Upgrading this blog while rediscovering unfinished Witty Art

Currently, I am busy with a proper upgrade of this Witty Art Blog. As in: removing bad quality pictures and replacing with perhaps not the best ones, but at least better ones, updating and expanding the Series and Singles pages in particular, as I was also lagging behind with posting previously unpublished artwork.

You now can check the following updated pages:

Singles:
Witty Art Singles, Part 2 (2015-2016)

Series:
Witty Art Series, Part 2 (2015-2016)
Witty Art Series, Part 1 (2011-2014) 

To me, the good thing about an upgrading process like this, is it makes me go through all my files again, rediscovering a whole bunch of stuff I myself had more or less forgotten about. That is especially the case with the work I was working on when I had to move out of my home and my studio, during the summer of 2015. During that very turbulent time, I basically store away all my artwork in boxes and containers, making sure it was stored safely at the home of a good and trusted friend, untill I'd be able to move into either a new home or at least, a new studio to work in.

But with most of my work stored away and more or less unaccessible to me, I lost track of some stuff I had been working on. But by going through all my files on my harddisk, looking for and sorting better quality pictures or enhancing them digitally, I also stumbled across many photographs I'd taken of work shortly before I had to leave my old studio. Amongst these pictures were many of works-in-progress, like the ones I am publishing on this blogpost.

Looking at many of these files, actually meant a big motivational boost for me. It's not that I really had forgotten about them, it's more that I saw the progress I was making at that time, and as my art developed even further over this last year, I can't wait to start working on this now almost two year old works again!

Works, that are undoubtedly waiting patiently for their time to come.

Well, they don't have to wait that much any longer - as the really, really good new is ...  I will definitely be able to move into a brandnew creative studio over the coming weeks. A new place to work in, to draw, paint, create with whatever means and materials I feel like. A place, where Witty Art can and will be created.

A move, that will also mark a new creative collaboration as well! I will elaborate more on that in a later stage - but for those of you who cannot contain their curiosity, it's got everything to do with the new workplace & projectspace of Studio PuRRR!

Please keep an eye on this blog for more detailed information coming up SOON!

 

More ''Redemption'' in the making - and it still unforgiving work!

A while ago, I wrote a blogpost about my series 'Redemption Day Is Not Installed'. Quite an intense, dark, gloomy series of drawings made with pencil, ink and watercolours. I tried to describe that, to me, this series was about 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. 

It is an extremely heavy load to carry with you.

It's a series I am certainly not done with. Not for a long time. So, here are a couple of new ones in the making. Still using the same materials and imagery, but with the addition of some other type of creatures and colours, moving from the colder blue and greenish, even turqoise shades from the first drawings to more intense reds and purples. But still, not any warmer. It's still quite a harsh place to dwell in. 

Furthermore, I have been playing with the idea of exploring this theme and visualisation in a more theatrical type of setting, perhaps adding little sculptures or otherwise 3D figurines to the scene. Not sure yet, but some ideas worth looking into, so .. hope to show you all more of that in the near future!

For now, I hope you like these new drawings in the making!

Witty Art is definitely NOT about living in a solid playground

So, this time last year, I was in the middle of a very unsettling time for me, as I had to sell my house and embarked on a journey into the unknown, living the life of, as I started calling it, a 21st century city nomad. By that I mean not someone who's not really homeless as in living on the streets (which I am eternally glad for, because that is a hard, harsh life that I do NOT wish for anyone to happen at anytime), but still someone who does not have a place of her own to live in. Like, some kind of 'home hoppper' or 'pop up resident'. Or whatever fancy term you'd like to use for it.

By Summer 2015, I'd created tons of Witty Art, bascially driven by the fear of not being able to draw or create art for a long, long time to come. You see, losing my house not only meant losing my home, the roof over my head, but also my studio, the birthplace of so much Witty Art. So indeed I feared a long period of creative drought would set in.

Luckily for me, that hasn't happened, really. If anything, quite the opposite. Thanks to the support and care of people very close to me, who realised that, without my art, without being to able to create my art, I am just half the woman I am. Sounds a bit dramatic, I know, but it's true. To me, creating Witty Art is an urge. A matter of being alive and awake or being alive and virtually dead inside. So, I kept drawing, in my Witty Art Book 'My Life In Limbo', but also started working on new series, rediscovering basic materials such as pencil and charcoal, and discovering other ways of expressing myself.

The result has been many new Series and Singles over the last 12 months or so. As well as a couple of great opportunities to showcase my work. So, instead of drought there was a wave of inspiration and of new creations appearing and re-appearing.

But, while archiving the digital images of all the stuff created last summer, shortly before having to leave my home, I realised that I just hadn't shared much of the art I created during the final days spent in that house. Because I kept drawing as long as I could, untill I had to even pack up all my art, sending them off into a safe storage untill I would be able to work in a proper studio again.

So, here are some of the drawings I was working on last year, around this very time. I have to admit, I was even a bit scared of having to look at them again as I feared they'd reveal too much of my personal feelings and emotions at that time. But, it turns out it's not all that bad. 

Let's just say that the world, my world, is still NO solid playground, but then again, it never really was. And ultimately, I am kind of okay with that. Because if indeed that had been the case, I doubt if there ever would have been such a thing as Witty Art.

'Lost Bear': Perpetually Glad To Be Unhappy

So, let me introduce to you all, one of my personal favourites from that only slightly surreal, somewhat bizarre, thoroughly twisted realm that is The World of Witty Art (otherwise affectionately known as my brain).

Meet Lost Bear. A brave little fellow, perpetually Glad To Be Unhappy (to quote the legendary Rodgers & Hart composition, of which you can read more here). Life is pretty much against him, gets him down every time and time and time again, but he never ever gives up. He never fails in trying and trying again and again - even though Life never fails to fail him.

Lost as he may be, he is at home feeling lost. And that, somehow, sums up the whole feeling of being displaced that is ever-present in everything I create. Every drawing, every painting, every mixed media work, every little freaking doodle too.

Please let me invite you to Lost Bear's Lost World. Have a wander around, a little stroll, a little dance perhaps. He will be around many, many more times. Sometimes even a little less lost. He may surprise you.

So, more, much more of this little fella soon!

'The Life We Lead, The Life We Leave': free will versus predestination

When, after a long creative drought, I took up my own artwork again a couple of years ago, I almost exclusively worked with ink and watercolours. I even dedicated this blogpost to my love, if not passion for ink as a medium best suited for me to express my creativity.

But, off late, other materials and techniques have made their way into the realm of Witty Art. With some really surprisingly good results. Series like 'Once Upon A Time Never Happened!' and 'Redemption Day Is Not Installed' are perfectly good examples of that, as well as many of the Singles I created in the course of 2015.

And so is this series 'The Life We Lead, The Life We Leave', which features a God-like Bear-figure, who seems to possess almost divine powers and imposes these in a rather unscruplous way on seemingly non-suspecting mortals.

In a way, to me this series deals a lot the concept of free will versus predestination, but not in a very direct way. It's more an omninous presence of something 'about to happen', something of which you know will happen, but not what and when exactly. And there is nothing you can to prevent or stop it from happening because it's all been decided for you, by some Being far more powerful than you.

It's a feeling I think we all battle with every now and then. And that is's sometimes just mpossible to shake off. The feeling that, no matter how hard your work or how much you give or how many sacrifices you make, you just can't seem to change the course of your own life.

It's a very daunting and intimidating feeling. It leaves you powerless and incapacitated.

I have written before that there is a part of my art that leaves very little room for stuff like hope and forgiveness. It's a very dark, cold and lonely place - but it's a place that has every right to exist, because there, too, live creatures that try to survive and get by, one hard day at a time. Without them, without this part of my world, the rest simply cannot be.

So, yes, this too is one of my more personal series and putting them online, showcasing them, sharing them with the world, leaves me vulnerable. But, I still want to do it. Because I think it, it represents a very important part of my work and of myself as an creator, and as a person.
 

A personal ode to Insomnia: ''My (C)Losing Time''

Many of my work is either inspired by and/or dedicated to one of the most persistent hate/love-affairs of my love: my very intense, very fickle on-off relationship with Insomnia. There is my series 'Sleep No More', which is definitely insomina-related, if not directly caused by it, created in that dreamlike, translucid state in between being half-awake and half-asleep. This series: 'My (C)Losing Time' deals with the topic of sleep deprivation too.

But whereas 'Sleep No More' clearly symbolises the more nightmarish aspect of sleeplessness, 'My (C)Losing Time' has much more an element of melancholy to it. Of loss, even. In the most literal sense: when suffering of insomnia, you lose every sense of time. You lose track of when it's day or night, you

In terms of purely artistic creativity, to me, it is almost ideal, because you live in a bizarre bubble, fueled by increasingl surreal thoughts, dreams, nightmares, visions that come from the deepest trenches of the human subconscious. There is absolutely no filter whatsoever between me and the world of Witty Art.

On any other level, it sucks big time. There is, indeed, a fine line, between going without very little or no sleep and going insane. Between the power of the surreal and the madness of paranoia.

Luckily, my bouts of Insomnia come and go, and have never interfered too much with my daily existence. But I can't and won't deny it: it's hard work sometimes. As an artist, I have both a great need and longing for the enormous surge of creativity that comes over me during my sleepless nights, but I do fear the enormous physical and mental exhaustion that follows after the wave has gone. So, I make an conscious effort not to give into my need for sleeplessness too much, and certainly won't let take over, let alone control the rest of my life.

So, that's why I chose the title for this series: 'My (C)Losing Time'. Yes, it may be so that Insomnia causes me to lose some track of time every now and then - but mostly, it's on MY terms: I decide when it's 'Closing Time', not she.

Sharp & soothing at the same time: ''To Swallow Bitter Pills''

Another series created in 2015: ''To Swallow Bitter Pills''. Partially inspired by one of my all time favourite songs: ''The Bitterest Pill'' by eighties UK band The Jam, partially by the circumstances I was facing in my personal life at the time. And undeniably fueled by that ever-present feeling of melancholy and loss that I somehow carry with me all the time - which is not necessarily a bad thing or a bad mood to be in, I hasten to add. 

Personally, I think this is ultimately one of my most personal and touching series, and to me, it cuts both deep and sharp, yet at the same time has a very soothing impact. And I have to be honest: it'll take a while before I am ready to let these ones go, one by one or perhaps all together at once.

One day. Not now, perhaps. But one day, yes.