forms

Try filling out twelve immigration forms without going crazy. Try to electronically request a birth certificate in Eindhoven. Try to fill out your date of birth. Spend three hours finding out your mothers date of birth. And find it on her tombstone.

chinatown

Since three o'clock this morning on the phone with various money sources, going through long overdue crash courses in mortgaging, learning that communication with the seller's agent goes through a Chinese interpreter, and discovering that we were supposed to have applied for our landed immigrant status.

philip roth

Somebody somewhere today claimed that Grapus was around in the late eighties. I thought it tragically funny that 1968 is so long ago already, that it is possible to move it forward two decades just like that. There is absolutely nothing wrong with fucking around with history if you know what you're doing. If you're called Philip Roth for example. I have just finished reading "the plot against America". (Not even for sale yet, haha! I happened to find an advanced copy in a second hand bookstore.) Now that is fucking around with history for advanced students. Wow. Compulsory reading. Charles Lindbergh is elected president of the US and teams up with Hitler. I'm glad though I can show you the Grapus image instead of the Roth cover, because although it is done by Milton Glaser, it is hidious.

For some private life news, go to Michiel.

dr.laura

Peter sent me a horrible photo this time. If anybody could email me a better digi, I would be much obliged. This is Dr.Laura in big. Do I have to explain who Dr.Laura is? Please no, read Salon. Or read the paper edition of NRC, if you have it on hand. Or do an unfiltered Google Images search om "Laura Schlessinger".

takei takeo

Japanese children's book illustration from the 1920's. Very much worth checking out, beautiful silhouetty stuff too. Via Neurastenia.

Gossip of the day:
A new member subscribed to the illustrators mailinglist. He asked for comments on his (wonderful imo) website. One of the comments posted was very conceited and dismissive. Subsequently, another list member -who teaches at an artschool- responded in this way to that negative comment: "I just emailed X privately and asked him whether he would consider giving a guest lecture at our artschool. I did not look at the discussed website, and I don't have to see it to understand the kind of humorous, steeped in experience, and especially accurate insight that would, nowadays, stand every designer in good stead." In other words, you have such a wonderful way of telling people how much they suck, you should be an artschool teacher.

disaster

It seems the Dutch government plans to send around text messages when disaster strikes. It's what I had to draw yesterday. And something about wifi detection. Good thing there are illustrators to draw invisible phenomena. If I would have been given more time, I could have drawn the above in a more dramatic way. But two drawings in one day. That's an excuse, I lack virtuosity and speed. I don't sketch enough. I envy obsessed sketchers. I am not a very obsessive person. (The cloud btw is good, don't you think? It isn't a photo! Michiel and I had a great time BobRossing about on it.)

preview

This is what yesterday's 3D sketch grew into. It'll be in next Saturday's newspaper. Can't write more now, already on the next rush job.

3Dsketch

Piffin has been doing an internship at Alias, and now she can do my 3D sketches. I'm so proud of her!

advanced copy

Before we went to the cottage I told you that Tim had arrived, but it turns out they were advanced copies. The bulk is still on it's way from China. Anyway, I can show it, that's what counts. The celebratory book launch will take place end of September and then -or even before that, who knows- Tim will finally be in the bookstores. My book will even be distributed by the Dutch Railways, now isn't that lovely!

paul kane

We're going to lie on this Georgian Bay beach for a week or so.

From the ROM website: 1 2 3

"Hailed as a founding father of Canadian art, Paul Kane (1810-1871) made two journeys across Canada determined to paint, in his words, "a series of pictures illustrative of the North American Indians and scenery." As one of the first Canadian artists to portray the northwest, Kane chronicled Native cultures and historical events providing pre-photographic records of fur-trading posts, travel by canoe and dog team, Native customs, and one of the last great buffalo hunts."

walter trier

Most of what I find about Walter Trier is in German, so I am nice and write you a short summary:

Walter Trier illustrated many of Erich Kästner's children's books. (I have three of them, "das doppelte Lottchen", "Die Konferenz der Tiere", and "das fliegende Klassenzimmer".) But despite that, he is almost forgotten in Germany. Partly because the humoristic genre is widely being looked down upon in Germany but certainly also because as a jew, he had to end his carreer in Berlin, and flee to London in 1936. In London he worked for Lilliput, for twelve years he did the covers, always a couple with a dog. (And I have a copy!) Disney offered to hire him as an animator, but Trier declined, he wanted to work under his own name. In London he also did anti nazi cartoons, and they were dropped out of airplanes over Germany. In 1947 he emigrated to Canada, where his daughter lived, and worked as a designer for J.S. McLean's successful meat-packing business, Canada Packers Limited. He died in 1951. The AGO had a Trier show in 1999, I read they even have a collection. I'll look out for it, next time I'm there.

Some scans from "Die Konferenz der Tiere": 1 2 3 4

arie

Ladies and gentlemen... on violin... Arie van de Ven!!

News! Marije mailed me, she got Tim in the mail today!!*
I expect there's a pile of Tims on it's way to Canada, and I am going to send a signed copy to the first person to email me a photo of "het bed van Tim" in a BOOKSTORE. I want to see my book in a bookstore. Other people can get signed copies too of course, but they'll have to pay back the stamps. The book has to earn me some money. In the Tim category you can see the Tim work as it developed. And there are some finished drawings in my portfolio. But the best thing for everyone would be if you would buy the book.

* "Het bed van Tim": A Little Golden Book, written by Marije van de Sande, graphic design Piet Schreuders, illustrations yours truly. Published by Rubinstein publishers, Amsterdam.

friends

Two delicate boys. Put them in an every day school class and you can call a state of emergency. But we try not to think about that now, one month of Summer holidays left. So they can fuel each others imagination as much as they want. And palaver away at each other all day. They chalked an eight meter long galaxy on the driveway this morning. But it already thunderstormed away.

marshall mcluhan way

Marshall McLuhan is going to have a Toronto street named after him next week. Picture above is my own old personal copy of the medium is the massage. (Very bad quality, this medium. What does that say about this message?) We had an American photography teacher in art school that made us study this book. Over and over and through and through. Think he was a true fan. We, the students (I'm quite sure I don't just speak for myself) straight out of highschool, in the late seventies, were not exactly the right McLuhan audience yet. I don't even recall whether this teacher spoke Dutch. If he did, he certainly can't have been fluent. Interesting lessons, but somewhat of a disaster, my marks were terrible in any case. The longer we live, the more farlies we see. Much later I realised Klinkowstein wasn't my first McLuhan experience. Even straighter out of highschool, in 1977, I had seen Annie Hall in the cinema. I remember not knowing what was happening to me, I had never seen anything like it. I sensed it had to be a great film, but I didn't understand a thing. My friends thought it a horrible film and reacted almost aggressively. I remember vehemently defending the film. Of course I didn't know that I had seen Marshall McLuhan make an appearance in the film, not as himself anyway. A real life character. Which he isn't anymore. But at least he is getting his Way now.

philippe starck

Michiel is off to Los Angeles. Partying in The Mondrian, lucky bastard. I wonder if Mondriaan would have liked having a Hollywood hotel named after him. But I suppose he would have. Considering his Snow White fascination.

venus

Just a quick snapshot today. To show Zeppo's significant other what will happen to a city when nothing (the computer in the video store where I rent dvd's is running DOS) ever changes. We were house hunting in this neighbourhood. Way too expensive for us. I'm serious. Neighbourhoods like this one tend to be "up and coming", so I guess Venus will have to go soon after all...

quarterly

Mobile Vision nr 2 of this year. It's a quarterly I do some work for. Very funny, it's a KPN magazine. I found this client after I was downsized away at planetinternet (djeez, they even changed names now!), which is (was?) owned by KPN. So that was from KPN to KPN. In Canada KPN would translate to Canada Post I guess. But they're still publicly owned. Sometimes I love this country, it feels like nothing ever changes here. Wonderful old fashioned Canada. Paul Anka on the radio. You can't even transfer money to somebody else's bank account here, you have to write out checks. Paper checks.

back

Yes, we're back. But I'm nowhere near back in my wonderful routine. Camping was great, nothing much to tell. Swimming, canoeing, eating, drinking, reading, reading, reading. Perfect, if there would not have been that many mosquitoes. The aggressive kind. Piffin and I had allergic reactions, frightning swellings. Insomnia. We pulled through. Now I'm washing, washing, washing. Don't want to bore you with that. We have been under massive comment spam attack as well. Almost as bad as the mosquitoes. I closed my older entries.