Just wanted to share a couple of previews of a new series with all friends and followers of Witty Art out there. A series of A5-sized black and white pencil drawings, some with an added touch of conté crayon or charcoal to them. Again, featuring a rabbit like creature. As this time I am not that certain of what the underlying themes are, as sometimes they are just as elusive to me as to those viewing my work, I've apptly named this series ''Up And Down The Rabbit Hole'', courtesy by Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland ofcourse.
Not that ''Alice'' was a direct source of inspiration. As great as my appreciation is for having come up with legendary characters such as The White Rabbit and The Cheshire Cat, somehow, I have never been really fond of the story of Alice in Wonderland. Why exactly? I really don't know. There were other books and stories that captured my imagination as a child and somehow, Alice and all that she gets up to, never managed to do so, despite having the book several times as a child, a teenager and later, as an adult as well.
Mind you, I do value it highly as an important work of literature and storytelling in its own right.
But most ''popular'' children's books and fairy tales were more or less wasted on me, to be honest. Well, apart from some extraordinary exceptions to the rule, and I can reassure you those have enormously influenced my life as well as my artwork. More on that particular subject in a later blog (and a long overdue one).
For now, I will happily work further on this series, and will see where this one takes me - perhaps up and down a few undiscovered rabbit holes of my own, I suppose. In which case, I will happily let my very own colony of UnBunnies lead the way!
More wandering Witty Art found its way to a happy new home off late!And when I say ''wandering'', how can it be anything else than one of those ever wandering, glad to be unhappy ''Lost Bears''? Well, sure enough, here is another one of them little brave bears who managed to get himself a very a nice warm and happy new home.
My dear friend Leon Keekstra, food and hospitality expert and a qualified barista trainer as well and in my home town Rotterdam also known as 'De Stadsbemoeial' (self-acclaimed City Meddler) spotted this little fellow ''Just Merrily Holding On'' during the opening of my autumn exhibition at Hostel Ani & Haakien last september. And he just to have it, so bought right there and then.
It took a while, but the other day I was finally able to bring his very own piece of Witty Art to him - and as you can see on the picture below, he was ever so glad to receive it. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that his house will be the most welcoming for this once Little 'Lost Bear'!
Very proud to show this piece of Witty Art, a special commission for a special occasion: a wedding gift from one brother to another.
Buyer spotted my earlier created series of 'EarthRocks & MoonSwings' on this blog and figured that this display of galaxic bromance would the perfect gift to surprise his brother with on his wedding day. Only problem being, the drawings from the first series created back in 2012-2013 he had his eye on, had all been sold - so, what better motivation than to create a couple of new ones, especially for this occasion?
So, I created a number of 11 new works in total, of which I showed a previous preview here on this blog. Ofcourse, I will display them all later in good order, but first, I wanted to share with you the one that turned out to be the buyer's choice.
And as always, I was surprised, as Nr 35 was not the one I myself thought he would choose, but he and his wife admitted it was a difficult task, as they had fallen in love with all of these 11 new adventures of Little Earth and Little Moon. So, we agreed that they'd be back in January next year to choose another one, for themselves.
Mind you, they have to exclude Nr 44, as that one is already picked by another buyer ;-)
For those of you who are struck with curiosity now, you will have to contain it somewhat longer, before I will post them all here. Or .. hasten yourself to my Instagram Profile (and follow me there, if you like) as I have already started posting them ''en groupe'' there!
So, recently I have been also working on some new Witty promotional items and the first priority was to get some proper new businesscards, as I have been carrying outdated ones with me for ages. They arrived by mail just yesterday and I am thrilled with the result!
It's a plain and simple design: while the back has my basic TWC Works info on it, the front shows an image taken from my Witty Art Series 'Innovation In Corporation', which features one of my most popular art characters, UnBunny, who appears to have an ongoing struggle with modern life in general and in this case, particularly the rat race that is corporate life.
Businesswise,
I walk the fine line between an ideal, a social as well as a commercial
vision, trying to make a a profit and some proper living while
maintaining my standards as a both a creative and a social entrepreneur.
Well, most of them. And in today's world, that is already challenging
enough at times, as it requires compromise on almost a daily basis, even
when I am making Witty Art. For instance, when I am working on a
commissioned piece. Which, I hasten to add, is fine by me. I am an entepreneur, I need to make a living and am proud to do so - though it is not always easy.
BUT
- when I am free to create Witty Art in my own time and my own space, I
can guarantee you, that is the most powerful autonomous statement I can
make as an artist, as an entrepreneur and as a human. Granted!
And
... to sustain that oh so vital and much needed space for said
autonomy, I am currently working on more pretty cool Witty Art
promotional items as well as new merchandise, to be sold online via my
own Witty Webshop - which is also currently in progress, but will all be launched in 2017!
So, if you are interested, stay tuned for more!
This week I am working a very special commission, for a very special occasion. A special request, coming from a good friend, who displayed a great deal of interest in my series ''EarthRocks & MoonSwings'', which I started a couple of years ago. To be precise, in the years in 2012-2013 and I had not been working on this particular series since that time. If you like, this is the blogpost in which I introduced them to the world.
There are quite a few people out there who happen to own a piece of this series, basically a tale of an unconditional friendship, an unbreakable bond between Little Earth & Little Moon, formed when they were young, way back when their galaxy was young too - and not one that far, far, far away. A happy and caring duo, who are always there for each other, no matter how Rocky the Road and whatever Mood will Swing... You see, there is a little hidden corner in the dystopian World of Witty Art that you might call a happy, carefree place. It's there where Little Moon & Little Moon play, walk, dance and have fun together. For as long as EarthRocks & MoonSwings, everything's gonna be just fine ... ;-)
So, I created a couple of new ones, 11 in total. These new additions are a bit bigger than the ones from the first batch from 2012-2013. Those all measured 10x 15 cm and these new ones are each about the size of an A5. I used the same materials as back then, starting with graphite pencil just to sketch the initial outlay and then progressing with black indian ink and then adding watercolours.
Though perhaps not as intense or not as heavy as my other work, I found great pleasure in making these drawings, it was almost like I rediscovered this happy loving couple and it was good fun coming up with their little adventures and bringing them onto the paper.
Makes me wonder, perhaps I should introduce them to 'Lost Bear', who wanders alone on the furthest edges of the outer universe of Witty Art. Guess that would make a very interesting, if not confronting combination.
Now, does that sound as if there might be something like a little story coming up? Or a couple of stories, perhaps, a book even? ...
Who knows? Who wants to know? If you do, than feel free to follow me here on this blog or on my Instagram account!
Some previews of another series I am currently working on. One I have to admit, I am really, really into right now. And again, as is the case in my series 'Lost Bear' and 'Lost My Bearings', the protagonist is a brave little bear with a challenge. This time around, he this time facing the challenge of having to come clean. To show himself to the world, just as he is. Good or bad, wrong or right, no extra additions or distractions, nothing to hide behind. To be accepted, or not, for who he is - not for what others aspire him to be.
A brave little bear faces the world and bares it all.
Here he is: 'Bear Naked'.
Hope you will enjoy these previews - if you have no patience whatsoever and are too curious on how this series will develop further, I already posted some of the first drawings on my Instagram account. Which, by the way, you might just want to follow (if you haven't done that already) for (almost) your daily fix of Witty Art.
Hope to see you there!
In an earlier blog, I briefly introduced my new series 'One Step Forward (How Many Steps Back)' and how, to me at least, it reflects life as it just comes and goes along. That, no matter how hard you try to move forward, there is always something that seems to either hold you back. Or, when you finally have made that bold move forward, you face all kinds of setback, preferably not one, and not just a couple, but a whole bunch. At.the.same.time.
The optimists amongst us will refer to these setbacks as ''challenges'', most of us call it ''obstacles''. I prefer to see them as hills you must climb or find another way around them - either way, you have to deal with them, before they turn into steep cliffs that are almost impossible to conquer. Unless, your mind has the resilience and the ability of a skilled boulderclimber.
On the other hand, sometimes those dreaded setbacks, that feeling of ''one step forward and then two, or three, or even more steps back'' might just turn out to be very valuable experiences, as they actually buy you time. Even at moments you feel there isn't any and you have to make split-second decisions under huge pressure. Ofcourse, sometimes, there will be moments like these and you just have to go with ever decision or choice seems best in that particular situation- but more often than not, you have more time than you think.
I have learned the extremely hard way that being thrown back a couple of rounds, is not the worst thing to have happened to me, even when I felt terribly frustrated because I desperately wanted to move forward with certain things. I have found out that every setback actually helped me forward in the end, even when at the time I felt I was getting nowhere. I have discovered that with every throwback came time to think things over before rushing ahead.
Time, in which I learnt that the bold move forward for me actually wasn't such a good move at all. That, because of pure pressure and feelings of anxiety, despair even, I'd completely lost track of which direction I was heading into and had not even questioned myself on WHY I was going there. That taking one step forward and then two or three steps back made me realise that I wasn't just going in a less favourable or even wrong direction. I was worse off. I was boldly but blindly going nowhere.
It's that insight, or rather: the whole process of getting there, that
prompted me to start this particular series. Featuring, once again, a
rodent-like anti-hero trying to come to terms with the whole phenomenon
of going forwards and then backwards; and forward, only to find he's
basically stuck, unless he admits he needs to take a step back, or two
or more, to see where he's at - and which direction he should or should
not take.
And it's when you refuse to acknowledge that, that you find yourself in the position you wanted to avoid at all costs: stuck as stuck can be. Not able to go ahead, because you don't have the willpower to step back and take a look at where you are going.
It's that you will ask yourself: ''One Step Forward ... How Many Steps Back?''
So, instead of always rushing ahead, stepping back actually can be a good thing. Because if you don't do it yourself, and actually make the time to do so, that Sweet Little Bitch called Life will do it for you.
Trust me, she will. She most definitely will.
