Janis

I'm not totally satisfied with this one, but maybe it just isn't possible to capture all of Joplin's passion and energy in a single painting.

"I'm a victim of my own insides. There was a time when I wanted to know everything. I read a lot. I guess you'd say I was pretty intellectual. It's odd, I can't remember when it changed. It used to make me very unhappy, all that feeling. I just didn't know what to do with it. But now I've learned how to make feeling work for me. I'm full of emotion and I want a release, and if you're on stage and if it's really working and you've got the audience with you, it's a oneness you feel. I'm into me, plus they're into me, and everything comes together. You're full of it. I don't know, I just want to feel as much as I can, it's what 'soul' is all about." --Janis Joplin

Watercolor pencil, acrylic, Sharpie.

Based on the photo by Daniel Kramer.

Behind Blue Eyes

I'm loving these watercolor pencils. I found this 1920s photo of Ziegfeld Follies girl Marion Benda a while back, and she caught my eye again as I was looking through my collection of old photos. Originally I had thought she'd make a nice collage with knitted lace, but looking at her again, I realized a simpler drawing would let her haunting eyes shine as the center of her portrait.

The story behind those beautiful eyes is a troubled one, and difficult to piece together. The limited mentions of her are confusing in their facts, but one newspaper article indicates that she buried her first husband after a car accident, and afterwards never seemed to find peace for herself. She was Rudolph Valentino's date just before he unexpectedly died and claimed to have also secretly married him. She turned down speaking roles on stage, saying she couldn't act. Various articles mention attempts at suicide by over-dosing on sleeping pills, until she was finally successful in 1951.

This portrait uses watercolor pencils, felt pen, and acrylic on paper, and is done in shades of purple and blue with the background yellowed with coffee. I found one reference to her eyes actually being brown, but considering her hair probably wasn't purple either I'm ok taking some artistic license here! Measures 8.5" x 11".

A few of the original newspaper articles are available online. This one from the Milwaukee Journal covers her death. Another article from the same paper dated 1927 spins a bit of a story surrounding her financial troubles which may or may not contain accurate glimpses into her character.

Netherlands vs. USA

Nieuwe Kerk, Delft

No expat blog is complete without a comparison of differences between the old home and the new. Therefore, I've put together my list of observations about life in the Netherlands that is different from what I am used to in the United States.

Culture and Society

• The Dutch language pronounces every letter in a word. 
• Love of symmetry - many windows display pairs of vases, candles, etc.
• There are few public holidays, but (depending on your job) it is not uncommon to take a month vacation.
• Healthcare is reasonably priced.
• Recycling is thorough and fairly convenient.
• On birthdays, instead of wishing the birthday boy/girl a happy birthday, people congratulate their family (for putting up with them for another year???)

Doodle Postcards

Last week the painters started working on the outside of the apartment. First step: wake everyone up with a screeching sander, which upon investigation turns out to be operated by a strange man unexpectedly standing at your 4th story window. Working in my studio suddenly had less appeal, so I looked for a project that could easily be taken elsewhere. These postcards are what happened.

I had a pad of blank postcards laying around for awhile, and I weeded through our collection of dried out ballpoint pens. I started with a simple concept for each card and built up the design around that, adding new ideas as the pictures developed. So basically, a doodle.

I had a lot of fun experimenting with interesting designs. Some I like better than others, and this "Spikes and Bubbles" card is my favourite. I should say something insightful about the juxtaposition of circles and lines, but the simple truth is the idea of popping bubbles amuses me far more than it should.

All of these are currently available through Etsy.

Lily

A friend gave me a flea-market-find jewellry box with a picture frame in the lid. It seemed like a fun chance to experiment with three-dimensional layers in a collage! Lily is the result.

Jeanne

 A friend gave me some leftover fabric, and I realized it was destined to end up in a collage. Jeanne is the result.

Jeanne Hebling was a French actress who starred in the early French films of the 1920s and 30s. However, this gal proved to be more than a pretty face during WWII, when she joined the resistance and used her apartment to host meetings and harbor Allied agents. After the war she moved to the US and ended her film career.

She is drawn with ink and watercolor pencil in purple shades to compliment the purple, teal, black and silver fabric pattern. Other details are created with silver gel pen, acrylic, and a sequin. She measures a compact 10x15cm and is completed with a silver colored frame.

Onze Lieve Vrouwekathedral

Antwerp, Belgium

Onze Lieve Vrouwekathedral and friend.

For how close Belgium is, I have spent relatively little time exploring the neighboring country. My main experience there was when we passed through on my first visit to the Netherlands. We were supposed to have a connecting train in Brussels that would take us to Holland, but when we got there the track was closed due to a gas leak. In order to get around the leak, all the would-be train passengers were packed onto buses where we stood for the over an hour bus ride to Antwerp. Except some of the roads winding through the small towns were also closed, prompting detours across unpaved alleys riddled with potholes that made sure we got to know our fellow passengers a little better. I held my breath that the overloaded bus wouldn't sink into the deep mud.