street art 2: recognition, appreciation

see the one-but-previous post. [and see -of course- the wikipedia entry on street art.]

if you take the time to view the video, you might come across some very intriguing art works. i'm often amazed at what i see on the street. apart from the obvious artistry, there's a lot of hard work and dedication going into many of these works.

i don't mean this as a general tribute to every tag and graffiti-like work (because there are many less appealing ones, perhaps even the majority, i'm not keeping score since i tend to ignore what doesn't appeal).

but i would like to thank all those anonymous artists which really put in their talent, time and effort to produce their art on the streets.

you might want to read this article on street art in sweden [link is now defunct, 2014] by nicholas claude, who is also the photographer of the picture below:



the article discusses pros and contras, since many people experience street art as defacing and/or damaging of property. perhaps i will return to this in later posts. [postscript 2014: the article has been removed and is completely unfindable].

mary & jesus on the road to damascus

mary & jesus on the road to damascus (own work, 21 x 30 cm, mixed media on paper, 2008)

coming from a christian culture, which produced a lot of beautiful art works centered around mary and jesus (my favourites especially are the mare de déu sculptures from catalunya), i find myself creating art works which draw on that tradition. they should not be seen as religious - i'm personally not a fan of whatsoever religion- but rather as a link to a universal spirituality which binds us all.

to be continued.

street art 1: graffiti in eindhoven

i ain't gonna say shit dude. just click the flick.

trees, hills

trees, hills (own work, 80 x 110 cm, acrylic and ink on canvas, 2009)

just a new painting, which i'll be showing in an upcoming short exhibition. i also managed to take some pictures of a statuette which i borrowed back from the owner, i think i might put them up also.

see previous two posts: my trijntje-fop-blog is still taking up most of my writing energy, sorry. i managed to revise around 55 of the around 160 trijntje fop poems now, that means i'm going to be tied up quite some time still to come. but i'm strangely satisfied with these light poems, with all their connotations and (hyper)links to the art world and beyond.

on a bonobo and a chimpanzee (see previous post)

on a bonobo and a chimpanzee

did artist yoko bonobo
completely out of mikado
construct for hiroshige's lobster
`jacuzzi with yakuza mobster'?

the ape clams up mysteriously
but still complains imperiously
`they never take me seriously'

chimp saatchi: `who knows? years ago
she built in downtown tokyo
her christ in tub with giorgio
committing in this spirito
artistic harachirico'



utagawa hiroshige, 2 shrimp and a lobster


giorgio de chirico, christ and the storm


giorgio de chirico, mystery and melancholy of a street


yoko ono, touch me

yoko ono: once partner of john lennon, bonobo: great ape, jacuzzi: warmwater whirlpool, yakuza: japanese mafia, mobster: mafioso, charles saatchi: owner of saatchi gallery, harakiri: ritual japanese suicide

for this trijntje fop some background on de chirico is useful, see an essay by robert hughes

above a typical example (or non-typical since it is in english) of what i've been working on. silly light verse, but with lots of art pictures and art references, also largely as a hommage to the many artists who have inspired me.

trijntje fop goes art

sorry to not have posted any more recently. there was a reason, pretty predictable: i'm writing on another blog called trijntje fop gaat op de schop. a crazy undertaking, to be honest. mostly silly rhymes, mostly in dutch, mostly about art, in a style called `trijntje fop'

trijntje fop is a nom de plume of the dutch poet kees stip (1913-2001). the name is currently used to describe light poetry with the following style characteristics :

1. light!


2. see 1.


3. about 1 or more animals (`on a ...' ) with typical human characteristics - as in de la fontaine's work.


4. abundance of spoonerisms.


5. 2 to ... lines, mostly 6 lines in aabbcc form.

the name trijntje fop itself was taken from multatuli (pseudonym of eduard douwes dekker), from his magistral ideas- when will these be translated in english? i'm flabbergasted to be unable to locate a translation. here a link to a commented, wonderful complete online edition of multatuli's ideas in dutch by philosopher maarten maartensz.

in one of the continuing stories (between ideas) master pennewip reads and comments on poems of his children. one of them is trijntje fop, with a short and very simple verse:

Tryntje Fop, op haar muts

Ik heet Tryntje Fop
En heb een muts op myn kop.

(Tryntje Fop, on her cap

I'm called Tryntje Fop
And have a cap on my head.)

pennewip's commentary is very memorable. multatuli was a great modernizer of language, i have tried to retain that spirit also.

in the next post i will give an example of my `trijntje fop goes art' in english. not the best and not all that accessible to a lay person, but it gives an inkling of what i've been working on in this past month of silence.

actually i'm revising the lot of around 160 poems, and this for me is a gargantuan task. although not as bad as writing them in the first place, which took two years.

fashion & art 2: vincent van gogh continued

ok. having posted the previous painting wheat field under thunderclouds i cannot leave out its famous sibling:



vincent van gogh, wheat field with crows (1890)

van gogh's works were not the fashion during his lifetime. he could not sell his paintings (i believe he sold just one painting during his life), but other artists recognized his genius. after his death, his paintings quickly gained reputation. vincent to me is probably the antinomy of fashion and contemporary fashion-like art.

theorem: (ralf kwaaknijd, 2008)

the fashionality in contemp art is largely due to the relativistic opportunism of postmodernism.

proof: we leave the proof as an exercise to the reader.