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Call it an escape, but in my drawings I can truly live. Get lost, lose myself in order to find myself. It's an expression form where I can ventilate and order feelings and thoughts, in order to keeps myself sharp. And at the same time it's a huge responsibility to continu making work, every single day...
6PM – I'M AWAKE BEFORE THE ALARM RINGS
At the dawn of a new day, coffee is the power fuel I need to let me slip in the day and engage my brain for another waken day.
And it's only at a second refill that I move to my drawing table to inspect the progression (and/or damage) from yesterday. To see some beautiful coincidences and/ or trial and errors. And both will determine the day.
My workplace looks like a still life, silent in the quiet of the morning.
It shows all traces of the point where I stopped a few hours ago, muted in an unintended composition.
MUSIC-MY COMPANION, MOTIVATOR AND STIMULATOR
The first hour of a new working day starts mainly with watching. Merely looking for improvements and working points for today. And to found the calm and concentration for it, there is nothing better than music. For every feeling and time of the day there is a usable indent music. The most direct medium, from ear to brain, which fills the room from the first seconds.
Today I start with Ruben Machtelinckx's - 'Faerge' (feat. Hilmar Jensson, Joachim Badenhorst & Nathan Wouters). One of my favourite local Jazz musicians, because he investigates and question sound at the edges of all theories, in order to push the conventional into the progressive. Very interesting music and ideal to start the day with.
Track preview: 'Louisiana'
Other great albums who inspired me today are: Nils Frahm - Solo, Gregory Porter - Liquid Spirit, Micheal Kiwanuka - Love and Hate, Tricky - Mixed Race, Sole and Dj Pain - Nihilismo, Beastie Boys - Check your head, The Architect - Foundations, etc...
On average days I draw 8 to 10 hours , and I'm always on my own. And even though I like being on myself and I actually do not suffer from loneliness, without music it would be a totally different thing. Besides the companionship, music is also my ultimate inspiration and could be seen as the soundtrack from my drawings.
The next two hours I will mainly focus on ' filling surfaces'. Black large areas often get two to three layers. Something that looks, in the first place, like line work, I use at the beginning of the day to warm up. So I achieve a certain character cadans (my drawings are built with the shading technique, line after line, always with the eye at the larger picture) that is needed for my focus of the rest of the day.
Starting with some small and simple drawings I usually make to train myself in the formal aspects of art.
'The horny three unity'
20x20cm
Pencil on paper
and
'Peel back the layers'
20x20cm
Pencil on paper
Because the greatest task in making new work is not solving drawing problems (technically I can draw anything from my experience and exercises). No, the greatest task is to find the peace, courage, concentration and perseverance to get the maximum out of it. Especially with larger scale drawings... An indication of each day, always starting from scratch.
But that task also offers liberation, if I success and push hard enough, it has the power to elevate and let me disappear totally/mentally, separate from my physical self. And there's always some resistance force you have to overcome. So, with the right focus, each line I draw works like a mantra, on it's way to enlightenment ...
'Quo Vadis?'
Pencil on paper
21,9x 29,7cm
2017
11PM -TIME TO FEED THE INNER PERSON
So, usually I use the mornings to actuate, to prepare myself for the bigger and preciser pieces. But first I have to make lunch because my stomach growls and screams to be filled. With the side effect that keeping my focus become more difficult.
After the refueling I feel refreshed and ready to bend me over the ' real work '. And I continue with it until the evening meal in one big focus and work intensity.
Assuming I'm fit and the energy is in a smooth workflow. Otherwise I also have to work through.... through frustrations and threats.
'More human than human (self-portrait)'
29x29cm
Pencil on paper
2017
