Books I'm reading (2)

A month ago I posted a blog about art related books I was reading. I want to continue that item but then I realized something. Next to ‘normal’ books with just letters and the occasional illustrative picture I also read comic books or, as the French would say, la bande dessinée.
‘Comic books?’ you might wonder. Don’t worry, I’m still on topic. Because did you know there are a lot of these about artists? Artists like Rembrandt van Rijn, Vincent van Gogh, Egon Schiele and much more!
The picture below shows just the ones that I have, there are lots and lots more!
So here’s a fun idea. I will read these (again) and try to get my hands on the others I know of and let you know what they are like. And my next blog will truly be about SoftCut.

On the pic below starting with title, then artist and publisher. Note that these are all Dutch versions:

Pablo 1, 2, Julie Birmant & Clément Oubrerie, Blloan.
Egon Schiele, Xavier Coste, Casterman.
Typex’ Rembrandt, Typex, Oog & Blik I Bezige Bij.
Vincent & Van Gogh, Gradimir Smudja, Silvester.
Gauguin, Gaultier & Le Roy, Le Lombard.
Munch, Steffen Kverneland, Oog & Blik I Bezige Bij.
Het Kunstbordeel (Henri de Toulouse-Loutrec) 1, 2, 3, 4, Gradimir Smudja, Silvester

Secret project

Finally after a whole month of silence I can show you what I’ve been doing. Between my part-time job and the ‘secret project’ in my studio there wasn’t much time left to do anything else and sorry to say no time for writing substantial blogs. But the silence ends here.
What have I been doing that was so secret?! Well, it might be a little less exciting than it sounds.

I belong to a group of 7 artists that share a studio at Grafisch Collectief Thoets. Our group is specialized in printing techniques like etching, woodprint, lithograph and silkscreen.
We present ourselves as a group and once a year have an open studio day. We also have a group of people who donate money so we can continue to exist, organise fun art projects etc. For these nice, giving people we make a print that’s not for sale, just a special gift to them.

This year Jantine Geels and I were the ones to make the print. We usually do this in a team of two which results in very surprising prints, very much to the liking of our donators.
The upper part is mine aside from the bee. The stem turning into the umbilical cord ending in a flower that is also the embryo's belly are mine too. The bee and lower panel showing the embryo were done by Jantine Geels.

The print resides in a handprinted booklet about Make A Move, a project we contributed to in October 2013.

It’s been a month of organizing, designing, sketching, (lino-)cutting, printing and folding (yes, folding!). The print was presented Sunday the 16th and was received positively and I'm pretty pleased with it also.
 

The print was done in a material called SoftCut, something I will talk about in my next blog.