What is on my easel...

I know I have not been on the blog so much lately... ok, ok, not at all for weeks. But I was a little busy with several paintings and this weekend I finished the below painting in acrylics. 

I haven't given the painting a title yet, but on the wall behind her the text of the first article of the Bill of Rights is written. The writing is fading a little and there are pieces missing. The little girl is staring at me... the artist, and at all of us, wondering....

Happy Thanksgiving to y'all!

My 10 of 10 journal and an extra surprise!

My journal is back and my curiosity is finally satisfied. Believe me, my curiosity was sometimes killing me...
I want to thank all the participants for their work and time to make my journal so great.

My 10 of 10 Journal started in March of 2010 - after I added the cover and the first page - when I send my journal out to Annie.

 

Annie send it then on to Valeria.....

 And then she send it to Paul.....

Who then send it to Ily....

Then it was Shay's turn to enter her work....

Who then send it to Doreen....

After she added two pages, she send it to Serena....

Who send it to Carmen.

Who send it back to me, after she also entered two beautiful pages, and the journey is completed... So I thought...

But then Annie surprised me with her personal take on a photo of me taken by Ily...

Annie, special thanks for this surprise and you know I love your work and the joy it gives me.

10 of 10 : Tandy for Annie

Tandy Kid is Annie's baby goat. He was born on July 24 this year and now I made this small portrait of him for Annie's 10 of 10 book.

As usual..... I covered some of the painting so the owner of the book will have to wait to see it all until he / she received it... But for now I will reveal that it is painted in Acrylics... 

Sorry Annie, you have to wait a few days more... (wink, wink)

A painting that I send to Holland

Last week I send a painting to Holland to a wonderful couple who just happen to be good friends of mine. They have this very special character at home and his name is Milan.

and this is his portrait of him.

 

Because I know they have received Milan's Portrait, I can now share it with you...

A good advice...

10 of 10 : The art for Shay

Aaah... the challenges in life, such as what to create for a woman that is creative herself. And not only that ... shows in her blogs the many facets of her existence. 

Well here it is... and yes, as usual I leave the good stuff out, so the owner of the book will not see the whole picture. But I will reveal that I made it in acrylics and ink on paper... One could take pleasure in mysteries...

And that will be all..... for now...

Dita Von Teese is teasing again

Here is a short commercial with Dita Von Teese.... seriously this is a Commercial for Perrier...

Watch it here.

Another reason why Dita is in my top 3 list of women.

She is already in my top 3 because I love her "burlesque" eroticism and she is a beauty.

Oh, you want to know who are the other women in my top 3?

Well.... Marlene Dietrich: untill her very last day she remained a very classy lady who took no bulls@%t from anyone. 

And the most sexy woman of the 1920's and probably of all times as she is a contemporary / timeless beauty : Louise Brooks

I was a little girl (6 or 7) when I saw a picture of her face the first time and her face is in embedded in my artistic mind and spontaneously pops up in some of my works.

Who is in your top 3 women of all time?

A silly Day

I went to South Beach to meet up with my friend Ily. I left home at half time in the soccer match between Germany and Spain. It was still 0-0. The team that wins this match will play in the finals against Holland (no not me ...lol). Secretly I am rooting for Spain, because then we have two teams that never won a world champion cup in the finals, and I was not alone: Paul the octopus also rooted for Spain. 

So far the two year old Octopus predicted all the German matches correctly in this world cup and he choose Spain as the winner. 

The moment I arrived in South Beach I asked a woman in a German shirt who won and she looked at me as if I was from another planet, then noticed my orange toe nails and the orange scarf around my head and grumpily spitted out the words I almost expected (due to Paul the octopus' prediction): "Spain did...1-0, the Germans did not play." I had to swallow my cry of joy and thanked her for telling me. When she walked away I did a little victory dance as if I made that goal.

I met with Ily at the Mediterranean  restaurant on Lincoln Road and we sat down for some food, wine and conversation... and we ended up discussing what we would do if we would wake up as a man (for 1 weekend). Well I know for sure that Ily would wake up as Johnny Depp. No doubt about that. 

But more interesting is the question if we would be a heterosexual or homosexual man for that weekend... What would you choose if you woke up in the body of the opposite sex?

Also Ily gave me a beautiful CD with Brazilian music (to be played whenever she has dinner at my place prepared by the hitman). I asked her if she was serious about giving Brazilian music to a Dutch woman and she thought I was not happy... I was very happy with it as I do like Brazilian music and even more so now as the Dutch team won from the Brazilian team... Yeeeaaaaahhhh!!! (sorry, I just can't help myself)

And here I am showing how difficult it is to fit multiple objects (a shared dessert, espresso and myself)  in a small screen of a digital camera... but somehow we manage...

After dinner we went for a walk over Lincoln Road where Ily took this really great shot of me...

I don't know  but I think it shows how happy I am with the Dutch team... (hmmm why do I keep coming back to soccer these days...)

Have a great week and cheer for Holland this Sunday!

What a day!

Yesterday was an important day for me. I took two paintings to the gallery for a new show called "Word and Symbols". I really liked the subject and I know that it will be a good show because every artist will interprete it in a different way.

One painting called "Change your words and you will change your world" where the text starts on the side of the paiting and finishes on the front.

The other is "Listen to the colorful words of my silence".

The second painting (and I apologize for the poor quality of the photo's... but hey I am not a photographer) is inspired by a converstation I had with a close friend of mine about lack of communication... which I translated into silence.

Now the real challenge for me is how to take two paintings of 24" x 24" to the gallery with the bus-bus-metro-bus in the rain. I looked around the house if we had any plastic bags big enough which we did not have of course. But I found those plastic coverings from the dry cleaners and guess what... it works to protect the paintings and at the same time if could carry it like it was plastic bags.

On my way to Coconut Grove, I met a man carrying a sign saying "Be a role model" around his neck. After working so intensly on my paintings referring to words, it made complete sense to me. I asked him why he had this sign around his neck and he replied: "Each morning I make a new sign to carry around, because each day I learn something new and I want to share this with other people." That is a very positive idea and I really like it. Does it mean I will do the same? I don't know... It takes guts to do this and a very great smile to pull it off.

Of course I was excited about the upcoming soccer match between Holland and Brazil. My toe nails are orange (yes, I root for Holland, suprise!!! lol) because "We kick ass!". In the bus, when he noticed my orange toe nails, a Brazilian fan told me that his team would beat the Dutch team with 2-1. I replied with a bg smile: "Bite me and good luck!".  Everywhere the yellow/green from Brazil was dominating here in Miami. When I finally got to work - where they showed the match on tv - it was 0-1 for Brazil. My heart dropped onto my orange toes, but at the same time I knew the match was not lost yet. I saw the Dutch team hunting for the ball.

And boy did they hunt... Holland won... 2-1 from BRAZIL!

I wonder if the Brazillian fan will remember what he said to me...

10 of 10 and a painting I am working on

Here is my little artwork for the book of Doreen. No the colors are actually different in the book but you know that I distort my pics so there will be an element of surprise when the owner of the book can see it him/her self.

Tomorrow I will dash off to the post office again but this time I will add something to the package. A wonderful initiative by Carmen. She has send me a book... to be honest she has send me a second book as well... I have read both of them but I will keep the first one... I just love the book and cannot part with it.
The second is a wonderful book as well. Now the deal is simple: read it and send it on... or don't read it and send it on... or (and here is a new "rule") read it and keep it... but find a nice book to pass on. That last part, I will submit myself to it and hopefully with the next shipment of the 10 of 10, I will pass on another book.

I love to read and I think it is a wonderful idea (thank you Carmen!!!)

During the last two weeks I was crazy busy and not always in the best way. But I did find time to keep painting and below is a painting I am currently working on... some of you saw the sketch on canvas in Ily's blog and here is the result so far....  it is not yet finished so it gives you another opportunity to guess what he is looking at...

Spanking with a Feather

Last night I was in South Beach with my good friend Ily. Whenever we are there, we like to have some dinner together, a little wine and - how could one not like it - just talk about all and nothing. It is a great way to just break away from the day-to-day ups and downs.

So we sat down and shared a bottle of Pinot G. and then the strangest thing happened: Ily saw Johnny Depp!

"Where??" I asked her

"There..." pointing at some shrubs across the street. I saw a Latino looking man...

"That's not Johnny Depp... That is Juanito Depp."

"That is Johnny Depp... I tell you"

"He doesn't even look like him"

 "No, no... that is Johnny Depp... trying to disguise that he is Johnny Depp... "

(Wait, wait... there is a logic to it)

"If you were Johnny Depp wouldn't you want to be able to walk around without everybody (read: the screaming herds) following you?" She continued: "So with glasses, a wig and a different walk, nobody would recognize him."

(I told you there is a logic to it)

I could not stop laughing. That man was very, VERY good at not looking like Johnny Depp.  

After we left the restaurant.. we sat down with coffee and my cigarette (get over it... I am European...lol) A few feet away a man sat down as well to smoke a cigarette... I looked at him and turned to Ily and said:

"Look Ily... There is Mickey Rourke trying not to look like Mickey Rourke..."

And now to the title of this post... "Aaah Finally..." I hear you say. I found that a lot of times people try to out scream each other to have things done. You know the boss that is screaming and bitching, the impatient "Come on" if somebody writes a check at the supermarket, the yelling at the staff if something is not in stock...

You probably all know the expression "You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar". But who want to have flies in their honey? So I changed the expression a little bit and turned it into "Spanking with a feather" and it is all about being persuasive in a sweet gentle flirty way. And it sounds so much better than the flies in the honey thing

Why is it in the title... oh well... it sounds great and for sure it got your attention...

10 of 10: The Continuing Story

This time I had the book of Coby (sounds almost biblical if you say it like this and please imagine the MGM-like voice over saying ... "And Holland was working on the Book of Coby, and she knew it was good...")

Yes it was good... I was on a roll and actually filled 1 page on both sides. Sorry folks, I am not showing the whole picture here... have to leave some for your imagination.

I having fun with this project, going outside my box... although I have to admit... the abstract part is much like I used to paint back in The Netherlands, and it was great to do that again... It was actually so much fun, that I will do it on a large canvas.

Until next time...

(MGM-like voice over: "She closed the book and put it in the envelope, which was already labeled with the proper addresses... Now she had to wait until the post office was open.... -dramatic music-)

And now something completely different...

Today my partner, The Hitman, send me this message....

and still I hear the song and see those guys with bad perms and wearing spandex in my head.... What did I do to deserve such thoughts?

Blue Velvet

Once upon a time, in a far away country called The Netherlands, I was on a romantic date with a handsome man. We went to the fair downtown The Hague and he kissed me - the first kiss - in one of the rides. We both felt very romantic and even in love... you know those early butterflies in the stomach but it can still go either way... love or lust.

After the fair, the night was still young, we walked around and passed by an artsy cinema. One of the few that only shows underground movies or productions that are not "middle of the road".

We went in, looked at the posters and decided to go for "Blue Velvet" because it looked romantic. I hear you laugh especially the ones who know David Lynch and/or this movie, but we both did not know David Lynch, the director, and obviously unaware of his movies.

We sat down, he put his arm around my shoulders and we were all set  for yet another romantic pass time. The movie started, soft music with people smiling. A firetruck passed by with a fireman waving at the audience and the camera moved on the the field behind him... into the grass... and a close-up of a cut off ear.

I whispered in his ear: "I guess this is not going  to be a very romantic movie..."

"Hmmm..." he replied in agreement.

And then the movie turned into one of the best I ever saw. It was a roller coaster and I was so into it that I completely forgot my date... Dennis Hopper scared me bloodless and Isabella Rossellini was just freaking beautiful.

My date didn't like the movie at all.. He wanted a romantic chick flick to get me into a certain mood... and I came out of the cinema all hyped, energized and not in a romantic mood... I was still in the thrill.

That evening I did fall in love... with Blue Velvet.

What is your favorite movie?

10 of 10 another one

Again I only show a part of the little painting. But it was an unlucky 10 of 10 book for me.

I run out of clue so I was unable to glue the artwork into the book. Therefor I could not send it to Oklahoma on Monday.

On Tuesday I had everything prepared... I had to go to Target to get the glue and then next to Target is the post office. What could go wrong, would one say.

Let me tell you what could go wrong: I forget to bring the address labels with me!

So I went today... with address labels, money and the book. And it did go to Oklahoma today.

Today I also received a new sketch book: Coby's.

GRRRR, WOOF WOOF!!

Two weeks ago I was sitting on a bench waiting for the bus to come. Just minding my own business trying to solve a Sudoku. An old lady sits down next to me and says: "Hello!" with a cheerful voice and tries to hand a flyer to me.

"No, thank you. I am not interested."

"Do you have the Holy Bible?" (same cheerful voice)

"No, I don't."

"Let me read you from the Holy Bible."

"Please don't, Mam. I am not interested."

"But I have to read to you. To save you."

"Do not read to me, Mam, and please do not save me."

Of Course she takes her bible out of her handbag and flips it open at the chapters of Revelation and starts reading out loud from it.

I, on the other hand, return to my sudoku and decide that nice looking "reli-grannies" are at the same level as mice: they look nice - some even cute - but in reality they are a pest.

To make a long story short, after her reading to me we ended up in a little argument and the conclusion that we will both end up in Hell: she for not respecting her fellow human beings and I  because I am not saved.

A few days later I am waiting (whole different location) for the bus to arrive. I see three reli-grannies coming towards the bus stop. One walks to me with her arm stretched to hand me a leaflet. I turned towards her and start to growl. Softly first, then curl my upper lip, growl louder and finish it with a nice aggressive bark.

The woman jumps back, puts the leaflet in her handbag and returns to the other reli-grannies.

IT WORKS! Hallelujah!

From now on, whenever one of the reli-grannies comes to near me, I will bark at them. No more discussions, no more patiently telling them that I do not wish to be saved. From now on it will be:

"GRRRRR, WOOF WOOF!"

MOCA Audience's Choice Recipient

Remember the presentation I did at the MOCA in Miami for the program "5 minutes of fame"?

My 5 minutes are being extended because I was chosen by the audience as the "Audience's Choice Recipient. And that results in one of my paintings being published on MOCA's website.

I am so freaking thrilled with that! Thank you everybody who voted for me in April and who supported me.

Fake new moralists

In the capital of Belgium, Brussels, is the Academy of Arts. As it happens in the same building as the Academy is an elementary School. The two schools each have their own entrance and students don't mix at all.

In April 2010 a Public Worker of the city of Brussels entered the Academy and "castrated" all the male nude statues there. These gypsum statues were used as models for the art students. The reason why he did this - according to "De Telegraaf" a Dutch newspaper - was that he didn't feel it was right that the children of the elementary school could be exposed to male nudes. 

(Note: the two schools had two separate entrances... exposure how?)

When I read this, I was furious. Here is an example of the fake moralists who think it is OK to destroy other's people property because it doesn't suit their "new" morale. What's next? We have to cover all the nudes in the Sistine Chapel? Maybe wrap a cloth around the David of Michelangelo?

Why do they feel it is their right to impose their fake new moral upon us?

10 of 10 - second artwork

Here is my artwork for the 10 of 10 book of Carmen. I cut out some pieces so Carmen will still have some surprise left when she gets her journal back in October. For now she will have to fill in the blanks.

Looking at her beautiful work in this journal I wanted to add in a certain way and I went for an Art Deco theme. I live in Miami and I see the Art Deco Architecture practically every day. How can one not be inspired? 

Talking about inspiration, maybe I will surprise one of the 8 journals / bloggers with an artwork about Holland... you know windmills, cows, tulips...the works..lol

From freaking out to cloud 7

Yes, I was nervous. I could not deny it... and nervous was maybe an understatement. At the same time I was really excited about the opportunity to present my work at the MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) in North Miami.

And all my dear friends who came to support me told me that I had nothing to worry about... Excuse me? Who are you talking to? Sure, but I am the one who is standing there later this evening....

Anyway, I was the first one to present my work. I took a deep breath... the lights were off, the beamer on, the microphone was working and I... went on a roll. I talked about Holland -born and raised- and my first nudes that I painted here

I moved on to the "Fresh from the Fridge" series and then I actually heard a whisper from the audience "look how beautiful"... I was so relieved and realized that people were actually enjoying my work and my presentation.

Then I continued with the last 3 paintings in which I tell the story of my transition from Holland to Miami. 

I was glowing and so happy, especially when I received compliments for my paintings and my presentation. I was completely on cloud 7.

Click here if you want to view my latest work "Transitions".

5 MINUTES OF FAME

5 MINUTES OF FAME, a series that is part of MOCA by Moonlight programming, allows local artists to explain how and why they create their art.

Guess what? I am presenting my work on April 14, 2001.



I feel I have still a millions things to do and my stage fright is creeping up with each day passing. I get nervous just thinking I will do a presentation (yes actual talking) about my work in front of a group of people.

Yes, This painting by Edvard Munch really captures my mood : WHOAAAA!

HAPPY EASTER !

Outside the sun is shining. 

I am hear the Hitman is cooking in the kitchen and it smells really good.

I hope your Easter is just as wonderful as mine!

HAPPY EASTER!