Reaching Rock Bottom: a solid foundation for personal and artistic growth!

 
As I have been quite consumed by the move to the new studio and the set up of a whole new workplace, I unfortunately have had very little time to update this Witty Art Blog. But the good thing is, I have also recovered and in a way more or less rediscovered a bunch of older work I created throughout 2015 and 2016 most of them either sketches in first stages or just plain unfinished works.

So, I kind of went through them again, sorting them out and filing and, where and when needed, adding the final touches. Often it was the not so simple case of a bit of finetuning, while with others I decided to leave them just as they were. For some, only the titles were lacking - but the process of naming my work can also be a difficult and challenging one.

But, managed well, I think. Either way, here are a couple of these recovered works of Witty Art, most of them drawings made with a combination of graphite pencil, charcoal and/or conté crayon. I do like the contrast between the fine pencil lines and the velvety robustness of the charcoal, interacting with the harsher tones of the conté crayons.

This combination of materials provides for very strong images, powerful but with a touch of tenderness to it. Edgy and raw, yet strangely soothing. Well, I like to think so, at least. 

So, I updated them on this page: Witty Singles, Part 2, together with a whole batch of other Witty Art, most of them created in the late fall and winter of 2016.

And to be honest, when I look at this particular page and compare to them to the Singles I made in the period 2013-2014, I am quite proud. For I can see my work has definitely grown, as whereas at the time I was forced to give up my home and my workplace, I was so afraid that losing a proper place to work would limit or even stop me from developing myself as an artist.

That fear was real. I had been there before. And I remember so clearly, whatever happened, I would not let that happen all over again. Not this time. So, with the support of my dear loved ones, I kept on creating Witty Art. With a simpe fineliner or a fountain pen, in a notebook, which prompted the birth of my artbook ''My Life In Limbo'' (which I am STILL working on, more on that again SOON). Later, I rediscovered the pleasure of pencil drawing and materials such as charcoal, pastels and conté crayons and so on.

And when finally I got to work with ink again, I could feel that my work had been enriched by, in fact, I had feared most. That reaching rock bottom would leave me wasted and worn out and unable to create and be myself for a long, LONG time. 

Turns out, I was wrong. So wrong. In fact, I can say that reaching this all time low point in my life, helped me to become myself in many more ways than I ever could've imagined before.

In fact, Rock Bottom proved to be a solid foundation of some kind, at least! 

Making love in ink: my passion for a beautiful and unpredictable medium

Somebody asked me the other day, when having a look at Witty Art: ''What's it you like so much about working with ink?'' Well, my immediate answer to that was: ''What's not to like?'' - but afterwards, I got thinking and it prompted me to dedicate this blog and perhaps some future ones to what is my favourite medium to work with.

As long as I can remember, even as a young child I have always liked working with ink. There 's just something purely magical about it: the moment you dip your pen or brush into the ink and then, immediately afterwards, in a split second, you need to decide where on that virgin piece of paper to put that first line or brush stroke. It leaves no or very little room for error, and when you make one, you need to either stick with it and work around it or with it, or get rid of the drawing straight away. It's a very pure and intuitive way of working, especially when vigorously using wet-in-wet techniques like I do, thinning thick black Indian ink with water to all kinds and shapes of black, to grey, to almost being translucent. The ink sometimes barely visible on the paper, at other times creating pitchblack surfaces, adding more black and scratching onto the surface of the paper, thus creating multiple layers of black. 

That's what I love about working with and creating in ink. It's both hard, unforgiving, leaving no room for mistakes, but also soft, caring, depending on whether you use a pen or brush, and the amount of force or tenderness you apply the ink onto the paper. Well. There it is. My public confession: guess I like to make love to the paper in ink (no, no ink fetish here - apart from that I secretly would like to learn how to tattoo, tough).

But, on a more serious note, creating images for me is a physical process as well as a more intellectual and a spiritual one as well. Especially as my work is all about the undertow, the invisible streams and currents you do not see at the surface of the water. And ink, like watercolour, has a will of its own. Sometimes I follow the ink, sometimes the ink follows me. That process is less obvious and less strong when creating my more cartoonesque work, like in many of The Series (but not all of them) and definitely more prominent with The Singles, which are more abstract, autonomous and a result of purely intuitive working. But still, with ink, you never know, as it's one beautiful, yet totally unpredictable medium you can never, ever fully master, I think. But one can always hope ;-)