Yet another proud owner of Witty Art comes forward

Just another picture of another proud owner of Witty Art. As you can see, this one is quite the connaisseur when it comes to collecting modern art ;-)

As a matter of fact, you can see much more pictures of Witty Art at their proud new owners' happy homes here.

My art book 'My Life In Limbo' reveals more and more insight into the World of Witty Art

Time to share some of the latest pages of my Witty Art Book 'My Life In Limbo'. As I have shared with you before, this is perhaps my most personal art series up to date, as it is pretty much an insight in my mind, as I am slowly coming to terms with the new directions my life is heading into after losing my house and having to life the life of a 21st century city nomad.

It's an almost daily reflection of my life-in-transition and more than that, it has become a in-depth investigation in the world of Witty Art, or rather: the world behind Witty Art. Stuff that drives me, motivates me, triggers me, frightens me, haunts me and all other kinds of stuff that doesn't exactly kill me but make me either weaker or stronger.

It also features most, if not all Witty Art Characters, some loved, others feared and some pretty much univited guests too. And some new ones, too. But they all make up the World of Witty Art, so in a way, I hold them all dear to my heart. No exceptions to that rule.

 

Creative destruction gave life to my series 'Once Upon A Time... Never Happened!'

So, a bit earlier I wrote about The Making Of ''Once Upon A Time Never Happened #4'' which offered a little preview of this new series. And now, I'd like to share with you how this one came to be.

Basically, this series emerged purely by coincidence and out of destructive rage. I was drawing, working on another Witty Art Series of a couple of Singles, I can't even remember and it doesn't matter. All  I know is that it just wouldn't go the way I had in mind. The ink didn't flow, my hand didn't direct the pen, the paper was not the right kind, etc. 

In short: it all sucked big time.

It's one of those moments you frustrate the hell out yourself as an artist, because you try so hard to make exactly that what you have in mind, and nothing, absolutely nothing you try seems to work, in fact, anything you try only seems to make matters worse. 

It's when everything inside of you screams: ''Stop! Let go, you idiot!'' and when all ratio in you says and knows you should, the artist in you just cannot give up. Because giving up, basically means you failed - whereas you should have nailed it.

Now, I do realise not all artists nor all creatives are like that. But I am. I get terribly frustrated when I find myself not able to recreate the image I had in my head and the feeling of disappointment when I have to abandon a drawing and leave it ''unfinished'' or even ''mislukt'' is all-absorping. In fact, it's a feeling of pure sadness and loss and I can even really mourn ''the ones that didn't came to be... ''.

Anyway, here I was, being totally frustrated and angry and all, at which point I just teared up this particular drawing. I totally tore it to pieces. And as always when I do that, I felt relieved. No way back, let's start anew.

Untill I caught a glimpse of the pieces lying scattered on the floor. There was something about them that caught my eye.

Something new, something promising and alluring.

Somehow, these separate pieces of torn paper seemed to tell a story of their own. The way they were arranged, seemingly random, all of a sudden made sense to me. I picked the pieces up from the floor and started rearranging them onto a sheet of blank paper, playing around with them, moving them up, down, left and right all over the surface, taking some pieces out and by then I'd started drawing on to the underlying paper as well. Connecting the separate pieces, tying them together. 

Creating a whole new image from one I'd so eagerly and willingly destroyed earlier.

From this process of 'creative destruction' came my series 'Once Upon A Time... Never Happened!', in which I've mixed different classic techniques and media such as drawing with ink, graphite and charcoal, adding coloured ink and watercolours, using both drawing, collage and text into a whole new series of Witty Art. 

There are five of them so far - and I really would like to explore this use of mixed media a la Witty further, taking it up a notch or two and work on bigger-sized canvas, perhaps adding the use of digital media as well. But that all will take some further exploring and experimenting, which I can only do once I have set up my new studio again.

Which, hopefully, will not take that long anymore.
 

Witty Art Characters are starting to break down ''the fourth wall''

As my Witty Art Book 'My Life In Limbo' is coming along, it moves further away from it's original intentions: to keep a visual diary of my life of in transition, but, as I wrote before, it has become much more a series on highly personal reflections on Witty Art itself; and the world(s) that it embodies. 

And over the weeks, as the book progressed, the characters that inhabit those world(s), started speaking for themselves. As someone dear to me described it, almost like they were breaking down the invisible ''fourth wall'' between their staged world, disregarding their director/creator (me, that is) and starting to speak directly to the audience: you, friends and followers of Witty Art.

And, yes, is true. They do. As I wrote before, sometimes I am not completey sure whether I am the creator of my own art, or just a humble intermediator, whose sole purpose is to visualise the characters that inhabit a universe I call the World of Witty Art; and to give them a voice as well.

Well, if that is the case, I can only hope their stories speak to you, as powerful as they speak to me. Powerful in their moments of weakness and insecurity, of crippling self-doubt, facing the challenges of being alive every day. While finding strength, resilience, even hope in those very moments of hitting rock bottom - because when you do, when you are at your lowest point, the only thing you can do is look up. And while you might see the steepest hill and the highest mountains you have to overcome, there is another thing you might see, too.

The sky. Now, that may not be the brightest of blue skies, and dark clouds might hide the sun, it's still the sky. And, when it comes to the power of imagination and creativity, to me, the sky is still the limit.

The Making Of: ''Once Upon A Time Never Happened #2''

Since I have been creating a lot of new Witty Art this year, I thought it'd be nice to share a bit of ''The Making Of...''. Especially since I have been throwing some other materials and techniques in the Witty Mix as well, such as graphite pencils, conté crayon and charcoal. I even started experimenting with making collages, which started off completely by coincidence - or by accident, depending on how you like at it, but I will tell you about that in a later blogpost. 

For now, I'd like to share with you the making of: ''Once Upon A Time... Never Happened! #4'' Two. The first Witty Collage Art Series ever! And I have to say, I am quite please with the result. Especially when, as I said, it never was intended this way. But, as said, I will elaborate on that more, later!

Pictured above and below: step 1-4.

And here's step 5: the final result!

Visit Rotterdam Coffeebar Ookami for some Coffee & Witty Art!

For those of you who want to see some Witty Art for real, up close and personal: if you happen to live or visit the city of Rotterdam, The Netherlands, please pay a visit to coffee bar Ookami, at Burgemeester Meineszplein 19. Located in the area known as Rotterdam West (Middelland).

A very cool place to have a nice hot cup of latte, espresso or a fresh mint-ginger tea - but also because they serve coffe with a mission: to help unemployed yough (often with a bit of a history of living on the edge, so to speak) getting a new chance in life by becoming proper baristas!

And, they display a nice selection of Witty Art. And, you never know, you might run into Miss Witty  herself, as I you can find me there, sitting on one of the cosy tables, having one of those lattes or espresso's and working on some sketches, like my artbook ''My Life In Limbo''.

Want to make sure I am around too, so I can tell you all about Witty Art in person? Then contact me via email or Facebook or Instagram so we can make an appointment!

''Redemption Day Is Not Installed" seeks no forgiveness, just being...

A while back, I already shared a couple of blogposts on my fascination for rodents and rodent-like creatures, especially rabbits and hares. They have played a significant part in my artwork and keep on doing so. Such is the case with my series ''Redemption Day Is Not Installed'', which also deals with another recurring theme in Witty Art: guilt and redemption.

Guilt is a theme, I explored before in series such as ''H.U.R.T.'', ''Unforgiven'' and ''Blame'' and has fueled a lot of The Singles as well. This time I wanted to take a step further and take different approach. To add more layers of depth by using not only ink and watercolors but by using pencil, charcoal and conté crayon as well, playing with both the softness and the harshness of each medium.

I wanted to visualise the uncompromising character of guilt, especially undeserved and (often) self-inflicted guilt and how it's almost impossible to break free of it. And how to redeem oneself can be an obligation that has the potential to turn into a burden itself.

I hope I have managed to achieve all that with this series. Personally, I think I did and that ''Redemption Day Is Not Installed'' is one of my most powerful series of artwork I have made so far. And as the images are so strong, and the issues addressed to me are extremely meaningful, I will definitely say I will continue to work on this series for a long, long time to come.

Perhaps, untill my very own Redemption Day is near...  

New updates of 'My Life In Limbo': about the Worlds of Witty Art

Some more progress on my Witty Art Book 'My Life In Limbo', which I started a while back, predominantly to process my thoughts and feelings after losing my house and starting a new life, bascially as a 21st century city nomad.

Since starting with 'My Life In Limbo', mid August, creating the book has helped me to get a grip on myself and my life-in-the transition and also provided me with some new, often surprising insights into the world of Witty Art. It evolved from what I thought would be a collection of random sketches and drawings, into something that resembles some kind of graphic story, told by the characters and creatures that inhabit that world.

I have always felt that the world I create on paper or canvas (or on any other surface, or even in 3D, for that matter) is actually an existing world, somewhere out there in what I call The Great Beyond. Now, that might be in another galaxy, obviously one far, far, FAR away, or even in a parallel universe, though some of you might argue it's a world existing only in my mere imagination. Well, whatever, wherever, it does not matter. Fact is, to me it IS a real life world, and its inhabitants are real life characters with their own personalities and sometimes, I feel like all I have to do is recreate their world for them, almost on their behalf.

Or should I say: worlds, as one actually is not enough for them... 

Elsewhere on this blog, I tried to describe it as follows: 

"Christy's work explores universal human themes, but features bizarre, animalistic, cartoonesque, fable-like creatures. Creatures, coping with life, struggling to survive, clinging on to all they hold dear, or what's left of it. These characters are the main actors, appearing and often re-appearing in series of drawings and/or paintings, each image to be experienced both individually or as a whole.
 
Her work features both a ''light'' and a ''darker'' side. The first being cartoonesque, exploring the grey area between autonomous and illustration art. Powerful, often surrealistic but often surprisingly familiar images through which Christy shares with us her look on life, a world spinning round and round and its inhabitants merely clinging to it. They might look sad, unhappy even but at times they appear to be almost glad to be unhappy. This part of Christy's world harbours no peace for the wicked, but leaves room for Hope.

Then there's a much more darker world, where almost every inch of Hope has disappeared. This world is a beautiful but lonely, unforgiving place, but a world at peace.
 
Most work is created in the no man's land between these two worlds.''

Hope or no hope, light or dark, cartoonesque or grotesque, whatever may be, these worlds and the creatures that live and survive there are real to me, as real as the world I live in - and all other living, breahting, hoping and dying species on this planet called Earth. Somehow, I feel our worlds are not even that far apart. Not at all. 

Not at all, indeed...

So, whenever people look at Witty Art and find it makes them smile or frown or are touched by it in any other way, because they recognize something in it, a feeling, an emotion or even a situation they can relate to, then that makes a very proud Miss Witty indeed. Proud, because I have succeed in making these worlds that are so real and alive to me in my own head, visible and, to some agree, accessible for others. 

And I hope to make them come alive in more than one way, one day. Using different mediums and techniques, different technologies and appliances even. One day, I will look back at this time in my life and find that this little book will have helped me achieve that. Not today, not tomorrow, perhaps not even soon, but ... one day!

One day... I will ;-)