Terschelling is Beautiful.

The little island of Terschelling is gorgeous. I had heard about the famous "wadden" (mudflats) up here in the north but had never visited them before. Technically, I still haven't - I only saw the northern side of the little island in the weekend I spent there with my husband and his mother. I saw, instead, the north sea. The island itself is covered in these dunes, with colourful grasses, heathers, and pine trees contrasting with the otherwise subtle tones of the sands. Almost more remarkable was the sky. I have noticed that the Dutch landscape is often a skyscape; being such a flat land, one often has a particularly grandiose view of the Netherlands' cloudy, stormy skies. I managed to get a few nice shots when I was there, and hope to go again soon. 

New Painting, New Series!

No.1 - Acrylic on canvas, 80x90cm.

And, in the isolation of the sky,

At evening, casual flocks of pigeons make

Ambiguous undulations as they sink,

Downward to darkness, on extended wings.

                     -excerpt from Sunday Morning, a poem by Wallace Stevens

This painting is the first in a new series I'm making, called Streets, sewers, saints, heroes, beggars, and madmen (after a poem by Charles Bukowski), and I am very excited about it. I have a number of works planned, some already in the drawing stages. I won't yet go into details on the concept behind the paintings until I'm able to show you a few more. For now I will tell you that they will all have some connection to the idea of loneliness and isolation in the midst of the crowd.

* * *

Oh, Bukowski.

Sam Dillemans - Charles Bukowski

Working Out

Van Gogh cut off his ear
gave it to a
prostitute
who flung it away in
extreme
disgust.
Van, whores don't want
ears
they want
money.
I guess that's why you were
such a great
painter: you
didn't understand
much
else.

Sand and Wind

First you dig the dirt out, deep deep deep. Get rid of that dirt somehow.  

Then you order sand.

Get that sand into that hole! (Later you can put the bricks down. Be patient.)

Today we experienced one of the heaviest wind storms in Groningen since 1990. It also happened to be the day that we had 3 cubes of sand delivered. Not to worry! I was able to get a good amount of it from the end of our long winding path to our driveway-in-progress. Using a wheelbarrow. And elbow grease. And gumption.
At some point, when the wheelbarrow was lifted and tumbled down the aforementioned pathway, I did call it a day. I managed to empty two half-cubes. Let's try again tomorrow, shall we?

Wreath!

Some things are intrinsically motivating, while others have the pressures of earning, of buying and selling, hung on them like a heavy yoke. Would that I could work with the same vigor that I procrastinate. If I could spend all of my time making silly household crafts and puttering around my garden, without worrying about bills or making a contribution to the world, I think I would be quite satisfied. Retirement in my 20's. Would be great. In the meantime, I will have to satisfy myself with occasional crafting and the associated guilt.

Lo and behold, the product of that crafting:

Currently Reading: Momo en de tijdspaarders

Book # 1 of my attempt to read more Dutch language books and get my head out of the sand. Momo is a little wild-haired girl living in the ruin of an ancient amphitheatre, next to a village of poor folks who collectively care for her. She ran from an orphanage (yeah, it's an orphan story) where she had been beaten and locked up, and is now living happily on her own. Everybody loves to visit her, because she's a good listener.

That is the premise, up to this point (page 16). I think it will be a good one! My friend and colleague Marit recommended it (along with two books by Herman Hesse, with a little post-it declaring that the stack hailed "from Marit's Library"). I will keep you all updated! Hopefully this is a good way to begin improving my less-than-stellar language use.

Non-place Cyberspace

The internet has a new place in daily life. Or perhaps it is more accurate to say that the internet is a new place. A non-place cyberspace. What used to be a collection of links to simple pages has grown to what feels like an infinite web of content. Images, video, text, communication systems are interconnected and searchable, reposted endlessly and commented upon ad infinitum. We have even uploaded ourselves. Hell, I'm doing that now in the own way.

I'm letting myself be tracked, but also letting myself be known, seen, and heard. Maybe in the long term this could have a negative impact on my life, on the development of myself, on my creativity. I consume so much input that I feel that I must fulfill the transaction and post my own output, even out the table. Give and take, look and make. 

Paper Globes

Clicking around on a mission at work (answering a client inquiry), I've managed to come up with several pretty printable papercraft globes. So check it out, maybe I have given you all something to do for the next few hours/days. Instead of your homework. Or your dog-walking. Or whatever.

1. Planet Pals

Flower-shaped pieces make this globe stand out. Find the print-out here.

2.  Joachim Robert's "Le Paper Globe"

Graphic designer Joachim Robert put together this little printable beauty, and you can make one for yourself with the pdf from his website.

3. Polyhedron Map Projections

Tired of spheres? Try a cube. Or a dodecahedron.  Print them here.

4. Elaborate & Awesome Cross-Section Globe

Looking for a challenge? Blow up the world with this awesome globe.

5. A Classic Table-Top Globe... in Paper!

Rob Ives designed this one, with its own stand! Print it here.

Boris Groys' New Article on E-Flux

(From Sketches Snatched)

Nowadays, one hears a lot about the growing degree of surveillance, especially through the internet. But surveillance is not something external to the internet, or some specific technical use of the internet. The internet is by its essence a machine of surveillance. It divides the flow of data into small, traceable, and reversible operations, thus exposing every user to surveillance—real or possible. The internet creates a field of total visibility, accessibility, and transparency.

-Boris Groys, Art Workers: Between Utopia and the Archive

Operation Figure Yourself Out (FYO)

I may be making a major life decision within the next two weeks, and I am a little stunned at the 180 degree turn it might end up being. I will expand on this a great deal more once the decision is made, but for the meantime expect a wide-eyed look of shocked silence from me.

The Studio / Artspace

This may be one of the most flattering perspectives of my little studio. In my three bedroom house, only one bedroom actually has a bed in it. The smallest room has been refashioned into a classy bookshelved office (his space), and the middlest room is where I plant my rear down and try to make artwork. Cleverly left out of the image above is my messy corner dual-monitor workspace, my big-ass storage wardrobe cupboard thing, and my bookshelf/standing laptop desk. I feel guilty that I spend so much of my time in here faffing about online rather than creating. So guilty. Right now, that unfinished painting back there is bothering me, asking to be fixed, and here I am with my butt planted in my spinny chair, a cup of coffee, and an open facebook page in front of me. It's not just facebook, of course...

The top 5 productive things I do to procrastinate:

1. Clean anything I can get my hands on, the house, the studio, even the garden. Laundry goes in the washing machine, dishes in the dishwasher, papers in the filing bins. Maybe if I make sure everything around me is clean, my mind will feel less cluttered? (Of course, by then, I will have no more time left to do the thing that I'm procrastinating.)
2. Write a blog entry / update the website / "internet research".
3. Cook an elaborate meal and give myself a good long time to eat it.
4. Go to the store and run some errands.
5. Exercise.

All of these things are worthwhile pursuits except when there is something more pressing that needs to be completed. In a few hours from now, Future-me will be crunched for time and rightfully pissed off at Present-me. I suppose I'll have to make some huevos rancheros while I wait for that moment. 

Beyond the Bookstore

At the moment, I work for a little specialty bookstore, which I adore. It’s a travel bookstore, so we sell globes and maps along with a heap of travel guides and travel non-fiction. Outwardly (and inwardly as well, I suppose) the store is rather small and contained. Its owner and founder still works in the store a few days a week, none of its employees are full time and yet they have all been there for years. There are about 8 or 9 of us working there, which means that every employee plays an essential role in the team. We learn not only the skills needed within our position, but usually learn how to do everyone else’s job as well. It's a well-oiled machine and it feels so good to be a part of something like that.

Of course, all good things must come to an end , and my contract was just that sort of good thing. Sure, they are being nice – they like me, and though they can’t afford to keep me on with my current hours, they would like me to work once a week. That reduction in time and pay is unfortunately too much for me – I am now forced to look for a job.

What to do, then? Well, I’ve been browsing the job sites and sending out applications in hopes one will bite. It’s a strange game. How do you write a concise cover letter that is professional and strikes the balance between modesty and salesmanship? Then there is the issue of language. I can write in Dutch, and speak the language as well… but I cannot manipulate it the way I can my mother tongue. Maybe I will go back to school, get the credentials I lack and come out ahead in a few years. I would love to be employed somewhere where I can put my skills to good use, where I have a level of control and respect that lets me come home with my chest held high.

Not sure yet what I'm going to do, but the search continues.

The Displaced Canadian

On every other platform available to me, I keep it professional. In my mind, that means leaving out the personal, letting only buttoned-up, bright-eyed side show. I intend for this little blog to be more of a free-for-all as far as my thoughts and feelings are concerned. I'm just going to sit down, stretch out my legs, and relax a bit. I have no illusions about gathering readership. I just want to share, really. I like sharing. In kindergarten, that was actually written on my report card "shares well with others". With this little blog, I hope to share well with you all.

As the title of the blog clearly indicates, I am a Canadian living in the Netherlands. I don't wear clogs here and I didn't wear snowshoes there, but as far as titles go, I puff up my chest a little proudly at this one. In any case, it was the best of the small list I managed to put together while sipping my cappuccino and siphoning wifi from the café gods. So in the old worlds of yesteryear, Hello World.