'Sleep No More': about Insomnia and a Witty that never sleeps

'Sleep No More' is another of those Witty Art Series created a while back, but never shown before. It's all about sleep, or rather, the lack of it. And I should know, because I suffer from bouts of chronic Insomnia.

For as long as I can remember, I have had difficulties falling asleep or sleeping badly, or at least, not getting enough sleep. And, at times, I have been the quintessential Insomniac, going on for several days and nights in a row with hardly any sleep. I've stopped keeping track of how many times I stayed up during nights, watching the sun come up, often going out for an early morning stroll, being witness to a world awakening. And no, none of this was or is because of me taking weird pink pills or any other chemical stuff. And I am not hearing voices either.

It's just exactly as in the famous Faithless song: ''I can't get no sleep''.

 My ever Ever Wandering Witty Brain basically acts and works like a spunge, soaking everything up, that is continiously being triggered, is constantly thinking, creating, visualising, making plans.

So, it's not surprising that these periods of Insomnia are also the ones of an extremely hightened creativity. Like a volcano about to erupt. Now, I always feel the need to create, to draw, to paint, to write. That is a very basic, crucial need, one that comes from deep within me. But during those insomniac times, when I hardly get any sleep or no sleep at all, it's like one big creative explosion in my mind, and it comes out in waves and waves of sketches and drawings, of writings, notes, ideas, and so on.

It's as every bit as exciting as it is exhausting.

And for those of you who wonder: ''But, what about your normal daily routine, what about your other work, your customers?"

Well, work goes on, no compromise there. I am a professional, after all and I gotta job to do. And, though you might expect otherwise, my other work does not suffer as a consequence from my periods of sleep deprivation. I just work around it. The way I see it, I all of a sudden am able to make the most of those 24 hours in a day. And, I hasten to add, those periods of insomnia don't last too long. After a while, I do get tired and more or less fall back into a relatively normal sleeping pattern. That is: feeling tired enough to want to go to bed, fall asleep and not waking up too much during the night.

So, I've tried to come to terms to my on-and-off relationship with Insomnia, whom I've come to see as a dear, old friend. But a difficult friend, one who's unpredictable and demanding and known to show up at the most inconvenient times. But, still, a dear friend as she (for me, it's a she) has come to know me veru well, unlike most people I have come to know, and she has been the katalyst for some of the most intense artwork I have made.

Bottom line: I do not resist. When Insomnia calls, I do not resist. That's our deal: she gets her quality time, so to speak. Perhaps it is I who keep her company during those nighttime hours, not the other way around. In return, she does not really overstay her welcome and makes sure she is gone after a couple of nights together. That way, I can happily revert back into Morpheus' arms.

'Sleep No More' was, like many of my recent work, created during such a period of little sleep and hypercreativity. But it was for the first time I realised I managed to capture the image of my sleeplessness, in both its most haunting and haunted state. When I shared some previews on my Instagram, some people commented that it reminded them of nightmares. Now, for me, that is not really the case but I can see where they are coming from. To me, 'Sleep No More' is just another way of paying tribute to some of the most powerful forces that has enabled me to create some of the best of Witty Art. It makes perfect sense to me. 

You gotta treasure your Muses, and here is one!

So, here's to you, Insomnia. May you be my nightly companion for the rest of my life, though not every night. I'd prefer our relationship to be one of ''Living Apart Together''.

'Sweet Unbearable You': the unwilling object of too much loving affection

Now, on to another series I created earlier this year: "Sweet Unbearable You'', which, for me, is all about idolisation and the effect it has on people: on both an over-adoring fandom as well as the object of their adoration, as the relationship between the two becomes more and more inseparable and more than once, increasingly uncomfortable.

Somehow, I think the images speak for themselves, really. And yes, this is yet another series I want to explore further. To be continued!

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.

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.
 

''Stagefright'' shines a light on being in the spotlights

 
''Stagefright'' is a series of, for now, four drawings, I made during one rainy afternoon. One of those afternoons that nothing seems to work and all that should go right goes horridly wrong. So, drawing and creating Witty Art is always the better option.

That rainy night, ''Stagefright'' emerged from my mind and onto paper. I don't remember what made these images come out, I only know that once my pen touched the paper, I had to draw something in black and white, without the use of any colours.

What lies beneath the actual image, or what triggered it: I don't even know myself, except it has something to do with both loving and hating being in the spotlights. And sometimes, just sometimes, there is no way to avoid it. When taking to the stage, you gotta face the fear. Or something like that.

Well, the audience at least.

Bravely battling the corporate rat race: UnBunny appearing in ''Innovation In Carnation''

Quite a while back, I wrote a blogpost about one of the most beloved Witty Art Characters, a little fellow named UnBunny. The first time he appeared in my work, he immediately got his own series and it proved to be one of my best selling ones: ''Innovation In Carnation'', which I started in 2011 and is pretty much still going on, having reached up to over 30 drawings by now. It features UnBunny battling an increasingly technological world, a battle he is bound to loose ofourse... or is he?

Anyway, UnBunny turned out to be such a well-loved character, he appeared in a spin-off series called ''Innovation In Corporation''. This time, he bravely takes on the corporate rat race and epically fails at it, fighting office appliances and equipment. And worse, getting lost in processes and procedures. Much worse, being grinded somewhere between management and cost accounting.

I started this series back in 2012, but somehow never got the chance of the opportunity to showcase the finished drawings on this blog. So far, I finished eight of these in total, of which four were displayed during several exhibitions and art events.

During which I witnessed a great number of people smile at what our long-suffering (anti)hero has to endure. Many of them confessing to me that UnBunny's corporate ''antics and adventures'' were all but too familiar for them. And that's something I can definitely relate to. 

I too, like UnBunny, ran the corporate rat race once. But unlike him, I succeeded. More or less. I mostly succeeded in fooling myself though. That environment and that role were simply not me. But more about that, another time, another place.

"The Greatest Show On Earth'' will leave you in awful awe...

My teenage years were predominantly the early 80's. That notorious era of post-punk, new wave and new romantics; of mass unemployment and mass strikes; and when Cold War reached a feverishly frozen all time low in an Europe, divided by an Iron Curtain and a Wall. The years of Reaganomics, Thatcherism and whoever was in charge in The Kremlin. 

Years of mass demonstrations against the presence of cruise missiles stationed in Europe. Of a growing fear of nuclear war between the USA and the USSR - with Europe being the battle ground. 

I remember reading everything I could about the destructive power of nuclear weapons. Every book, every article, every film, every documentary I could get my hands on. I had to know everything. Everything I could find about the history of the first atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the nuclear testing in the fifties and sixties, the whole nuclear arms race during the Cold War - way up to the mid eighties. 

I remember reading of what nuclear disaster can do. To people, to animals, to the environment. To the earth. It stuck in my teenage mind and it left an imprint never to be erased, only to be enlarged by the '86 Chernobyl disaster. 

But it isn't the only thing I remember.

Yes, what I read and saw was awful. I thought and knew it was aweful. Yet I was struck with awe. By the sheer beauty of the nuclear explosion. The scaringly majestic and awful beauty of the mushroom cloud. Its perfect shape, the utter silence in which it takes place. A mircale of nature and the triumph of science in one. And the potential doom of humankind. 

That mix of awful and awe became the inspiration for my series ''The Greatest Show On Earth''', depicted here. I guess the images kinda speak for themselves. And if not, please bear in mind that one of the descriptions of Witty Art is: ''The Rock courting The Roll while dancing on a seemlingly dead volcano''.... 

Yes, you might get front row seats for this grand spectacle.

But are you prepared to pay the price?

When even barbwire offers no protection for a broken heart: ''HeartWired''

 

Another one of my older series that deserves some much overdue attention, is 'HeartWired'. Quite a series of personal heartbreak, I suppose, a feeling familiar to anyone who has loved and fought to keep it, to hold on to it and failed miserably. And who found out the 'heart way' that not even all the barb wire in the world can prevent your heart from being broken.

Then again, as the familiar saying goes: ''It's better to have loved and lost in love, than to have never loved at all.'' And I stand firmly by that - and so does my (he)art.

Could that mean that Miss Witty perhaps is a romantic at heart...?

On rebuilding my Life In Limbo on Rock Bottom and what J.K. Rowling's got to do with it

So, here are more sketches and drawings I made for my Witty Art Book ''My Life In Limbo'', my very own personal reflection of my journey through life since I effectively became homeless. Since losing the house that once had been a trusted home to me, I have been living the life of a 21s century city nomad, or, as I somewhat jokingly call it, the life of a Displaced Diva.

Originally started as a way of being able to keep on drawing and making little sketches and notes for later artwork, as losing my house also meant losing my workplace, this artbook has indeed become a way of sharing my story with the world, in particular with the friends and followers of Witty Art. Or rather: sharing the emotions behind the story, as my work, unavoidably and irreversibly, has been greatly impacted by the fact that my life had been thrown upside down.

As I've written in previous blogposts, the book became some kind of mirror, in which I saw my relationship with my art, with my own creations, reflected and that way I saw my life, my past and present relationships with the people in my life reflected; and the way I dealt with life's challenges - or the way I didn't or didn't dare to. I saw the characters from my artwork drop by, one by one, all those Perfectly Imperfect MisFits that inhabit the World of Witty Art. And each and every single of one of them telling me something about myself I didn't know - or I already knew but didn't want to know. Some loved, some feared, I hold all of them dear, as without them, my world would be empty and my artwork non-existent.

So, writing and drawing this artbook offered me a great deal of insight, not only in how my work will develop further, but also in the relationship between me and my artwork, and, equally important, the relationship between me and the world around me, the people in it - in my life. It helps me to come to terms with things that happened in the past; and to face up to the challenges now - and those yet to come.

For yes, I might be homeless at this very moment, I might be displaced, without a place of myself, I am still not living on the streets, as so many people unfortunately have to. I still have people who look after me, who support and love me. And I might have lost a lot, I feel like I have gained even more as my life has been enriched by the kindness, generosity and care from old and new friends, some which had been complete strangers before.

And, one thing I now know for sure, as corny as it may sound: whatever is taken away from me or will be taken away, I will always have my creativity. My ability to create art. To create my very own World of Witty, and that way, rebuild my life again. 

And when someone very special recently told me: ''You will rebuild your Witty Art Empire on rock bottom'', I had to think of what author J.K. Rowling (of Harry Potter fame, for those of you that have been sleeping under a rock for the last decade or so ;-)) had to say about the ''benefits of failure'', when she addressed the Harvard Alumni Association back in 2008: 

 'So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realised, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.'

So, why should I not be able and capable to rebuild my life on my very own rock bottom, while creating my very own Witty Art Book? 

You can read and view J.K. Rowling's full Commencement Address, “The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination,” at the Annual Meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association here. A truly inspirational read for anyone who currently finds him or herself on that place called Rock Bottom. 

I was. I am. So, on and forward I go. 

'Have You Ever Had It Blue?' A Witty Art tribute to The Blues

 

'Did You Ever Have It Blue?' was created, rather unintentionally, as a tribute to that feeling of feeling down and out, a feeling more commonly known as 'The Blues'. And I can fairly say that when I created this particular series of drawings, I experienced a MAJOR case of having the blues. 

So, what does Miss Witty do when she's feeling blue? She literally brings on the blues and starts listening to those blue notes that might bring you down a bit more, but definitely will lift your spirits back up again. Even if you have to serve some kind of other spirit to help you through it!

The music of great blues legends like B.B. King, Howlin' Wolf, Bobby Womack and more. And ofcourse, Mr. Bobby 'Blue' Bland, whose epic 'Ain't No Love (In The Heart Of The City)' helped me through a couple of very dark and dreary days.

The series' title was inspired by the song with the same name, performed and recorded by 80's band The Style Council, who were heavily influenced by old fifties and sixties jazz/rhythym & blues (and even some bossa nova swing) and are still among my all time favourites today, too.