From May 29 until June 27, 82 Deventer artists (including me) present themselves at the Salon in the Bergkerk, Deventer. View some documentation of my work here. In the weekend of 19/20 June, 62 of these artists (including me) also open their studio for the public in the Atelierroute. Both Salon and Atelierroute are a part of Toegang Vrij, organised by Kunstenlab once every two years.

Opening my studio for the public is always a good excuse to tidy up I guess… Other artists opening their studio in Havenkwartier this year: Aukje Grouwstra (Baufrau), Femke Teussink, Elise van de Linden, Margot Olde Loohuis and Babet Olde Weghuis. Well worth it!

Open: Saturday June 19 – Sunday June 20, 12:00 – 17:00 hrs. All participating artists are mentioned in a free magazine, including their studio adresses and a map (see pictures below).

I just finished building a new website for Old Powder New Guns by Lilian Hak. It is based on the same template as the previous website for a productiehuis ON production.

Which means this too is a Wordpress based website with a lot of automated action going ON. Personally I’m not so sure about the background color (maybe it’s just my dislike of maroon), but hey, it’s a team effort and apparently maroon is what you get in a democracy.

Bigger version. For reading. In Dutch. Why artists want to live and work in Deventer.

Like I mentioned in my previous post, I have tried to make some decent photo documentation of my prints currently on display in the Bergkerk. Because of the reflections and the subtleness of the prints this wasn’t easy… but here is my first attempt. It’ll give you an impression at least.

There are three works, they are all untitled. Basically they are short sentences in fine print on a black surface (40 cm x 50 cm). Because of the glass in the frames these black surfaces turn into very effective mirrors (as you can see). The typography is so small that you have to get real close to be able to read them.

I think the contemplative nature of these prints works very well in conjuncture with the vast space of the church they are in now. There is also sufficient approaching distance. Someone said they made him think of empty flatscreen monitors at first. I hadn’t noticed that visual link before, but I think I’m quite happy with it.

I’ve been trying to incorporate my love for text in my art for some time now. Apart from this work, I didn’t come up with anything that satisfied me. Until now. Although I’m still pretty insecure about it’s quality (exploring new terrain), I think I’m on the right track with a small series of prints I made recently.

I focussed on making short, multi-layered texts, open for personal interpretation. Which was actually a lot harder then I had imagined. Then I started thinking about the best visual presentation for the texts. Designed to spark a train of thought.

So far I have four prints that work for me. All of them are 50 x 40 cm. in size, printed in black on white paper and are framed behind glass (I needed reflections).

Three of them are based on the same principal idea and are to be shown at Toegang Vrij in The Bergkerk soon. I didn’t have time to document these prints yet, but due to the reflections of the glass and the subtleness of the prints, they are going to be extremely difficult to photograph correctly, so you’re better of seeing them in real life anyway. Just go there!

The fourth print is a bit of an oddball really… ‘Oneliner galore’ can somehow be construed as a graphical interpretation or titlework for this new series of short sentences. It is quite different from all the others I keep coming up with, but I felt it deserved it’s own print. When looking at it up close for some time, the lines and the letters seem to come alive… The photo’s below (yes, that’s me and my studio in the reflection) don’t have the same hypnotizing effect as looking at the real thing, but I wanted to give you a general idea, so here it is: