Or hard. Or great. Because I want to catch the essence of a person it can not be about superficial things. Ronald is an amazing guy, storyteller, intelligent, living a full life. Musician. He experienced a million things and is very aware of being part of a family, a link in a long history. And surely we talked about being colored or white in this society, man or woman, opposites. In the end I figured out what to do and finished the portrait. We are both very happy with the result and having Ronald over to see his portrait was once again a lovely experience!

In love with clay

Last week a colleague of mine wanted to know how to make a clay flute. She is about to teach in an art and music project on an elementary school so making an instrument seemed nice. We made a little lesson of it. After some technical things like making two pinch pots, a balloon with those, adding a nozzle the moment to get some sound when blown on was there. Physics for sure, and so much fun! When you have followed all the rules, done the do’s and left out the don’ts and you blow the nozzle and a sound arises, an earthy tone, sometimes with a lot of false air (sounds like the wind), that moment is magical. I love this about clay. We humans have been using it for thousands of years. To eat from, to store in, to make music with and sculptures. Ritual objects, sinks, toilets, eggshell porcelain teacups and toilet pots, we live in in and drive over it (brick), all with clay! An extra advantage is that it is earth and it will be earth. When it breaks you can fill the road with it or throw it in a ditch without trouble to human or animal. And yes, I like skull ocarina’s.

Raku fired skull ocarina

Victory Boogie Woogie 2015

You see a panel of underlayment/ wood in layers with on it the portraits of the Kouachi brothers, the brothers that did the attack on Charlie Hebdo in Paris. In the end , after their flight, they were shot dead. On the panel cels have been sketched and some of them have been carved out in a relief. The faces of the men have been carved and split in the surface.

In this work you see some similarities in image. The black lines of the cells repeat in the black lines in the faces of the men, thought they are round in the cells and straight in the faces. Underneath the porcelain layer of the faces is black-firing clay that shows itself in the carves. The cells have symbolic value. We talk of terrorist cells, IS cells. As a society we can look on all people of cells. These young man that turn into terrorists are, in a way, cells of our own tissue, something in our society that is working against us. And there is the difference between idea (sketch) and reality (form). What is the relation between reality and idea. How come some ideas become reality and some don't.

The title of the work refers to the painting of Mondriaan, Victory Boogie Woogie. Whose victory are we talking about, the one of the men that gave France and Europe a huge scare, or the victory of the state that killed these terrorists or the victory of the ideas of the terrorist movement that overthrows our legal system by showing no mercy or rights to these young men but kills them instantly just like IS does. Who are the heroes in this story, who claims the victory. The Boogie Woogie is quite cynical. In this dance of life, what is the best way to make it work together. What is paradise when we refuse to make refugees a home. What is paradise, this place ruled by rules claimed to be made by god or the place ruled by economy. When I was young I did consider quite seriously to become a nun, go into a sacred life. So I do understand the longing for a better world, a divine world.

Belches

Time and time again strange words come of the television. Too painful to remember literally their their scope is; art is for lunatics and at best a hobby. Of no importance. Something marginal. No need to take seriously. Then, when we have a commemoration of something important we gather around a monument… A work of art! To center very important moments we human beings apparently need, literally, a piece of art. When we marry we give our beloved a ring. Things of beauty for important moments, our life is stacked with it. A city is not a good place to be without beauty, without theatre, without a music stage. Life without art is possible but, ouch, without joy. Hurray for art! Hurray for living life fully!

Art Lasts...

Today I was taken by surprise by someone that bought a sculpture I made, 8 years ago...She is still enjoying it. Such a lovely message! Thank you for the compliment singer and musician Ineke van Doorn!

Daughter

I am tidying up my studio. Going through bags of clay, half way dried out with half finished sculptures in between. Then I find a just started portrait of my daughter. It has been there for years, it is my toddler daughter. In the blink of an eye I remember how she felt, the softness of her skin, her remarks, how much I love her and even though the portrait isn’t finished, I fire it. I just found a treasure!

Teacher of the year

In the last moments of 2019 I was chosen to be teacher of the year from the 70 teachers of Cultuurhuis Wherelant. I was invited on the couch with José, our president. Wow! 

She named all different classes I have been teaching through the years (very many) and the number of years I have been teaching (my son was no where near, and he is 16 now). My international adventures were also mentioned.

My secret in teaching is that you, the student, are always the boss of your work, I will search along with you for Your Best Sculpture.

I can tell you what works in a sculpture, about the skin, the composition, about what is boring and what invites the eye and you are free to listen. I am not interested in creating a lot of Saskia’s, I like to be Saskia myself as it is. And we are free. When you sculpt you can do anything. You’re free to draw on your work, or paint, to chop, saw, stick things on, whatever you like. This creates space, and quite funny, not only in the works you make, also in other parts of your life. Art is just great!

Gate to Here and Now

I finally wanted to make the Gate to Here and Now. All material for this sculpture was already in my studio, I'm quite a hoarder and have many ideas, so my studio is full of 'stuff'. 'A mess', people without many ideas might call it. The rod I had around I could bend and form into a gate and a space. When one passes the gate one enters the Here and Now. The line is quite thin and golden, the golden lining of your world. Your perception for sure. The way it has been constructed, quite sloppy, of material I had laying around, makes me happy. Everything to get into the Here and Now was already here. You can see it at Impulse and, magnificent detail, it is in chains there! Very important this Gate to Here and Now is not to be stolen. (It is very easy to take apart, it has to fit in my car, but this will forever remain our secret.) More of this? https://lnkd.in/dVK5hB3

France

On a certain day I was asked to restore a sculpture, a portrait of a little boy, Valentin, made by a French sculptor in 18hundred something. A lovely statue to behold. So I fixed it in a way that was strong and invisible and the little boy captured my heart, so I copied the sculpture. Copying is a way of learning, and I learned very much in the process. But I did want to make it my own sculpture as well, and contemporain. So I struggled. I used black firing clay, covered it in white, added underglaze, fired it, still was not happy. As I was in the process of painting it with acrylic paint Paris and the rest of Europe were shaken by the attack on Charlie Hebdo. This made me add an extra layer to the sculpture and gave it its name. You can come to see it in Impuls in Wageningen, and a lot of other works as well. 

Remembering

Last weekend I was in London to put together a place of memory. Someone I love had lost the love of his life and in the United Kingdom, if you have permission of the landowner, you may put a grave on the land. I was asked to make a small cellar and the urn to be placed into this. I made different designs and made the urn chosen. The small cellar is made of Belgian Bluestone, like a puzzle fitting together so once placed, with the earth pushing from the sides, steady and remaining the right form. Over it a slab of the stone that forms the terrace nearby is placed. It was an important moment, placing the urn and closing the cellar. I was so honored I could make this for them. It gave me the chance to put my love for the two of them in.

Florence!!!

Last weekend I was in Florence with my work...On the Piazza della SS Annunziata, a place that breathes sculpture. Over my head were the ceramic infants by Della Robbia. I sold works to American collectors and Italian colleagues, ate with ceramists from all over Europe and and enjoyed just being there, what an inspiring adventure!

Theo Loevendie

Last night composer Theo Loevendie turned 88. He is not impressed by this, last year he published his memoires and he still plays and writes new works. A few years ago he couldn't play his saxophone any longer due to eye problems, so he took up the piano... He is an inspiring guy! In 2014 I made his portrait, tiny but definitely him and in honor of his birthday the portrait is in a little book with all the portraits of Theo made through the years.