Country Christmas, northern Dutch style

Well folk, this is Sarah’s Styling page. (Tongue firmly planted in cheek).

These few touches in our house are about as close as I’m going to get to all the Christmas styling going on elsewhere. I am caught between finding a lot of the magazine and TV ideas for a ‘warm, country Christmas’ fussy and kitch, to envy at people’s inventiveness and willingness to spend time sewing Christmas patchwork placemats and such. The irritation comes from being overly influenced, I guess by the northern Dutch aversion to ‘cuteness’, which they call ‘tuttig’.

I did love making the hanging hearts though. They are from dottieangel. My own addition was to scan and print out some great wrapping papers I found. I used those as well as text from old magazines. And for Christmas, used hot pink thread!

The next batch I’m going to make will be from the envelopes that have brought  the Christmas cards from friends all over the world. The stamps, handwriting and postmarks will make it special.

Anyway, wishing everyone a late Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and inspired New Year.

photo by Rende

What you Appreciate Appreciates part 2

Feeling lack and tension around money? these thoughts really help.

Continuing on with excerpts from Lynne Twist’s, ‘The Soul of Money’: (once in a while slightly paraphrased)

Our attention enlarges and enriches our experience of whatever is before us. We have the opportunity to direct our attention in the way we relate to money…

When we allow jealousy, envy and resentment  to become the focus of our attention we become jealous, envious and resentful people with our money.

When we direct out attention to creativity, courage, and integrity, we become expressions of those qualities in whatever we do in our interactions with money.

When your attention is on what is lacking and scarce- in your life, in your work, in your family, in your town- then that becomes what you’re about.

That’s the song you sing, the vision you generate. You engage in lack and longing and what’s missing, and you call others to that same experience..If your attention is on problems and breakdowns with money…that is where your consciousness resides…. No matter how much money you have, it won’t be enough. No amount of money will buy you genuine peace of mind.

Yikes, I sure have fallen into that trap lately.

If you are interested in how to climb out of this very common and debilitating state of mind, read on in part 3.

Stapelton Kearns-…’marketing in too exalted a position’

 

In one of the recent BrushBuzz newslettters was a wonderful post from Stapelton Kearns about some thoughts on art and money. I’m glad to have some company, someone else in the art field who isn’t blindly following all the latest ‘Sell your art and get rich’ seminars. Check it out. Quote below.

…What I mean to say is that the product has to come before the profit.

I bring this up because I think I am seeing a trend now of putting marketing into too exalted a position. The web crawls with books on how to market your art and advice columns and how-to seminars on marketing your art. And yes, I market my art. I also think you should show and sell your art if you can. But it is really about the art and it’s quality, more than it is about sales!’

2010 in review

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 10,000 times in 2010. That’s about 24 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 29 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 203 posts. There were 44 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 18mb. That’s about 4 pictures per month.

The busiest day of the year was February 10th with 167 views. The most popular post that day was About me.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were artwell.nl, artheals.org, phoenix.craigslist.org, facebook.com, and edtajchman.wordpress.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for jeroen krabbe, jeroen krabbe paintings, oil pastels, artist sponsor, and guerilla art.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

About me July 2008
14 comments

2

Jeroen Krabbé exhibition, Zwolle May 2008
3 comments

3

Reasons to sponsor artists May 2008
10 comments and 1 Like on WordPress.com,

Why art/culture subsidy cuts could be a Good Thing part II

So why, then, could the destruction of cultural bodies like orchestras and libraries ultimately be good? Well the artists getting up in arms now are right, of course at one level this is all a disaster.  But I want to look deeper.

Art just isn’t thriving. It isn’t reaching a broad audience, it subsists in the margins, it is generally trivialized and undervalued. I heard recently that only 1% of the of the visual artists in Holland can live from the income generated by their work. The establishment then tries to redress this by trying to make entrepreneurs out of artists which, as you know, I feel is not even close to being a solution.

There are no short-term solutions to this crisis, but there is hope.  Just suppose the worst scenarios come true and many main artistic and cultural institutions here crumble because of lack of government support.

Why this could be positive is that first, the issue of art’s worth will be much more visible, it already is. Artists and cultural supporters are already planning public actions. One recent commentator said, though,  that the whole existence of art is being questioned and that the art world is not providing any good arguments. Well, obviously, those are going to have to start to come. People are going to have to start thinking more deeply and go beyond economic arguments. They will have to come up with impassioned arguments for art’s intrinsic value to a society.

Another good thing, is because the dependence on heavy subsidising has not made the arts healthy, other more grass-roots ways will have to be found to create and maintain a rich and varied cultural life. 

A reason for hope is that these movements are already widespread and growing. Like a mat of roots under the earth, they are thriving and the delicate looking grass blades poking up onto the surface are strong and resistant to damage.  People everywhere are reclaiming their right to be creative. Creativity and inspiration is no longer the exclusive domain of ‘artists’. Just look on the web at the huge popularity of journaling, crafting ,and drawing sites to name a few.

This indicates a tendency to the major shift that I see needed to once again have a cultural heritage and tradition that is central to life, every person’s life, and not somewhere removed from it (in museums, auction houses, and concert halls).

Little by little as Art loses the capital A it will become a natural part of every home, school and hospital. The healing and bridge building qualities of all the arts will be recognised and used to promote understanding between individuals, groups and cultures. Small neighborhood orchestras and art exhibits will spring up. And even large cultural bodies will thrive, but they will have a solid base in the community, and will therefore be self sustaining.

Money will not have to be a central need to maintain culture. Many of the best moments of connection catalysed by art are free.

Granted, our present society has strong roots in the ground and the beliefs and institutions which dominate our lives will not be dismantled easily, but the new values are already present. There is a huge ground swell of people choosing for more humane society. Art will be part of this quiet revolution, creativity is an enormous and irresistible force for growth, and it will break apart old rigid structures so that new, more flexible and alive ones can take their place.

This is what I think is happening now. And that is why I think that the collapse of subsidised art may be a good thing.

Water stained and painted tissue papers

Page of decorated tissue papers

I discovered this technique by accident. I came across some old deep turquoise colored tissue paper stored in the back of the attic. The roof had leaked and the tissue paper had been stained in a most beautiful way. The reason for this is that the dyes used in tissue paper are non-permanent and water-soluble.
I tried water staining some myself and one thing led to another. I use them primarily in collage, as wrapping papers and to give as gifts.

Here is the procedure:

Materials
various colours of tissue paper
water jar
brushes
comb or twigs etc.
designers colours (gouache)

I do this outside on a calm day, it spatters too much to do in my studio. 
Lay down plastic first. Have your other materials ready. Lay out full or half sheets of tissue paper on the plastic. From standing or kneeling position, spatter and drip water on the sheets. Puddles are fine. At this stage you can let them dry,apply designers colour or go on to dyeing paper with paper. I also use a comb with some missing teeth or twigs etc to draw patterns with the water on the paper.

Dyeing paper with paper
On the just spattered sheets of paper on the ground,lay over a dry sheet of a contrasting colour and let dry. When they are completely dry separate them and you will have splotches of purple paper, say on a blue background. And bits of the blue will have bled into the purple sheet as well.

Further treatment with designers colour
When the sheets are still wet, I mix up several little pots of designer colour, it should be quite fluid. I prefer working with metallics like silver gold and bronze, they sparkle on the finished papers. Spatter, paint or apply the colour any way you want. And let all dry.

CAUTION: when using designers colour, don’t sandwich papers on top of one another, because when the designers colour dries it will stick them together. You won’t be able to get the sheets apart without tearing them.

You may need to handle the sheets before they are completely dry, this is a delicate operation but possible if you are careful. It takes some practice.  Good luck.

Martha Marshall has a blog with more about treating papers for collage and other uses.

London part 2

And of course, besides the cultural richness of London there were the shops!

I think each person has his own personal ‘map’of a city. My London has several pilgrimage points which I always visit, and some of them are shops.  But wait a second, I am going to go off on a tangent here. I recently heard of Jan Rothuizen’s Soft Atlas of Amsterdam. He mapped out Amsterdam this way, very personally, drawing his vision of the city. Unfortunately most of the sites for the book are in Dutch, but still, you can get an idea from the pictures. 

I kept a sketchbook a bit a la Keri Smith, while in London, but when I came back and heard about the Soft Atlas, I realize I’d done something similar.

So back to my regular consumer haunts in London:

Muji, I always go there for their gel pens, cheap origami paper and irresistable plastic containers of every size, from crate to pillbox. Plus it is one of the coolest stores I  know.

The Bead Shop in Covent Garden has long been my favorite destination to restock my rocailles. They have shelves  of them arranged by colour! I also bought 4 perfect ovals of African turquoise, dusky and mottled like a jungle river.

Just around the corner near the Seven Dials, is London Graphics Centre. This time I got silver and gold water based block print ink (Speedball) which I haven’t been able to find anywhere else.

Every day I passed by Hotel Chocolat, the kind of place where chocoholics like me think they’ve died and gone to Heaven. I only succumbed on the last day, I bought a slab of orange chilli bitter chocolate. But you could also have all sorts of ‘liquid chocolate’, and too many other exotic and gorgeous treats to mention. Go have a drool at the site.

And finally, good old Waterstones, the perfect place to browse  on a cold and rainy Sunday. I saw a book about Banksey there as well as one on Slinkachu’s Little People. And I had a nostalgic time leafing through a coffee table book about the heyday of Biba.

Also, the V&A’s shops are to die for.  I treated myself to some adorable ceramic buttons shaped in hearts, flowers, rounds, ovals and squares- I’m going to make jewelry out of them.  I held back from the beaded bracelets, little bags, necklaces, books, stunning fabrics, scarves, art supplies, and just plain Things-to-buy-just-to-have.

X-factor vent

I stayed at a Youth Hostel while in London. In the evenings some of us would watch the X factor. It is good entertainment, but I grew to dislike it intensely.

One young guy, waiting to be eliminated(or kept on) was asked what it meant to him to stay.  He said,

‘Everything, this is the most important thing in my life’.

And later,

‘What I want more than anything is to be a pop star’. 

Ah, that’s it, the word ‘star’;  here is the crux of what is wrong with this whole concept- his ambition isn’t to be as good a singer and performer as he can, but to be a Star. It is fame that calls these children. Did you know that they actually live at the X-factor quarters for weeks on end, getting coached in how to present themselves?  That’s how involved they get, that is how dedicated they are to this goal, which when they achieve it, most will find empty and excruciatingly lonely.

Lately, I’ve been enjoying the music of John Mayer. I like him because he is intelligent, he has something to say which matters to him, he’s an ace guitar player, and let’s face it he’s sexy as hell.

He is, 1 a human being with depth and character. 2 A skilled musician on a number of levels. 3 An interesting person with independent views, and 4. A talented poet and songwriter.

Compare this to your average X-factor finalist who maybe can sing, and has learned how to ape the moves of more succcessful stars.  What else is there?

What a dumb goal our society encourages these easily influenced teenagers to quest after. How many of the winners have anything inside themselves to sustain them for more than the first half year of hype?  Don’t they know you have to be a whole and at least somewhat developed person first before you can express something worth listening to?

John Mayer, for example, already has the X-factor- but it in him it is a combination of talent, intelligence, skill, dedication, luck and inborn charisma. 

 He, at least, will be around for a lot more years, maturing and deepening, and just getting better. I look forward to it.

 

 

 

Chocolate for the Soul

At work during yesterday’s Personal Creativity Workshop

We had 17 enthusiastic women who came with open hearts and minds, you couldn’t have wished for a better group.

The main concepts were Exploration, Creating and Reflection. Most exciting for me was to see people take risks and really move.

The simplest exercise surprised me the most. We took one material to explore, in this case, crêpe paper. The assignment was not to ‘make’ a product, but to see what the material could do. First it was torn, folded, twisted into threads, knotted, cupped, stretched. From there we worked with connection methods like sewing, glueing, tying, taping etc. And finally the brief was to combine two elements into one object, say a twisted rope with a bunched up wad.

Each table then got to choose the best objects and combine them into an exhibition for the rest of us. They were to find a uniting theme in the objects, name the exhibition and make an invitation for everyone. 

 

This group’s exhibit was mounted on the wall and called, ‘Freedom’.

Like me, many of the participants were moved by the cooperation and exchange of ideas and inspiration such a simple concept could lead to.

We happily went to enjoy the delicious lunch cooked and catered by the organisers Aafke and Martine.

Afterwards, we made leporello( accordion) books and simple pamphlet bound books. Here are some of the results.

I had a wonderful day watching people get inspired by the materials and each other.

In designing this day, I drew a lot of inspiration from Keri Smith’s approach to playing with materials without having expectations or valuing the outcome. For many, the underpinnings of this approach; valuing mistakes and surprises, starting with what you have, paying attention to details in the environment, using the imagination and documenting your findings, were very different to the usual art class approach, ie, learn how to do something then make an aesthetically pleasing ’good’ product with that technique.

Thanks to everyone, Baukje for your beautiful studio to work in, and the organisers and participants for making it a rewarding and fun day!

What are you?

Recently I read an article about a young mother raising two children while working on her dissertation. As an aside she said, ‘Yes I still work 2 days a week  so I have something to say when people ask me what I do’.

That got me thinking about how deeply identified this society is with roles and status. The next day, someone asked me quite innocently at an artist’s gathering, ‘What are you?’  Meaning: artist, poet, musician, etc.  In the context of the above, I resented having to put myself in a box in order to be able to have a discussion with someone. Anyway, I don’t know ‘what’ I am yet, I’m only 59 and haven’t decided what I’m going to be when I grow up.

I told him that I didn’t want to answer the question and asked him instead,’What are you really excited about at this point in your life?’ And lo and behold we had a perfectly pleasant and inspiring discussion about the ‘new art’, basically all the things I”m also interested in, edgy art being made in homes on the streets and in the margins.

And all this without ever once mentioning ‘what we do’.

My heart often falls when people ask me to respond to ‘What do you do’?’. It limits the discussion right away.  And it makes me wonder why we feel so insecure  when we don’t have a conventionally accepted answer to that question. Have we accepted so completely that our sole value is in what we do? Is that our only basis for establishing a context to talk with new people?

I think I’d rather be asked what excites me, what inspires me, what issue am I wrestling with at the moment, what progress have I made in realizing some of my goals, what  are some of the nicest moments I’ve had with friends lately, in what areas of my life  do I feel connected and passionate, etc.