Showing posts with label dance drawings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dance drawings. Show all posts

Sunday, October 19, 2014

extraneous work (1): 6,5 years of this artist's blog

so time flies. and it happens i repeat myself. what i would like to do next is start a little series on all the extra -sometimes extraneous- work that comes along with being an artist, for me at last.

is this an interesting subject? not sure. why would a musician blogging about practising scales interest me? how she has to make recordings to submit to ... and how she has to do photo shoots, buy strings, tune the instrument, heat the appartment... we take all these things for granted, even when we're in awe of her music. even then, would my interest stretch beyond reading what influences / influenced her, her coming of age as a musician etc? not sure.

when i look at the large amount of time i spend on music (practising, myself; listening to music) and compare it to the amount of time i read about musicians/composers... it doesn't bode well for how interesting my own blog would be to others than myself. [still, the blog at least makes my art available on the web, and it has the added advantage of offering me the opportunity to crystallize some of my thoughts on art.]

but i suppose i would be interested in a description of this musician's activities, if it is well written, and offered some real insight in what drives her, both musically and as a person i suppose, since it seems hard to separate the two completely. and if like on this blog, the description would be interlaced with music...

anyway. it seems i would do well to at least write well on this blog. yet i tend to think that if i had wanted to become a good writer, then i would not have become an artist. most things takes a lot of time and energy to do well, and writing a blog is no exception. worth it too, since writing this blog helps me in important ways with my art itself: to present my art, to think about art and artists, to rethink my art, to rethink my artist's position in life and society, and even to create my art.

in order to present my art here, i spend quite some time on photography and subsequent tuning of digital images with photoshop and other image editors, such as picasa. a subject for the next post in this series, but as an example:

outsider in woman-man dance, frank waaldijk
outsider in woman-man dance (own work, 2010-2013, 21 x 30cm, click on the image for an enlargement)

difficulties abound: the colours of the drawing are hard to capture even with my canon 650d; then apart from often tricky colour adjustments the white-balance and the brightness of the picture need to be calibrated for use on computer screens. for shiny paintings, reflection-specks are edited out. then the image has to be saved for web, in a typical compromise between size and detail.

the drawing itself combines two themes: man-woman dance, and outsiderness (being an outsider). much as i would like to be able to write strikingly about my art, this is where i usually find myself at a loss for words.

lately i realize that this has something to do with a `trite' question: what do we mean with `meaning'? i cannot explain the meaning of art, i feel. if it has meaning (whatever that means), then the most important part of that meaning to me is essentially non-verbal. what is the meaning of the goldberg variations?

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

exhibition `dance' in galerie meander 18 may - 20 july


from 18 may - 20 july 2014 i will participate in

dance

a theme exhibition in galerie meander, zevenaar (near arnhem)


exhibition of dance art, galerie meander

dance has always been important to me, and is a main theme in my drawings for over 25 years. also on this blog you will find many posts related to dance.

you are of course cordially invited to come see the show.

Thursday, September 26, 2013

more dance drawings

dance of the earth and sky xi ~ frank waaldijk
dance of the earth and sky xii (own work, 2013, 21 x 30 cm, click on the image for an enlargement)

dance of the earth and sky vi ~ frank waaldijk
dance of the earth and sky vi (own work, 1990, 33 x 48 cm, click on the image for an enlargement)

dance of the earth and sky iii ~ frank waaldijk
dance of the earth and sky iii (own work, 1989, 23 x 32 cm, click on the image for an enlargement)

saturday night dancing i ~ frank waaldijk
saturday night dancing i (own work, 2003, 21 x 30 cm, click on the image for an enlargement)

dancing with the animals ~ frank waaldijk
dancing with the animals (own work, 2008, 10 x 15 cm, click on the image for an enlargement)

strange dance ~ frank waaldijk
strange dance (own work, 2008, 10 x 15 cm, click on the image for an enlargement)

dancing with nymphs ~ frank waaldijk
dancing with nymphs (own work, 2004, 21 x 30 cm, click on the image for an enlargement)

Saturday, December 1, 2012

again drawings (5): experiment, new worlds

grief and comfort v ~ frank waaldijk
grief and comfort (own work, 2012-2013, 40 x 55 cm, click on the image for an enlargement)[updated sept 2013]

wodance together, dance alone ~ frank waaldijk
dance together, dance alone (own work, 2010, 20 x 30 cm, click on the image for an enlargement)

child abuse ~ frank waaldijk
child abuse (own work, 2010, 40 x 50 cm, click on the image for an enlargement)

like i wrote in this earlier post on digital photopgraphy, i feel artists should explore new worlds. for this, i need constant experimenting. that doesn't only mean technical experimenting, but also a lot of emotional and psychological experimenting.

what is it that my `inner' artist self wants to show? how can i, the holder of pen, brush, pencil,...help this inner source to express itself in a poignant, perhaps sometimes disturbing but hopefully moving way?

life is not about superficial esthetics, and so for me neither is art.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

of human relations & dance of life 4

so, like i might or not have said in previous posts, i'm actually working my figurative butt off to develop some way to portray human relations, human emotions, human connections.

Kunst gibt nicht das Sichtbare wieder, sondern macht sichtbar.

('art doesn't show what is visible, rather it makes visible' - paul klee, 1920)

at times i have found it frustrating to have to explain the above to the lay person...but in later years i find myself explaining less and less. it is hard enough to come up with the images, the techniques, the perseverance in details... this reluctance to explain is not arrogance, it is a form of acceptance that some things cannot be explained.

of human relations
of human relations (own work, 2009, 21 x 30 cm, click on the image for an enlargement)

some more drawings on dance...where in the first you could notice that i'm working on some new painting techniques to paint people...

dance 3 figures
dance 3 figures (own work, 2011, 30 x 45 cm, click on the image for an enlargement)

dance 4 figures
dance 4 figures (own work, 2009, 10 x 15 cm, click on the image for an enlargement)

dance 2 figures
dance 2 figures (own work, 2011, 15 x 16 cm, click on the image for an enlargement)

dance 1 figure
dance 1 figure (own work, 2011, 20 x 30 cm, click on the image for an enlargement)

Thursday, February 23, 2012

dance of life 3

i came across a reproduction of one of my drawings at a friend's house last week...she made a photocopy of it during one of my previous visits because she liked it so much. i had already almost forgotten about this drawing, but it deserves a place in this thread on art, dance, life.

dance of life iii
dance of life iii (own work, 2011, 21 x 30 cm, click on the image for an enlargement)

Sunday, February 12, 2012

art of dance 2: some dance drawings

dance three figures
dance - three figures (cash ledger) (own work, 1987, 20 x 24 cm, click on the image for an enlargement)

the above drawing is one of a series of +- 1500 dance sketches that i made from 1987-1992, in a dancing called 'extase' in nijmegen (colourful to say the least, with excellent music and sound quality).

below some more recent dance drawings...to be added to later, since i have to (re)digitalize a large number of drawings, which is a time-consuming effort.

dance three figures
kneeling man in motion (own work, 2011, 20 x 22 cm, click on the image for an enlargement)

dance, woman
dance, woman (own work, 2011, 21 x 30 cm, click on the image for an enlargement)

dance, woman
dance, 3 figures 0045 (own work, 2011, 21 x 24 cm, click on the image for an enlargement)

dance, couple
dance, couple (own work, 2003, 32 x 48 cm, click on the image for an enlargement)

dancing couple
dancing couple (own work, 2011, 28 x 20 cm, click on the image for an enlargement)

art of dance, pina bausch, dance of life


youtube compilation of wim wenders' movie pina: dance dance otherwise we are lost. the music is by jun miyake, the song is called 'lilies of the valley' and features prominently in the movie.

this movie about dancer /choreographer pina bausch is absolutely stunning. it reflects the previous post on gauguin, since clearly pina tried to approach gauguin's questions through dance.

dance is a very special visual art form, to me. i do not always appreciate it, but i do agree with pina: dance dance otherwise we are lost. many of my drawings are about dance in some way. the two drawings below are a philosophical approach to dance and life.

dance of life i
dance of life i (own work, 2011, 32 x 48 cm, click on the image for an enlargement)

dance of life i
dance of life ii (own work, 2011, 32 x 48 cm, click on the image for an enlargement)