poets

I am happy Hans Verhagen was awarded the PC Hooft prize, I can make some money off it. For the same reason I hope Ramsey Nasr is going to be elected national poet, I have got quite a nice one of him too.

sushi

Every once in a long while, I still sell one of my authors. This one is Levi Weemoedt, he is a beautiful Dutch poet. I printed Abu Dhabi for a family here in my street, they were visiting there the same weekend I did the drawing. They are going to move there, take the print, and make all the Abu Dhabiens laugh. I've got everything the wrong way around, they said. Never mind. I do things the right way around too, like joining a gym, yes you are reading this right. And I joined not just any gym, I joined the gym of the University of Toronto, one of the top 20 universities in the world, mind you. So why did I join there, you ask. Well, they have an indoor track, and since I am no way not a chance going to run on snow and ice -and it has started- or -for that matter- on a treadmill -I am not a hamster- the UofT indoor track is nothing less than Columbus's egg. I have bought a four month membership, so it'll have to be spring four months from now. My friend Michele and I had an excellent work-out at the UofT this morning, and after that, we had sushi for lunch. And felt very urban.

Today's Montreal music, enjoy!

waiting for the volga

Here's my old prickly self with yet another lovely giclee print. It's a nice objective way of establishing which are my best drawings. The best ones will sell. I wish I could effortlessly repeat the success of this one, or Noah's arc, but it doesn't work that way. The good old ups and downs, nothing goes without them. Artists get judged by their best works anyway, so why worry. Never be more then two weeks away from your best work, that would be an ambitious enough goal. I am starting Russia, but I am waiting for the man in Russia to brief me. I know he is traveling along the Volga river, and Google Earth looks promising, but I would like to know roughly what he is going to write about before I start.

noah's print

Yes, it is Monday, and I did do laundry. But there is a storm on its way, so the laundry stays inside. I am happy people like my VPRO cover so much that I am selling prints like hot cake. Right. I can't say much about Orbit yet, he's totally doped out on Tramadol. Our neighbour Johannes, who is a chemist, says we need a lock on our kitchen cabinet. With Michiel's Oxy's in there too. Which I don't think he is taking anymore anyhow. Not that his thumb isn't still killing him. But he switched to something more naturopathic, my dear alternative husband. The porch now smells of hippie shit in the evenings. Peace. Oh, and look at my feet, Piffin gave me a pedicure with her Dremel.

slummy print

I love to sell prints, and it's happened again. I've been wishing for someone to order this drawing. I have a more than excellent printer, his only downside being his location. In the middle of a residential neighbourhood somewhere in Eglinton. Which means I have to take the streetcar, then the subway, then a bus, and then walk five blocks. I could jack up my price and use a courier, but I don't always mind the trip, it's kind of meditational. I have noticed there is a bus service between Eglinton and Broadview, but I haven't tried that. I often wish I was more adventurous.

no hotel print

This is how quick it can be. On Monday I do a drawing, on Tuesday a print gets ordered, and on Wednesday the print is in the mail. One of the ways in which I make a little money. So very very nice to have somebody ask for something, fully knowing and expecting they have to pay some money. I have to put something in my FAQ to scare away all those people who constantly want my stuff for free. Charities, not-for-profits, sympathetic publications, and so on. And no!! The fact that YOU put your time in for free does NOT mean I am going to do the same. It may be your good cause, but that does NOT mean it is mine. And every god damn time it happens I say yes. I am going to stop it, I am going to. Because you know what? People don't even value stuff they get for free. Must be something psychological. The times I did drawings for distant friends, and just asked for bottles of wine in return that I never got. A political party I don't even vote for published one of my drawings for free in their poverty-stricken magazine. And forgot to credit me. Enough! Maybe if you can find a printer who will print for free, on free paper. Maybe then. Last Sunday I said yes to an Australian thing, but it doesn't feel right. It's just not fair to people who do pay me. Like the nice lady who ordered this no-hotel-print.

And before you ask, yes it's Piffin's room.

betty's print

I don't really understand why someone would want to buy a print of one of my parental advice thingies, but who am I to judge. On the contrary, I like it. Because part of my gain in this printing business is that I always have two done. One for the customer, one for me. Moneywise there is really not that much going on. And this is the first time I realized that there is no reason why I should pick the same drawing. I can have one of my own favourites done! Now off to the post office with it, and then I'll prepare an easy Halloween dinner to take with us to the Meridew porch. And a Happy Halloween to you too!

hello, how are you?

I sold Elsbeth Etty! I am delighted, because she is my favourite, and I always have two done. So apart from a small financial gain, I get to keep a print. I am certainly going to frame this one. The other one I hope to get to the post office before five. I still have a tube, so that shouldn't be a problem. Only somehow, whenever I don't work for a couple of days, my social life tends to go crazy. Where do all those people come from all of the sudden? Don't you have that, that you can hardly remember your day if you keep running into people to chat with? Working gives me more peace and quiet than I realize, I don't have to leave my head when I draw.

ikea

I decided I needed a small couch that would fit the 1.50 m stretch of wall that faces my computer. Because we are always watching films and TV programs on my computer without anywhere to sit. But we did have an Ikea catalog. And Michiel reluctantly agreed (before he had more than once threatened with divorce would I go to Ikea). Very shortly after, my aunties Clare and Michelle came to the door and they were all excited about it, Michiel had told them when he passed their house while walking Orbit. The whole street knows how Michiel feels about Ikea. So C&M took me to the video store, missed their exit, and -what the hell- drove to Ikea, six o'clock on a Sunday evening. And back with the Klobo on top. Michiel and Piffin assembled it while I made tomato soup. And now Klobo is an art project. It's a doodle bear! Everybody who sits on it gets a marker, or some acrylic paint. You didn't think I would live with a white couch? Oh, and about the print. This is my very last author drawing for the newspaper, sadly enough. I was supposed to have done them one year, 2006, ended up doing them well into 2007, but now I am really done, and Peter van Dongen will take over. You can tell me which of my drawings is your favourite, I'd like that. Please don't tell me your least favourite ones, I am a sensitive soul. I may even tell you my own favourite ones.

health card

I decided it was time to put all my giclée print entries in one category. Which for the same money shows you my aging process. I did sell a couple more Grunbergs, but I skipped those on the blog. So sadly, these are basically it. I should advertise my little printing business more widely. I sell them for only 100 euro's, and they are really pretty! Numbered up to 20, very unique. Anything from my portfolio. Which desperately needs updating, I have tons of new stuff to go in there. Sigh. (DONE!) Anyway. I have a hope-for-humanity anecdote. That really happened to us last night. There was a deck party at Autodesk, and we had a lot of fun, Michiel's colleague Jeremy shot an incredible picture of me, I'll show it as soon as he emails it to me. But my anecdote isn't about that. Whenever there are parties at Autodesk, the company kindly hands out taxi slips to get home safely. Which we did, not even very late. This morning at breakfast, Piffin -who got home two o'clock in the morning from her night out- told us she had found Michiel's health (insurance - extremely important artefact) card sticking out of our letter box. WTF! Michiel stormed out of the kitchen to get his wallet. Shit, it's true, no health card. It must have fell out when he tipped the cab driver. (The slip payed for the ride) And then the cab driver found the card, remembered our address, and actually drove back and returned the health card. Isn't that wonderful.

yawn

So this is how my dog thinks about my work. He should realize it is paying for all of that yummie organic dogfood. Or rather, that Naema Tahir is paying for the next bag. Thank you Naema! It is always extremely nice to hear from the authors themselves. Preferably in fountain pen, but email is also highly appreciated. But now I am off, bye bye lieve kijkbuiskinderen.

easter tree print

Very strange, I just discovered this illustration isn't even in my portfolio. I did it in 2003, and I am going to tell you a funny story. As all of you will know by now, I have bought a new computer. So one night Michiel was retrieving the email from the old computer. And while doing so, he discovered that on our server there is a reservoir of old mail with misspelled email addresses. This mail should of course always have been redirected, but this had somehow been overlooked. So there comes this gigantic wave of ancient email. And what do you know, somebody ordered a print after seeing this illustration in the newspaper, way back Easter 2003. It was a really nice email, from an architect, who claimed he lived in a house just like the one in the drawing. I could not leave such a nice email unanswered, what on earth must he have been thinking of me, not getting back to him... So I wrote to him immediately, mmm, three years after the fact. And see, he still wants the print!

giclée

Last Friday I told you that Arnon's print had turned out a tad dark. I took the weekend to think about it, and then I decided I was not going to be happy with it. It was too large as well. The portrait was a rush job when I did it, and the original drawing is really small. I knew the newspaper wasn't going to print it very big either. And the print just didn't work at 30 cm high. So I decided to have a new one done. I made it considerably lighter, and scaled it to 25 cm. And now I am happy, it turned out really well. Of course I am losing a little money on it now, but I had two done, and I am keeping one. Which I will frame, like I did with Arjan Visser.

italian linseed oil

Sold another print to the portrayed victim! And don't say I need a haircut, I just had one. And I can never deny Michele some fun with his blowdryer, so I look like the Italian version of me, which I am not showing. He put in some linseed oil from Italy, and I must admit, it smells delicious. I asked him where his flag was, it was on his car. Michele was very glad they're not playing Portugal in the finals, because that could have meant all Toronto Italians would have had to move to New Brunswick after. The soccer championship really is something special here, in our multicultural bubble. Toronto wins and looses every single game. Neighbour Heidi was sad the Germans lost. She and Daniel gave us a whole bag of vegetables from their garden yesterday, yummie. And a strange Vietnamese herb that grows rampant everywhere you look. I didn't know it was edible, it grows in our front yard too, tastes lovely and sharp. If you look very closely, you can see it in the picture. It's the purple stuff just underneath the African marigold on the right hand side. I saw an Asian man plucking it from front yards this morning, probably from people just as unaware of its edibility as I was until yesterday. I had that too, Chinese old ladies with plastic bags, coming into my front yard harvesting away. Strange manners, those people.

lovely giclée

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.

giclée print

Just a quick snapshot after picking it up at Image Works. I'll need to take a better photo before shipping it to Amsterdam. The giclée print turned out really really good. Rich colours on thick heavy water colour paper. I want to do it again, again, again! Order prints! You can look up the printing costs of the size you want, and I'll double the damage, so I earn a little too. That's more than fair isn't it? Anything from the portfolio. Except Tim, Tim is the publisher's copyright.