March 2006 Archives

Guus Kuijer is a children's book author. I have a live children's book happening around me right now. Otger has a PA day because of the parent teacher interviews last night. And now he has his science project partner over. The science project is due on Monday. All the teachers we spoke with last night were worried sick about this science project. The two partners are the two boys in that classroom with possible great great futures ahead of them. One brighter than the other. But they constantly have to pull each other out of the curtains to get some work done. One of the teachers called it an adventure, the two of them together. Another one called it interesting. The science teacher is convinced they will fail dramatically. They both compete for the the school's worst speller trophee. And the school's greatest orator trophee. They disagree on everything. Headstrong. They are disorganized to an unimaginable degree. But partnerboy had baked cookies before he came to our house this morning. A jar full of warm oatmeal cookies. I love him. But now I have to rush upstairs. Drama.

I just found a folder on my computer called "syence".

Time for a Canadian artist. My book says: Steven Shearer in many of his drawings focuses upon this figure of the young, white, burned-out male adolescent. Yet the artist does so in a manner that exudes a poignancy and empathy absent in the mass media's mostly disparaging or dismissive reflections on these subjects.

Went to the doctor today. Last chance. If my blood pressure would be too high again, she would put me on statins. And what do you know, 122/80. Champagne! It must have been the relaxing book I was reading in the waiting room.

This came to me by email:

Hi Everyone:
Thought you should see this...pass it on!!!
Very interesting, watch out for this.
If you own your own home and have a garden you may want to read this.....
If you use mulch around your house be very careful about buying it this year. After the hurricane in New Orleans many trees were blown over. These trees were then turned into mulch and the state is trying to get rid of tons and tons of this mulch to any state or company who will come and haul it away. So it will be showing up in places like Home Depot at dirt cheap prices with one huge problem: Formosan Termites will be the bonus in many of those bags.
New Orleans is one of the few areas in the USA were the Formosan Termite has gotten a strong hold and most of the trees blown down were already badly infested with those termites. Now we may have the worst case of transporting this problem to all parts of the States and Canada that we have ever had. These termites can eat a house in no time at all and we have no good control against them, so tell your friends who own homes to avoid cheap mulch and know were it came from.

Jennifer Beehler
Secretary to the Chair
Clinical Studies Department
Ontario Veterinary College
University of Guelph

I think it was 1985 when Michiel and I visited New York. With a very old crappy flea market quality 6x6 camera. Tiny tiny lense. I figured this camera would not get stolen, I take my precautions. And of course we were that artistic. Last night I showed our dinner guests the New York photo album, and we realised how precious this picture is.

I don't find wrinkles a problem. As long as you smile enough, you'll get them in the right places. Phew, almost 4 PM Sunday afternoon, my weekend can start. Good thing I invited some friends over for dinner! Our last dinner party on the old stove. We bought a super stove yesterday, it'll be delivered later this week. Convection oven, fan, self cleaning, stainless steel, everything. Though we were tempted by multi million dollar professional monsters, we constrained ourselves, and stayed under 2000. Sears has a picture, we payed far less of course.

Almost more drawing than text! Please somebody out there on the other side of the Atlantic, tell me how it looks on paper. I feel exactly like this girl, only I am not as pretty. Locked in my house, with the world on my 22 inch screen. But they're letting me out today, we are going to shop for a new stove. I am afraid our current antique mouse castle is just waiting to explode. Do I have to explain at all about internet dating muslima's? It's real big, muslim online dating. Even among the really strict ones. The ones even that don't allow telephone calls because they can be sexually arousing. Who do they think they're fooling? As if emailing...

-big version-

I already did this drawing in December, it took a long time for it to get published. Which was a good and a bad thing. Of course I like to think that I've already gotten better at doing these portraits, so that's the bad thing. The good thing is that it gave me the chance to draw the guy a different head. I had very little to go on in December, but then I saw a TV interview with Frank Martinus Arion and did the new head.
If you have today's NRC at hand, look at the article on Komrij, you will see another image I previously blogged! Happy families, it's not the first time I notice interlocking articles on the Dutch literature page.

Apparently there's a lot of digital bullying going around among children. I asked Otger whether he had experienced it at all. He said he just blocks anyone who tries. Mmm, the article didn't mention that option. The article thinks I should check my children's chat logs. Well, not a hair on my head. They see me coming, their mother! No, I most certainly will not do that. I think raising kids is about trust, not about surveillance.

This type is part of the canon of Dutch design. And since I own an ancient 1971 magazine with the whole alphabet in it, I thought I'd blog it, set it free on the internet. And although of horrible print quality, lots of enormous moiré and cut out with a kitchen knife, the letters in this magazine are gigantic, just a couple on each page, so I neatly edited everything together in one image. Not in the 1971 magazine but on the 2006 internet, I found an interview with Anthon Beeke. I like his answer to the question "why do you make these statements?" He says: "If, like me you live in a community of reasonably humane, culturally well-grounded freethinkers, in a city which has manifested its mercantile spirit from the sixteenth century by systematically plundering the world and accumulating an enormous wealth, a city which offers a tremendous amount of energy, so I try to give Amsterdam some of my energy back." I think I am homesick. Oh yes, I also found a website on erotypes.

Huh! The NRC is electing the best Dutch design. Beeke's type is not on the shortlist!

My father-in-law wrote an interesting blog entry about how he could easily have been somebody else. Half an hour after he was born, an unexpected twin brother emerged. Willem writes about how a neighbour family with fertility problems then offered to take over one of the twins, and that his parents had given this serious thought. It can't have been an extremely uncommon thing to happen, it's just that everybody always keeps silent about such things. And that is why -imo- nowadays we tend to think that techniques like IVF make people who would in the past have lived with their fate, wish for kids. Nonsense! I remember my father winding himself up every time he told us about the pastor coming around to inquire about the progress my parents were making getting pregnant. My father was convinced the pastor would have been willing to help out. Or that family doctor we once met while on holidays. He was a very religious man, with a family practice somewhere in Holland's bible belt. He really opened up to us, seemed happy to be able to talk about this with some out right atheists. He told us about a couple that once came to see him because the woman could not get pregnant. It turned out the husband was completely infertile. Something with his testicles. It was utterly impossble for him to father a child. But some time after this unfortunate diagnosis, the woman came to see the doctor again. A miracle had happened, she said. God had answered her prayers. And indeed, she was pregnant. Our poor doctor, his conscience was heavy.

Stress levels back to normal. This week's literary section will feature a drawing I already did back in December. Which means I can spend a couple of very relaxed days colouring a little bit, every now and then when I feel like it. And I can have coffee with whom ever I feel like, go for walks, cook nice dinners, very nice indeed. I made red cabbage with beef stew and fries. And I did a truck load of laundry.

I feel like Miss Ant. I can't find a decent picture of her, but this is her friend. Not an ant. I once made a really big drawing of this owl. Sister Marie-Martine put it on the wall in the classroom. Years and years later, I visited that classroom again, don't remember why. The owl was still there, old and yellow.

Found through the wonderful Trendbeheer. It doesn't rain much in Spain. It's charcoal.

A lovely book, according to the review. "En knielde voor hem neer" by Nicolien Mizee. I wouldn't mind a lovely book right now, it's a whopping 21 degrees on my porch! And I feel a little under my tea water, too much beer last night. But I am already working on next week's life style section, a challenging one. No Beauty and the Beast for me. Skirting along the ravines of sentimentality. The reviewer's eyes filled with tears reading the last chapter, I want that book. If I were an author, I'd want a review like this in NRC Handelsblad. Big version.

If you think you know what the hell I am doing here, you can write so in the comments, because I don't have a clue. Tonight was our monthly Dutch gathering in Toronto. More fun every time. Joep still only reads the Telegraaf, shame on him. And Jaco is still proud so be an old PSP man. You see, we're very diverse. And none of us wants to be called an expat. But we exchange business cards every time. Networking is the name of the game. Was this your business card? No, that was hers, the blond one, she just left. This one is mine. Oh, alright, but these other two, oh blast. I'll just go to their websites.

I drew a little more than a single line. Way too many lines in fact. I was planning on doing this one real fast, and doing something fun with the children in the afternoon. And then the drawing took longer, and longer, and longer, damn. It's about parents drawing one single line. Yet another educational thing I don't believe in. I remember when Piffin was really really young. She was playing with a pair of scissors. I let her, because she was (is) always very careful. And then Michiel came in the door (incredible!! he comes in the door now too, this second, as I am typing this!!) and panicked. That was the first time Piffin learned she has two different parents.

An accomplishment of unknown magnitude, I have no idea whether this drawing looks anything like the portrayed victim. I really should anticipate the event that some day I will have to draw an author of whom not a single photograph exists. How on earth am I going to do that? How would you approach such a challenge? Please write some ideas in the comment box.

I've got almost nothing to go on, two photo's, no more. I hope some holy inspiration will descend on me tomorrow, inspiration that will allow me to do something fantastically creative with this flat grey thingy. Which I already took down. Was worse than this one. Michiel says I have to mix in some Willeke van Ammelrooy.

It happened. The portrayed author looked me up, emailed me, ordered a print. Last time I had a giclée print done, I went to Toronto Image Works, but they charge 95 Can $ set up fee alone! That's a bit much for only one or two relatively small prints. So I Googled a different printshop, NO set up fee, and cheaper printing costs, in fact amazingly cheap. And the same amazing quality as Image Works. Goodbye Image Works. So order prints, don't be shy. Anything from the portfolio, authors sending autographed books get rebates :-) And what else is new? We bought Otger a new second hand bike. A very cool one, the winter bike the bike shop guy built for himself. It looks beautifully wrecked, like an old pair of jeans, but it's in mint condition. I had half a heart attack later today though. Usually Otger goes biking with his two years younger friend from down the street. They go to the sports and playing fields that surround the neighbourhood school. But today Otger got together with a classmate and they stayed away really long. God damn it, the two of them cycled half the city! To Gerrard square and the Leslie street Loblaws, I fucking don't believe it! He needs a crash couse in defensive biking, and fast.

Authors on music. Music is the theme for this year's Book Week. Book Week is a very Dutch phenomenon, a whole week of book celebrations. A Book Ball for Book Celebrities (shit, I wasn't invited) and every year a different author to write a book on the chosen theme. A book that bookstores give away. For nothing, gratis, free. On the radio I heard someone from the CPNB, the organizing book promoting foundation say that this free book ends up in one out of eight households in Holland. That is a lot for literature. Having read the article, I must conclude that the editors have been very nice for me, asking me to draw only six authors. From left to right: Joost Zwagerman, Jan Donkers, Adriaan Jaeggi, Martin Bril, Chris Willemsen and Bernlef. But apart from them, the article also mentions Oscar van den Boogaard, Ramsey Nasr (such a pity, he is extremely good looking), Geert van Istendael, Jef Geraerts and Thé Lau.

Big version in my (updated) portfolio.

My father-in-law has his own musings about my drawing.

I bought a book. Or rather, I bought it last week. But I had to take it back, because the binding was messed up. Pages were missing, pages were double. A rare thing for such an expensive book, the bookstore lady said. But I am so happy to have it back, I hope I will learn a lot from this book. I am nowhere with my own petty portraits, nowhere. These portaits speak en feel and express. But I won't give up. I will study my book.

Ready before midnight. And if anything, there is likeness in each and every one of them. At least I think so. I would have loved to have had more time for this one, could have done a more dynamic composition. But the rush is kind of nice as well. Maybe I would have drawn the heads larger, given more time. I usually do dramatic distortions bit by bit, to keep them believable. Not enough bits this time. Henry Moore does the same, I once saw that in a video. The proportions of his sculptures go wrong if he just blows up little sketch sculptures.

See what a friendly bunch the Dutch literary scene is! By the way, I totally realise that to North American ears, the Dutch literary scene must sound like the Liechtenstein literary scene would sound to Dutch ears. But I assure you, Dutch literature is completely taken seriously in Holland.

Now they have really dared me. A group portrait of six authors. If you feel like it, you can play a guessing game, but I am not promising any prizes. You are a way too smart audience!

Last week I cought a big fat mouse. With a big fat blob of Nutella in my tin cat. And now cute little orphan mice are swarming the house. I think they're looking for their mother. Michiel thinks they're just looking for food. But one of them kept following me around, and I am a mother, not food. Michiel caught the one above in the bathroom pedal bin, another one in a six pack of Amsterdam. We spotted a third one in our bedroom, but we haven't cought it yet.

I think this drawing will stay one of my favourites. With some drawings I am happier than with others, and I am very happy with this one. The lead character in Arjan Visser's novel is a pigeon flyer. But really the novel is about the Fall of man. About longing back for paradise, wanting to return home. And that unlike pigeons, humans can never return home, instead they wander and get lost. After the unhappy youth, everything only keeps getting worse. Great theme, and so true. And with Dylan as a motto.

I was almost desperate trying to find a picture that would capture this day. And then I found Cindy Sherman, so I am happy. The four of us went for our medicals. I think the doctor was desperate for some company. We sat in his oxygen deprived office for hours on end, chatting away about Canadian soldiers liberating Holland -he was that old-, the Iraq war, Quebec, Verdonk (thank you Hiram for yesterday's explanation), Bush, real estate, anti semitism, gay marriage, high school education, SARS, avian flu, and what not. And after that we had to go down into the basement for our HIV tests and chest X-rays. It was five o'clock when we left the building. Our appointment had started at 1 o'clock. And we hardly saw a waiting room. But I trust we are going to be allowed into the country.

Picture later today. Urgent matters first, no time to explain. This is a Google bomb. Vreemdelingenhaat.

Meanwhile it is later today. Another little girl for the series. At a certain point I realised I was drawing myself. I looked a lot like this when I was a little girl. Only I didn't have long hair. My stepmother used to send me to the hairdresser, on my own, with an old ID photo of myself with a hideous short haircut, as an example. Very embarrassing, I can still feel how I felt. Otger and I had our ID photo's taken this afternoon. We have to all get our medicals tomorrow, our permanent residency in this country is finally in sight. This post has an appropriate title after all.