//Beyond the
Moleskine.

Hey! How’s everybody doing? How was your Christmas? Please share your stories, I would love to hear them. My Christmas was fine, had too much to eat I think though, I still feel stuffed.I know, I know! I haven’t updated in a while again. I’ve been busy. Sorry! I didn’t forget about my blog though. 

Lately I have been stressing out for my acceptance at the HKU ( it’s an art academy ). I’m applying for my Illustration Bachelor, and my acceptance day is going to be the 16th of January. So I am working hard on my portfolio to expand it with different materials, views, types of illustration. I’ve been drawing in my Moleskine a lot, and I have also picked up a different notebook, which is more freestyle related. I use this notebook to experiment with materials, put news paper clippings in, write down my brainstorms and ideas for project or random statements. I call this notebook My Little Blue Crackbook. Don’t ask me why, I have twisted humor at times. ( This reminds me - my friend Yorick de Vries made a book a long time ago, called ‘The Cokebook’. Hah ).

Anyway. I scanned the pages I have so far - and of course, I’m going to show them to you - so you can feedback on my work ( please, PLEASE do, I can use it! ), and perhaps inspire you to make a book of your own.I will write more soon, but for now I leave you with this Have a great one guys!

Mad love.

//
I illustrate my life in abstract ways
and repeating colors.

Okay - SO! Back again with a new blog - it’s been a while. Life has been quite eventful, but that is not what I want to chat about right now. I just finished a new piece - which is part of a series. The series is called Monocolor - and basically - they’re illustrations about themes going on in my personal life - illustrated in a very abstract way - constantly using the exact same color palette. This first piece I just finished is about love. How it’s something I keep buried deep down inside me - but once released - it flows and goes everywhere.

I hope you enjoy it - and please - visit my Behance page - or appreciate the project here.

For all those interested - the original linework was done in Illustrator - and I finished it in Photoshop.

Peace!

//
The Monday on the 1st of the
12th of the 8th.

My weekend - was an eventful one. Friday I worked my ass off - I went to see my friend Bernice - we went to Rof! - I met some great guys, promised my chick Hariwa ( the hip hop advisor ) to plug her blog ( here ya go! ) - went to the HKU, met Anne for the first time, ran into Rutger by chance, cause I said his shoes were nice, not knowing it was him ( I had emailed him previously for a collaboration hah! ), took a whole bunch of Polaroid shots, came home, went dead asleep and watched Samurai Champloo the entire weekend. And oh - last Thursday I bought me some new headphones, and the day before that I went to see Bas play at the SJU.

Basically - last week was dope.

But!

Once again - it’s Monday. Not only is it Monday, it’s the 1st of the 12th month of the year 2008. Needless to say this year has flown by, with all it’s ups and downs and whatnots. It’s crazy how Mondays, and especially Mondays like these make you reflect upon certain things, events, feelings, thoughts. Especially when that December month hits, with Christmas and New Year coming up, it makes you go all sentimental and thoughtful.

I’ve had a roller coaster year this year. I moved from one place to the other, said goodbye to people, said hello to new ones, went on adventures, had many sleepless nights, took hundreds of photographs, drew a lot, was alone most of the time, and always enjoyed myself. Many tears fell, many laughter came, many hugs were shared and magic moments came alive in the year of 2008. I could babble on for ages about all the things I experienced this year - but a picture says more than a thousand words - so I’m gonna make a full length photo post, posting the highlights of my year so far. ( and I am really bummed I did not get the chance to take any shots of the time Misha and I worked at the North Sea Jazz festival - because I had the greatest time there this year. )

Enjoy.

May 10th, 2008
I went to the beach with Allon & Ernst.

July 4th, 2008
I went to visit Allon.

July 6th, 2008
I went to Metropolis.

July 8th, 2008
Narek came to visit.

July 15th, 2008
My best friend Rachid stopped by.

August 6th, 2008
I went to the Booijmans van Beuningen museum with Misha.

August 13th, 2008
Misha and I walked all the way home.

August 13th, 2008
Misha and I worked at Blockbeatz at Watt.

September 14th, 2008
I went to visit Marc - and it was the last time I saw him.

September 19th, 2008
I worked at Mitros Playground and I connected with my girl Bernice.

September 26th - September 28th, 2008
I went to the Ardennen with people from my internship.

October 7th - September 28th, 2008
I worked as a photographer at Culture Beat.

October 31st, 2008
I went to Rof!.

November 1st, 2008
I went to Rock The Bells.

November 8th, 2008
There was a party at Habek.

November 22nd, 2008
I had a solo adventure.

//
And then …
it snowed.

And yesterday I had a solo adventure throughout Rotterdam.
Check out the pictures here.

I feel like hot chocolate & christmas movies.
But for now - I’m listening to Porgy & Bess - by George Gershwin.
That pretty much does the trick.

Y’all have a beautiful Sunday.

//
Check out this
kid.

Every month I take a whole day out in search for new music. This could be either online or in record stores - whatever is floating my boat at that particular time. Once again - I went on a search and encountered many new unknown names ( for me at least ) - that all seemed quite interesting. I especially have a weakness for instrumental hip hop influenced by all kinds of different styles.

One of my favourite discoveries this time around would have to be Skipless and his production - Jazzamentals EP. There’s not much to find about this dude at the moment on the internet - I only know he’s from Finland, and that he’s part of Dusted Wax Kingdoms, which is a netlabel based in Bulgaria ( who by the way also released the “Post Apocalyptic Beats EP” produced by Strad - also some amazing shit to check out! )

As for my personal opinion: I guess a lot of instrumental hip hop artists are compared to Pete Rock or Damu The Fudgemunk - but let’s face it - it all sounds good, so it doesn’t matter really. What I think about his album .. it’s a trip. It’s very laid back, something I would listen to while walking down the street or traveling from one place to the other - either way, it’s very warm and colourful - and that’s what makes me addicted to an instrumental album. I can imagine that the wonderful guys of Mixing Monthly would drop this in one of their mixes, which are always high quality.

Not to mention only that I love the name - Skipless - he also offers his album up for download also on his Myspace - FOR FREE. Now, if that doesn’t get you going - I don’t know WHAT does.

Enjoy!

( click cover to download! )

//
For one to be an inspiration -
one must be inspired.

Someone once told me to write about what inspires me - about what I experience, see, hear, feel. And that I should draw about things that inspired me - that I see, experience, hear around me - or feel inside.

The dictionary describes inspiration as one of the following - “a divine influence directly and immediately exerted upon the mind or soul” - and - “the divine quality of the writings or words of a person so influenced.”

A lot of things inspire me. Music - conversations - the things I see when I travel from one place to the other - but what mostly inspires me are people. I think a lot of people underestimate the power of other people. I have met many many people in my life - and I have learned many many new things from many people. I hope I too have had the ability to teach someone something.

As I continue my journey every day - and reflect on the past, present and future - I can say without a doubt that the drive I have for life - is caused by people. They are my inspiration, they inspire me, and some - even support me in being inspired and daring to dream, pursue my dreams and make something of myself and of my future.

To all you out there who I have met - am living with in the present - or who might become an inspiration to me - thank you all so very much. Even to the people out there who I will probably never met - but who have also inspired me - thank you.

Love to all of you.

//
Etch-a-sketch
anyone?

I’ve been drawing a lot again lately. As I am going through a personal process in life, I guess you could say my drawing style has also altered. I don’t know. You judge. Here are three of my most recent works.

And if you’re interested - you can watch my whole sketching / drawing process here. It dates from May till November this year.

Enjoy!

//
I love to be a
voyeur.

I’m not feeling so well today, I think either not enough healthy foods - sleep or basically I have not been doing a lot of healthy things lately. So today I have been under the weather - mostly sleeping and having a higher temperature than normal.

As I couldn’t sleep anymore - I decided to surf the web again and I stumbled upon this crazy ass website.

Elevator Moods.

Apparently this website has been floating around for some time - but this is my first time encountering it. I did some research on the website and this is the best way to describe the website:

“”Elevator Moods is made up of 13 short humorous mini-films (or “moods”), each shown as though it was captured by an elevator security camera.”

I wish these movies were real though.
I love studying human behavior.

Goodnight.

//
The first coloured USA
president.

Tonight - I saw history be written.
This will be the day my children will read about in books.
We all know why.

Congratulations Barack Obama!

//
He had a
dream.

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

I wonder what he would feel right now, what would be going through his mind, if today, he was still alive. I wonder how excited he would be, how emotional he would be, how scared and how satisfied at the same time.

I hope his dream - will come true.
Or at least - come closer to becoming true.
I hope that today will be a change for the better.
I hope that people will finally see that race doesn’t matter.
I hope that someday everyone will realise we are all equal.
That we should all be able to have equal chances.
And we can all become what we want to be.
No matter what colour or gender we have.

I hope.