All work and no play makes jack a dull boy

So I've been extremely busy lately with all sorts of things. Let me get you up to date...

KOM Festival

The KOM festival is an art festival at my hometown Oosterhout. The festival is relatively young, this is its third time and they’ve decided to do things completely different. I’ve been asked to act as a festival coordinator together with Sharon Joosen. That basically means we need to make sure the festival is fun, there’s enough different things to do and make sure there is a festival in the first place. A lot of responsibility but fun to do. So write it down; it’s the 7^th till the 10^th of October.

Utrecht Comic Art Fair

Comic Art Fair Tour 2012

I’m touring with Dead Ant around the Netherlands this summer to sell our stuff and be awesome. We’ve been to the Utrecht Comic Art Fair in March. It was a lot of fun, many familiar faces and it was held at a church so the setting was amazing.
Next up was Mercado de Belcrum. This was held at the city where I’ve studied so once again many familiar faces and new friends. This fair is more about homemade stuff but visitors didn’t seem to mind my strange darlings and creations.
There’s the Comic Weekend in Haarlem this weekend, which is one of the biggest comic art fairs in Holland. I’m excited to go however I’ve been so busy these last couple of weeks I haven’t been able to create new stuff and replenish my stock. We’ll see how it goes :) I’ll bring my stuff so I can draw on the spot! The next event where Dead Ant will be is at the Bazar Bizar. This fair is more homemade stuff related instead of indie art. It’s held in Rotterdam. For all dates and events you can also check here.


Animation
I have an awesome animation job to work on. It’s a promotion video for a new concept of evening parties with your girlfriends (you all know the famous Tupperware, make up parties). I don’t want to spoil the surprise, there’s a press release coming in July. But to animate again is a great feeling! 

Decorated window by Dead Ant at Brand Mission

Dead Ant
I find it hard sometimes to manage my time. And when I see all this stuff summed up I’m working on I wonder how I manage to get some sleep at all. It looks like things are quiet at Dead Ant but on the contrary. I’m working very hard behind the scenes.
My eye caught this amazing jewelry label from England. By the awesome name ‘The Rogue and The Wolf’ it sells 3D printed rings and necklaces of animals and skulls. It has a certain dark fairytale feeling and I fell in love with it immediately. I’m now proud to announce that their items are now for sale at Dead Ant.nl starting at the Comic weekend in Haarlem. That’s right, the modern dandies amongst you can be the first to get their hands on a kick ass ‘The Rogue and The Wolf’ necklace or ring!
Dead Ant also got the opportunity to decorate a store window as part of the Comic weekend in Haarlem. And not some random store, no, I’ve got the chance to show my work at Brand Mission. A beautiful store full with young designer products. If you visit you’ll end up with the need to own everything you see. From designer fashion to upside down plant pots everything is cool. Check out their website, or even better, check out my decorated shop window in real life!
So keep checking Dead Ant.nl or our facebook. There are a couple more things I’m working on and I’ve got a few surprises in store. Stay tuned….

New wooden friends

All work and no play makes jack a dull boy
I’ve managed to squeeze in a few relaxing moments as well. We went mountain boarding for a weekend in Ardennes. That was more hard work than relaxing though. Of course there was also Queensday in Holland and this year it was magical! It showed that Dutch people can be friendly and welcome. Then there was the skate parade. It’s an event where you just put on your skates, get together and follow a route. There’s a big truck with loud music to keep the spirit going haha. I’m hooked and since it’s every Friday I’m trying to go as often as I can. Last but not least I went to a music festival Pinkpop. Great weather, better music and heaps of fun!

Pinkpop 2012

Shout outs
- There’s a Film borrel in Utrecht for professional film related people. It’s at 20:00, the 14^th of June at LHC. This is the second edition. I’ve been to the first and this was finally a network opportunity where people don’t already know each other haha.
- The 5^th of June there is a QultQuiz. A pubquiz about all culture, art and cult related. It sounds like a lot of fun. 20:00 at Oudegracht 105.
- 15^th of June I’ll be performing together with my dance group at RASA. Don’t know if it’s invite only or you can buy tickets. 

Taxidermy Talk

Photo made by Shody Careman, filters by me. 

A Dutch newspaper ‘het Algemeen Dagblad’ wanted to write a little article about my collection of taxidermy a couple of weeks ago. I never got around to put it online, but here it is. I’m not going to translate it line for line, I’ll just try to explain why I like taxidermy so much.

When I grew up at the age of 7 I liked to climb trees, build forts, and explore my surroundings like every little kid. All available nature at that time however were little patches of yellow grass alongside  the road,  and trees next to a dirty pond. That didn’t stop me however. Sometimes,  when I was lucky, the occasional road kill would cross my path. Most of the times it was a duck and one lucky time a big grey heron. Finally I could see them up close and study their wings, beak, feet, everything really and I poked the animal with sticks. The next following days I tried to visit the slowly decaying animal until it was gone. Call it healthy curiosity.

All the animals I grew up with made up for the lack of nature though. My grandparents have a long history of fish- and pet- shops and when I was 4 years old I occasionally stayed over at friends whom had a pig farm. So from a young age I’ve learned to respect animals. Coming across sick and dead animals is not something unusual to me. I remember one funny story when I got to chose what I wanted to have for dinner and I remembered their chicken soup was delicious so immediately chose that! They brought me to their chicken coop, and I was still unaware what was going to happen, they let me choose one chicken. The farmer catches the chicken, grabs a small axe and chops the chicken’s head off in front of me. I must have been 5 years old but I remember thinking “oh is that how it’s made? Ahhh well it’s REALLY good chicken soup!”. So it didn’t bother me that much. I gave my dead gecko to my biology teacher to put it in formaldehyde.

Algemeen Dagblad, 31 Maart 2012. Photo got cropped for unknown reasons.

But don’t get me wrong; I don’t agree how the food industry treats most of their animals. I don’t agree with hunting for fun. I also don’t agree with hunting for taxidermy. I do agree using every part of an animal that got killed. And that it is ok to kill animals for food or when they are in unbearable pain and there’s no way the animal would get back to normal health. It’s weird how distant we have grown from animals. I know people who can’t even cut meat into pieces because they don’t like the feel of it but at the same time they’ll eat meat every day. And when their meat resembles the animal it once was they even refuge to eat it.

With taxidermy people think it’s weird or sad for the animal. If the animal is found dead, or killed due to health reasons I don’t see a problem reusing it for taxidermy. Like recycling the animal and use it for decoration or educational purposes. Just think about it; when a polar bear from a zoo dies of old age, what a waste of the animal it would be if they would just throw it away! Instead they could turn it into a beautiful piece of taxidermy and use it to educate visitors about polar bears. The magic of taxidermy is for me that you’re able to finally see and feel an animal up close you otherwise would never encounter. Who wouldn’t want to cuddle with a bear or feel a wolf’s paw!

Soon I'll be staring with mounting little insects and butterflies and I'm thinking about following a workshop how to clean and mount bird skeletons.

To finish this post I’ll share one of my favorite websites and taxidermist Sarina Brewer and this crappy taxidermy blog.

Dead Ant is Born!

Can't believe I haven't posted this here yet! Last couple of weeks have been crazy and I feel super tired but satisfied :) 


So I've finally opened my web shop! I've been working on this plan for almost a year now. Dead Ant is the name of the store. Why Dead Ant? The name covers all what it's about; ants are tough little insects. They work together just like I want to do with young creators and my website. The products I'm selling are bizarre, weird, curious and sometimes even have a sense of humor. You'll find customized antiques, t-shirts, prints, jewelry and much more. Go check it out!

www.deadant.nl

I'm always looking for new young talent. So do you create things and think it will be a perfect fit for Dead Ant? Don't hesitate to contact: info [at] deadant [dot] nl. There's more info on the website.

We're still growing every day. We've already visited the Comic Art Fair, had a mention in the Dutch Newspaper and a Dutch blog. And the next few weeks look promising too. I have a few plans up my sleeve that are very exciting. We'll also be at an Art Fair in Breda tomorrow. So if you have nothing to do, stop by and say hi! Admission is free for pete's sake!

I'll be back soon with updates about the HAFF, the Comic Art Fair and much more news! After some well earned sleep that is...

Hyper Hermit Mode in 3...2...1...

Being ill for almost 3 weeks kind off messed up my planning for the Comic Art Fair. I’m fully recovered now so it’s time to go into full hermit mode. However it’s not only the Comic Art Fair that keeps my head busy.  I have three interviews this week, and one of them will appear in the Dutch newspaper ‘het Algemeen Dagblad’. And there’s a logo design that needs to be finished by the end of this month and of course the launch of the exciting web shop ‘Dead Ant’.

Exciting times!

coming soon!

Sketch for new plates

New t-shirt design

Beauty

Flu Be Gone!

Long time no blog. I’ve been working  a lot and caught a killer flu so I had to stay in bed for a week which was pure agony for me. I hate feeling useless so I brought some paint and canvases from the studio but in the end I was so sick I couldn’t even watch movies (but thank you for those on facebook who suggested films to watch). After seeing the doctor I got medicine for bronchitis in the form of  a nifty asthma inhaler and I feel a lot better now.

So today is the first day I’m on my feet again and work has been piling up. I have a booth on the Comic Art Fair again. So write down in your agenda’s; 31^st of March at the St Jan Church. It’s in Utrecht this time and I still need a lot to prepare. I want to launch the opening of my web shop at the same time so this will be a hectic month.

I'm also a festival coordinator for an Art Festival in my home town Oosterhout. It's a huge responsibility and I'm really looking forward to make this festival super cool for everyone. More info about that later :)

I have so many more blog posts & drawings to work on but for now there’s no time. To the batmobile!

Tough Love

Print ‘Tough Love’

A limited edition of 7, all signed and numbered. Why only 7 you ask? Well that’s my lucky number so be quick and get one for your love or yourself. Go to my online shop or give a shout here.

Price: €30 ($40)

Size: 22 x 15 cm, with extra space to cut for framing

Printed on heavy weight, high quality paper

Packed with extra care for safe delivery

Shipping costs will depend on country

*watermark will of course not appear on the print itself