What have I been working on? A lot. My Behance artist group XP2020 is now 8 artists. It has been a great joy to be part of this group. The job of building it is more or less finished. I am working on an exhibition proposal; 40 works. ‘Expressionist Art in the New Twenties”. This got me into an ‘exhibition’ mindset, thinking in shows, rather than single paintings…
A series is a different animal than a painting. The works gain power and context from each other. I find this very interesting. And you almost have to think in terms of museums, galleries or public buildings for a series. I found it works both ways. For a show like the XP2020 exhibition, you automatically think in terms of museums. I don’t think many people are willing or even able to hang 40 fairly large works in their homes. I guess it depends on the kind of home you have… On the other hand, thinking of museums automatically made me think in terms of shows, and how works will affect each other.
The ‘Dike Mysticism‘ project is a series (now 3 works, working on number 4 and 5). And I have my homehaus series. One thing I was working on, is that homehaus series. I had one work of it finished, but I wasn’t happy with it. It was too… simple. So I redesigned the whole series, viewing it as one work, in a sense. But rather than making it more complex, I ended up making it even simpler. The process will be: printing, painting and printing again.
This series is not finished, but it is progressing nicely. I think it might compliment the ‘Dike Mysticism’ project. Together they form a small show (10 works) about the power and the beauty of the dike and all it protects. I am thinking of writing an exhibition proposal for museums in cities that are threatened by the rising waters. Like Mumbai, London, Rio de Janeiro, Hong Kong and New York.
How will an exhibition like this help these cities? I can think of several ways it might. But I won’t even mention these claims, let alone substantiate them. That’s the beauty of art: I don’t have to think about all that! I don’t have to justify anything. All I have to do is create it and maybe work on getting it shown. I love art!
JAAPH is an expressionist painter living in Nijmegen, The Netherlands.