The first harvest of an afternoon's session of Witty Art Live!

 
Seven poets, writers and singer-songwiters on stage during the live poetry, art & food event Horen & Zien & Schranzen (loosely translated: Hear No Evil, See No Evil and Eat a LOT) I co-organised with my other creative business Studio PuRRR, last Sunday June 26th.

Well, eight, to be precise, because I took to the stage to create Witty Art Live. The challenge: to use the verbal input by the other performers and to translate that into my art. Whether that'd be narrative illustrations or more autonomous, abstract images, was entirely up to me.

The result of that live drawing session proved to be both surprising and inspiring. Surprising, because when you are drawing live on stage and you are primarly and directly responding to what is being said or sung, your mind is seriously working overtime. You are trying to take it all in while at the same time listening and grasping the images your own brain comes up with. It's literally a clash of your world and that of the artist performing up there with you. Almost like a mutual jam session.

So, it's always challenging, but definitely an inspiration because it stirs you into directions you weren't set on going, exploring sometimes familiar but mostly unfamiliar territories. I love it.  

So, the first harvest is here. And some works even spotting Dutch titles, highly unusual for those of you who know Witty Art well. Then again, all poets were Dutch, from the city of Groningen, to be exact. 

From left to right, the titles of the drawings, followed by the artist who inspired it:

'Roteenden (Lame Ducks') inpsired by a story by poet and writer Fieke Gosselaar.
'When Your Depression gets MAD at you'' thanks to a very depressively uplifting song by singer-songwriter Melvin Bonnet.
'It's Us Again... We Keep On Judging You'', thanks to Fieke Gosselaar
'When You Invite Depression In (Unwillingly)' thanks to Melvin Bonnet, again.
'I Picked Him Up.. Where?' a bizarre girlfriend-turned-bodybuilder experience by slam poet and ace performer Joost Oomen.
'Ode To The Absent Minded', inspired to quite an intimage and poignant song by singer-songwriter Lou Lou Elisabettie.

There is quite some more stuff I need to sort out and add a few finishing touches to, and then the result of that afternoon will be all finished and I will publish them all here on this Witty Art Blog!

Terugblik op geslaagde eerste editie Horen & Zien & Schranzen!

Met Studio PuRRR kijken we terug op een enorm geslaagde eerste editie van Horen & Zien & Schranzen gisteren in Schiezicht. Een podium vol Groningse dichters, schrijvers en singer-songwriters, die speciaal naar Rotterdam waren afgereisd om het daar verzamelde publiek te trakteren op een portie verbaal vuurwerk.

Zo gaven Fieke Gosselaar, Melvin Bonnet, Joost Oomen, Richard Nobbe, Bill Mensema, Kasper Peters en LouLou Elisabettie acte de présence en zorgde Irene Siekman tijdens de pauze voor een dichtrijk intermezzo met haar typewriter poetry. De door Studio PuRRR's Tante Timmie vers bereide Aziatische rijstcurry kon eveneens rekenen op een warm onthaal.

Zelf was ik behalve ik mede-organisatorische hoedanigheid ook zelf aanwezig op het podium, met Live Witty Art. Als iemand die buitengewoon veel inspiratie ontleent aan het geschreven èn het gesproken woord, in de vorm van boeken, songteksten, gedichten, spoken word, noem maar op, kon ik de gelegenheid niet weerstaan om te kijken wat het werk van het Groningse zevental mij zou brengen. En dus zat ik telkens samen met de optredende artiest op het podium, en liet me ter plekke leiden door wat zijn of haar performance.

Het bleek een uitdaging, zeker omdat het allemaal in stijl totaal verschillende schrijvers en dichters zijn, wiens manier van voordragen ook enorm verschilde. De bijna as a matter of factly, ingetogen, onderkoelde schrijf en voordrachtsstijl van Fieke Gosselaar; het bijna afgemeten, en op gezette momenten rauwe cynisme van Bill Mensema's werk lieten zich moeilijker vangen dan de sfeervolle, beeldrijke teksten van LouLou Elisabettie of de inktzwarte, maar niet van enige bizarre humor ontspeelde beelden die Melvin Bonnet bij mensen wist op te roepen. Van elke artiest heb ik geprobeerd iets van de essentie van zijn of werk te vangen en te vertalen binnen mijn eigen beeldtaal. Dat is in sommige gevallen heel goed gelukt, in andere gevallen minder. In een enkel geval totaal niet. 

Hoe dan ook, ik ben een flinke voorraad nieuwe tekeningen verder, en allemaal geven ze weer aanleiding tot het zoeken van verdieping en verkenning binnen mijn eigen werk. Daarom alleen ben ik dit Groninger zevental erkentelijk, waarvoor veel dank! 

Binnenkort hoop ik een selectie van de tekeningen te plaatsen op dit blog! 

(met excuus voor de slechte kwaliteit van sommige foto's, het is door omstandigheden helaas alles wat we van deze middag hebben, better luck next time!)

Witty Art Expo in Stroop proves to be another Witty Art Wall in progress!

A great day for some LIVE Witty Art action in Stroop, as I set out for some live drawing on location. I mean, making art, having coffee and a homemade syrup waffle on the side really IS the great combiantion it is on paper. 

So, made a couple of new multi-pieces this afternoon, all of them featuring Lost Bear and his quest for just a bit of love. I just need to add some touch ups and than have to frame them and add them to my exhibition. So yes, I suppose that, in a way, I am creating another Witty Art Wall again! The only difference being, that this time all the work actually is framed. 

I am looking forward to add them to 'my wall', where they will feature up and untill with April 30rd. On that day, the closing date of my exhibition, a very special lunch will be served for visitors. More details on that very soon, too!

'Of Wolf and Mice': a Tale of Evil and Lesser Evils

 
Back in January 2012, I worked on a live art performance in joint collaboration with actress/performer Margo van der Linde. She and I were asked to develop a gig for the first edition of art manifestation Winterwolven (Winterwolves), held at the venue WORM in Rotterdam. This gig witnessed the birth of one of my other alter ego;s (yes, other than Miss Witty), called Frau Doctor Katerina Wittenstein. The ebodiment of a crazy scientist obsessed with creating the perfect mix between a wolf and a mouse, the latter brought to life by my creative partner Margo. It all made for a succesfull live art performance, a combination of both theatre and visual art, of improvised acting as well as role playing.

WORM's escalator was transformed into Frau Dr.'s Wittenstein's laboratory, the scene of sinister and devious experiments with a whole bunch of innocent mice. This bascially meant the lift's walls were covered with blank sheets of white paper, on which I was continiously drawing scenes from life in this evil environment. Spectators were lured in the lift one by one and were witness to the bizarre relationship between the Doctor and her life-sized pet Mouse. A relationship that spiralled out of control as the performance developed, because, surprise, surprise, nothing is what it appears to be.

You see, the relationship between Frau Doctor and The Mouse is an interesting one, as the latter is not so innocent as one might expect. Far from it. This Mouse acts as an opportunist accomplice to Dr. Wittensteins malicous plans to turn poor unsuspecting rodents into merciless lupine killers. In fact, she might very well be the first result of one of the Dr's earlier experiments. One gone horridly wrong, because, Evil Genius or not, Frau Wittenstein does not always fully know where she's at with her very first creation. Because, it wouldn't be the first time in history, man's own artificial design turns against him...

Basically, it's classic story of struggle between evil; and a whole array of lesser evils and innocent individuals getting caught up in between. And, not surprisingly, what appears to be good does no good whatsoever; and what seems evil, might not be all that bad after all... 

These are the ingredients for a Witty Art Fairy Tale called 'Of Wolf And Mice' I have, in between all other things, been working on behind the scenes. It's far from finished, still in its early stages to be honest, but I felt an urge to share it with fans and followers of my work, as I find that once I do so, work starts to develop more rapidly. 

So, here are the first drafts, quick sketches made during the live art performance it all started with back in January 2012. I plan to post some newly made ones online soon!

Pop Up Pin Up a la Witty : tribute to the great masters of Pin Up Art!

So, last Saturday was the last day of our series of Pop Up Exhibitions at the Entrepotbuilding, Rotterdam. It coincided with a North America themed festival, with lots of vintage cars and hot rods present, so I got inspired to draw Pin Ups.

Now, it's no that I am a great lover of the classic vintage and pin up era and I am a great admirer of the work of the great pin up artists such as Gil Elvgren. So, I decided to create a series dedicated to their work and the great pin ups of the forties and fiftties. All Witty Styled, ofcourse! 

The result so far: a series of graphite pencil sketches featuring a bunch of hybrid pin-ups, as one visitor described it: ''Seriously bad ass sexy and seriously bad ass sinister as well!''

Well, that's how I like Witty Art to be!

Witty Art Wall turns out to be one big live sketchbook!

It's been just over a week since the highly succesful 'Maak Het Mee' Pop Up Expo closed down. Started originally as just a two-day weekend pop-up as part of a somewhat bigger Makers' Movement Festival taking part in Rotterdam (and partially co-organised by me) I never expected it to be such a success. In the end, the exhibition got extended not only one, but three times in a row, running for almost two months. So, the creative entrepreneur in me was and is very happy with the result.

But from a more personal, artist's perspective, it has proven to be even better, as I used this opportunity not only as a great way to showcase my work, but as a chance to develop myself further, by using the raw, somewhat worn out state of the location as an inspiration to create new Witty Art on the spot. So I came up with the concept of creating my own Witty Art Wall. 

One wall, completely filled with Witty Art Work: drawings, in all various kinds of sizes and formats, created in ink and/or pencil, some finished, some not, some created on the spot, some finished on that very spot, others taken home and finsihed at some later point. And while the exhibition got extended over the following weeks, the wall's content changed constantly, developed, while sketches and drawings started to influence, then interfere and even interact with each other. And as a serious case of GottaDraw set in, I found that my Witty Art Wall had become one big giant sketchbook in itself.

It's a concept I will definitely use more, as the presentation really suits Witty Art, it's easy to set up and its flexiblity makes it ideal for pop-ups. And, most importantly, it leaves so much room to draw and create live, to explore and to experiment.

'My Dear Panda '79' : joint live painting gave great ending to our PopUp Expo

 

Well, our Maak Het Mee! Pop Up Expo seemed like it never would end, but the end was there, finally and ultimately. After getting extended at least three times in a row, thanks to the people of the Alliantie West-Kruiskade, especially Armando Sorrentino, who kindly gave us permission to use this empty shop as a venue to host our artshow.

So, for our final night and closure, we organised another live painting session, this time with remaining participants Bima Engels, Naomian Jansen, Xenia Gott and Christy de Witt, but there were a few other creative minds joining us, such as Irene Siekman (of Rotterdam art venue Werklicht). All of us got together in the making of a wall-covering piece, using various materials and mixed techniques, all purely for the 'joy of painting' (as Bob Ross would put it) and the need to create. It was truly a joy, because we all kept challenging and inspiring each other but while remaining respectful.

A true dialogue of creative minds, the best there is!

We named our work 'My Dear Panda '79'. It didn't survive the clean-up the next morning, as the paint was still dripping wet, there was no way to preserve it and we had to get all our stuff out that very afternoon. So, we creatively demolished it, however, its memory forever preserved in pictures and some video's. 

And on the spot, another Witty Art Work got sold as well! 

I would like to thank each and everyone who helped me realise this Pop Up Expo, as part of the Maak Het Mee! Project, I organised and coordinated on behalf of the local culture intermediators, Cultuurscouts Rotterdam: 

Menno Rosier, Cultuurscout Centrum for a great collaboration

Armando Sorrentino, Ron van Gelder en Alice Fortes, Alliantie West-Kruiskade 

Naomian Jansen, partner in creative crime and a helping hand in need 

Stichting Cretopia, especially Nik Draaijer, Lennard de Vlieger en Richard Kasperink 

Bima Engels, for all his hard work, assistance and his good spirit 

Gladys Jacobson for the logo design 

&

and all participating artists during the whole run of the exhibition:

Naomian Jansen, Bima Engels, Nik Draaijer, CasperInc. Jimmy Granti, Roland Hendrik, Ann Katherine, Quint Hartmann, Stephanie van Loenen/YARA, Dolle Baas, POSYX, J.E. Hanley, Sluban Squad, Brian Engel en Xenia Gottenkienny.

Another Flashback to our first Live Art Jam on February 27th

Met dank aan Lennard de Vlieger van Cretopia, Rotterdam, hierbij nog een paar ontzettend mooie foto's van de eerste Live Art & Music Jam op vrijdag 27 februari jl. Lennards foto's bieden een mooie impressie van wat een ontzettend inspirerende en productieve avond was.

Many great thanks to Lennard de Vlieger from Cretopia Rotterdam, as he provided us with another series of great photos of the first Live Art & Music Jam on Friday February 27th. His pictures offer a great impression of what ultimately was a very inspiring and productive evening.