weekend monster

A monster is much more entertaining than a photo of my paperwork.
Have a nice weekend!

how do you do?

Overwhelmed by work - and commitments - I can't be much present here this week either (no Art as Business until next weekend). But I can promise you a playful cut out every day until Friday!

I made these cut outs when playing around with ideas for the Happy Family card game.

What a happy family!

Some time ago I was invited by Esti to participate in her playful collaborative project: a children's card game entitled "Happy Family". The card game includes works by the following creative people: Sarajo Frieden, Thereza Rowe, Estibaliz Hernandez, Lotte Andkilde, Aris Moore, Kimberley Di Laurenti and Lady Desidia. (see belove some of their cards too.) All the proceedings are going to the charity organization Doctors without Borders. It is to be published in Spain soon - and I can barely wait to see the whole deck of cards! you can have a sneak peek of all of Sarajo's cards here and here you can see Thereza's Info on how to get your very own cards will come soon!

but today I suddenly noticed that when I sent Esti my second version of card F3 I deleted the poor girl's food by mistake ... (i.e. the layer in photoshop) That's what happens when you fix important things around midnight. But maybe she is better off without the peas?

Monsieur Jean-Jacques

I'm making some idea sketches for a fun project.

amazed

just a note on my children's book project: here you can read the "rules of the game". I've just cut this one out of the paper and drawn the lines - all the painting was made by my son (then I've seen "something")

looking for a house

another children's book sketch...

tomorrow I'm off to London for a week to find an apartment. I'll still try to be here though - Internet is everywhere!

tea party

tonight we had a goodbye party for me in my studio. Cheese, bread and wine. The Chèvre was great. I've been sharing this studio - Studio 5 - with some other artists for 7 years. That's a long time. You can not imagine the amount of trash I've saved ( "this might turn out useful one day"). I do not feel in control. I go there every day and just stare at the mess. Then I pack two drawings. Monday is the last day of June - will I be able to move out by then?

One of my colleges told me tonight about the "new thing" were you have to be as an artist - THE BLOG. This is the way to reach people. You go to other blogs and comment that they are great and then you can get a network all over the world.
Hm , I said - it's not that easy...

Tea party - another sketch for my children's book. Like the mad hat maker in Alice in Wonderland - one of my favorite books.

silence

next page in my "childish" sketchbook.

sketchbook page

more from my children's book project.

balancing toy

My father's second toy was this little wooden man balancing on his chair. No matter how much you lean him and change the arms' position he'll keep swirling around and never fall off.

The third toy?
It was the same kind of toy, but in brass and ornamented. That was the toy Johannes was supposed to play with when they had guests and only then. But it was not as good at balancing as the wooden one. Johannes preferred the wooden toy.

My half siblings have the brass toy, so you will just have to imagine that one!

boy and bird

another of my sketches for my potential children's book.

painting on the floor

Today I painted with the children at my son's preschool again. It got a bit wild.

shoelaces

Another creature for my Children's book project. I'm just making a lot of different figures and I'll let the stories come later. Anyhow it feels so nice and unpretentious. It doesn't have to become something - or anything. Just fun!

Really early tomorrow morning I'm going to drive to a town called Lidköping where I will teach screenprinting on paper (at Formakademin) for three days. I don't know if I will be blogging or not - it all depends on the circumstances.

Dark and Victorian: sara bevan
Indian and Great Story and Project: nek chand

one more thing

I almost forgot: Bibbi is opening her exhibit tomorrow - and I'm going. I've never seen her before (just read the blog) so it's going to be exciting!

even though I've been teaching full time this week I managed to make my own prints (in my lunch break) - experimental printing thinking about my children's book idea.

midnight sketching

yes, I'm doing it again.

I set some rules for the game:
- base it on my 3 year old son's leftovers (paintings, drawings, cutouts)
- make at least two/night
- show my co-artist the result in the morning to see his reactions (he keeps showing me the empty pages of the sketchbook implying that I'm slow) and learn from them. (he didn't like this one - maybe it's too hard to read?)

cutting shapes

Another "art piece" from my creative sessions with the offspring. I cut our old paintings and use their variations not adding anything extra. And then very often my son cuts my art piece into small small pieces. ( the elephant was so nice...). And laughing. (kill your darlings?)

Cutting paper you can make very nice things. Marie-Louise Sundqvist had yesterday a post about paper art. Nikki Mcclure and Peter Callesen both make cut outs - but totally different. Peter is my favorite though. Found through MoCo Loco.

being childish - again

So, my son is sick again. We paint, cut papers and glue - and I try to create some things with the material (fast, though - he is a severe master) on the side. Just cutting and gluing what is already there. It's so fun with the colourful papers. And the speed. He makes 10 art pieces in 15 minutes!

being childish

THE GAME: my 2,5 year old son cuts and tears pieces of coloured papers. He hands them to me and I have to glue them to a white paper. Without delay. Then he gives me another one and another one ... and I have to make something out of it (pen being aloud to use if fast). If I have the time I try to shape the pieces by tearing them a bit.

ABOVE: a cooperative artwork of ours - fixed a little bit extra by me.

Erwin Olaf's art is not childish. I like it...