Yeah yeah I'm a fan pt II

As I was searching the web the other day for an image of a jumping spider (which must be the cutest insect on the planet) I stumbled upon the spider below and couldn't believe my eyes. As I dug deeper into the person behind this incredible piece of art I found out it was done by a girl, by the name of Aurel Schmidt.


She was born and raised in Vancouver, Canada but moved to New York 6 years ago. To seek some thrills as she says, because it is hard to draw rotting corpses when your life is 'peachy'. And I am thankful she chose to live out of a suitcase because this decay is the most wonderful thing I have seen in ages. One more horrific than the other, but all wonderfully complex and soft. These days, she's also known as a New York socialite, a photographer and my new hero.


want to know more? Read an (quite old, yet cool) interview here.

So I made drawings for VICE...

Vice mag asked me to make five portraits of dutch comedians for an article about what made 3 women of 3 different generations laugh. To learn more about this, the writer of the piece asked her grandma, her mom and herself about funny people and looked at what was different and what was similar.

I picked out some favorite ones and drew them. Check the whole interview out on viceland, and look at some highlights below.

Tot zines!

I must admit it felt a bit strange to be walking around in leopard print at at car tuning convention one day and to be standing in front of a group of art school students the next. Welcome to the world of Dutch Dolls...

After a very enjoyable 'project week' about zines at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam in April we had the opportunity of doing it all again last week (read the blog post about the first one here). In small groups, or individually, 25 students from various departments worked on little booklets WITHOUT TOUCHING A COMPUTER. They were free in their choice of subject matter, because that's what zines are all about: a medium to express yourself, your opinions, your obsessions, your artwork, your comics, your poetry and whatnot.

So we ended up with a wide variety of zines: about superstitions, everyday annoyances, skateboarding and zine-making itself, the differences between the left and right side of brain and traditional German hunting imagery and terms, just to name a few. We were delighted that in times like these there was at least one zine that was political and critical. It was called "Wilder dan ooit" ("Wilder than ever") and it included fragments of an inspiring speech by Johan Fretz on the planned cuts in the government's arts budget, plus a plan how to fortify the art school should things get really bad and of course lots of very wild appropriated images of Geert Wilders.


There was a zine "Meisjes poepen niet" ("Girls Don't Poo"), filled with cut out images from glossy magazines of women in difficult poses. Just by combining them in a certain way, or altering them with little scribbles these perfect women, who supposedly are unable to poo or fart or to have hairy armpits, were put into perspective. Neat detail was the silkscreened poo-colored cover with a toilet paper banderole:


We were happy to see the return of the guys who made "A Sick Zine" during our workshop in April. They had continued working together since on an animal-themed second edition and decided to finish it the during our class (very clever). The lovely lads even included an 'ode' to Dutch Dolls, of which you can see a blow up in the upper right corner of the picture above. We are still debating who is who.. Meanwhile here's a selection of their original collages:


They made so many pages the zine turned out too thick to staple, so they had to glue it...


... 55 times...

More pictures of the making of A Sick Zine #2 can be seen on their Facebook page (yes they have a FB page, and a website, and they're on Twitter!). It was sold out in no time, so we suggest you become a fan or start following them to make sure you don't miss out on issue #3!

More 'filth' was produced by an exchange student from Switserland, Luca. Be honest, when someone tells you he "wants to do something with porn and vegetables and machines" you don't expect him to come up with something as tasteful as this:


He used a duplicator or ditto machine so he could print two colors in separate layers. We must say, big up for Wilco at the graphic studio at the Willem de Kooning Academy! Silk screen printing, letter press, typewriters, folding machines.. it's all there for the students to use.

Part of the assignment was to organize a 'zine jam' on Friday afternoon to sell and swap their zines. They failed miserably on this part of the assignment, but we'll forgive them because they worked so hard to have their zines ready on time. They camped out in the foyer of the school, we wheeled in Blanche for some background music and we had a ball anyway.


Still it's a shame they didn't promote this little event, because I know you, dear reader, would have loved to come and I know you wouldn't have left empty handed!!

Throw that Curve Ball in my direction!

December last year, I got a phone call of a certain drummer of a certain band. I had no clue who they were, but I thought the bandname was pretty cool. Which is like meeting someone with nice shoes.. a good first impression. And so I agreed to meet with them to talk about art for an album cover. A few Mb (make that Gb) later here it is: The cover for Baby, It's A face by Bombay Show Pig. All shiny and nicely printed by the polish people. Oh how good it feels to hold this in my hands!
I'm not going to post a song from the EP on here, but I will give you this one: a club-worthy remix with a funky wobble. Done by FretHinge who obviously, know how to party. More distortion!

Bombay Show Pig - Curve Ball (FretHinge rmx) get it here (YSI)

Illustratie Biennale!

This saturday will be the first edition of an event called Illustratie Biennale. Which is (as you might think) all about dutch illustration and design! Some of my personal heroes will be there, so exciting..

The event will be held in Haarlem and was initiative of the famous Piet Zwart Institute, a centre for postgraduate studies connected to the Willem de Kooning Academy and responsible for some great names in design-land. The place will be divided in several different areas with exhibitions, a shop and a digital presentation with over a hundred designers! I will be involved in the shop part where I will be selling some Dutch Dolls stuff and some zines called zo ordinair (so tacky) with solo-art (see the picture above!). I am also part of the digital exhibition with some drawings... and will be playing some tunes during the day.

The biennale will be opened at 11.30u by Joost Zwart and will be finished at 18.00u. Take a look at the website for more info!

"What kind of beer do you like?" "Heineken." "HEINEKEN?! FUCK THAT SHIT, PABST BLUE RIBBON!

Ah, it arrived just in time: The Hipster Handbook by Robert Lanham. Because this weekend I’m going to this All Tomorrow’s Parties festival, which is like a Mecca for Hipsters. I’ve been twice before and every time I felt hopelessly normal. Aaaah, what to wear, which beer to order, which bands to see?!?

I don’t think I ever heard the term Hipster before I spent a semester at an art school in Boston in 2003. But I sure got to know it there; plenty of Hipsters were attending the Art Institute of Boston and loads of them would gather at night in a nearby dive called the The Model to drink PBR’s. I couldn’t quite put my finger on what made these people stand out, until one day I found The Hipster Handbook in a bookstore. It had nice illustrations by Bret Nicely of all the hipster looks, their hairdo’s and their accessories (ranging from cigarette and beer brands to tattoos). It has a glossary of the Hipster slang (which I suspect is a little outdated now – are deck and fin still ‘key words’ for Hipsters?) and lists of their favorite music, movie stars and books. And at the end of the book there’s a quiz that helps you determine whether you’re a Hipster or not through questions like how you would name your new male French bulldog, how you prefer your armpits to smell, which font you would chose for your business card and whether you have margarine in your fridge (Hipster answers would be Kit or Jimmy; naturally musky or unscented; you have no business card; false). I must say it proved to be bizarrely accurate and it has been very insightful, ever since I’ve been able to spot a hipster from miles away.

Just before I left Boston I bought the book for a friend of mine and I have always regretted not getting a copy myself. The ATP festival triggered my memory of the book (and with it the fond memories of my time in Boston), so I ordered it online for just £0.67 (!). Of course I would never use it as a source book on what to wear and what beer to order. Although I do check most of the boxes on the Hipster music list (Pavement, Yo La Tengo, Stereolab, Public Enemy, Stan Getz, The Kinks and so on), I now check quite a lot of boxes on the Symptoms Of Hipster Depreciation list. And "as a Hipster ideally possesses no more than 2% body fat", I am simply "too fat to be a Hipster".

the value of repetition

The pattern we designed for our lavender sachets Monsters in your Closet (with loads of moths on it) is now featured on REPEAT-X REPEAT-Y, an online collection of 'fresh' patterns. Go take a look, there's some pretty cool stuff on there!

Talking about the value of repetition.. we would like to remind you our wonderful smelling lavender sachets are available from our webshop :-)

a sheer genius

This design for a piece of embroidery by 14-year old Mary Tyrrell, made in 1717, sent me into a drawing frenzy this week. I found it in the book Embroidered with White - The 18th century fashion for Dresden lace and other whiteworked accessories (which I picked up in a charity shop - of course). I think the girl was a sheer genius, just look at those exotic birds!

100

Clap your hands everybody, because this is our our 100th blog post!! And funnily enough this 100th post is about a project I took part in recently, called Jazz Cakes 100!

100 t-shirts were handed out to 100 artists from various disciplines by Jazz Cakes, an artist collective based here in Cardiff. Each artist had to work with a designated number to create a piece from the starting point of this plain t-shirt. I got number 77..

Of course the first thing that came to my mind was BINGO. Pretty obvious, but as I moved to the UK I noticed that bingo is taken much more seriously over here. Much more. I pass a bingo hall every day on my way into town and I’ve become intrigued by the whole ‘bingo culture’. I started fantasizing what goes on in behind those doors. The anticipation, the suspense, the defeats and the victories…

Instead of making a print or cutting the shirt up, I decided to keep it close to its subject by making brooches, an accessory usually associated with old ladies (just like Bingo is).

I drew lots of elderly ladies and taxi's (to my annoyance there's always a huge line of cabs parked on the cycle lane in front of the bingo hall) and I learned a lot about bingo lingo!

It took a while for the Jazz Cakes to retrieve all 100 shirts, but the countdown has begun: the exhibition opens this Saturday April 10 at gallery Studio B, 24 Tudor Lane (Riverside) in Cardiff. Drop by anytime from 18.00 till 23.00!

zinesters for a week

Oow we wish we could be students in our own workshop at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam this week. The workshop is all about ZINES: self published, DIY, low budget little magazines ('invented' in the 70s by the punks, popular with the riot grrls in the 90s and still amazingly alive and kicking today). We decided to do this the oldskool way, so no computers!! The subject is so much fun and inspiring, and the students' enthusiasm and diligence is so contagious, our hands are itching to make a zine ourselves!

After our briefing yesterday it was time today for the students to get out their scissors, knives, markers, tape, glue and old magazines and get in line for the photocopy machine...

Monsters on my mind..

For the past couple of months I was a coach. Not sports related (I have NO tactics) but art related.



Rotterdam kids' museum Villa Zebra planned to have an exhibition called 'The Monsterfactory'. Among the work of several established artists they wanted to involve students of the illustration department from the local artschool. Students could pitch an idea and get a spot among the monsters. I was there for the technical sollutions and to help the raw ideas grow into exhibition-worthy work. That was fun! It was really inspirational to work with these people and I think that the endresult is something we can all be proud of! Have a little sneak-peek below. (Work: Ron Schuijt)


Next friday (september 18th), will be the grand opening. From 13.30 you can come and see the endresult. And if you're a kid, you can take a monster related workshop. This will be fun, no doubt.

Villa Zebra, Stieltjesstraat 21, Rotterdam

next Friday: (p)arty!

Okay, summer is over... which means it's time again for the annual Wereld van de Witte de With Festival in Rotterdam! Of course Dutch Dolls are represent! We're really looking forward to seeing all these artsy folks again :-) Drop by at gallery BLAAK10 this Friday between 19.00 and 20.00 to kick off this 3-day festival with us!! Enjoy the exhibition of Bier en Brood while rocking steady (or rocking out - why not) to our DJ-set.

Bier en Brood is a multi-disciplinary art collective from the Netherlands, and quiet a few members of its crew are (former) students of the Willem de Kooning Academy (where the Dolls were taught and have taught themselves). In April of this year they made the biggest piece of graffiti EVER.... 3000 m2 on container ship NileDutch Kwanza. The exhibition includes photographs of the project and the screening of the documentary ‘HOTEL KWANZA’. And Bier en Brood will be working on a 3D installation in the gallery. It should be fun in BLAAK10 with some excellent DJs, like Nickelle Kees and Black Langebach (of Venour) and peeps of Bier en Brood themselves. So as the Bier and Broodsters say: (p)arteeeeee!!!

file under: canceled shows

So this weekend I was in London and I was thrilled that Rye Rye would be in town as well! This girl (she is barely 18 I think) from Baltimore has already worked with the likes of M.I.A., Blaqstarr, Diplo and The Count and Sinden. No cat pee, as we would say in Holland! Anyways... on Fridaynight we headed to East London for this club Cargo. When we got there it was well beyond midnight and there was a looooong queue. We had been standing in line for a good 20 minutes (my boyfriend even had gone to the off license around the corner to fetch us some beers to make the wait bearable) when we reached this sign:

Exit queue.

I hope things are okay with Rye Rye and family (may be she is a distant relative of MJ??!)... We enjoyed the rest of our beers while we wandered the streets of übertrendy Shoreditch, watching the hipsters and their fixies. Even though I was absolutely gutted by Rye Rye's cancellation, it couldn't ruin my weekend in London. I had a really good time with friends. I went to a screening of animations by Don Hertzfelt (plus Q&A with the man himself) and I visited a great exhibition of my heroes Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake at the Museum of Childhood, where I saw some original drawings of the latter for the first time in my life (it made my eyes watery). And I went on a boat ride.
So what the heck, here is Rye Rye's latest with our darling M.I.A..

Rye Rye feat. M.I.A. - Bang. Get it here (YSI).

skeletman

Is it modesty? Or maybe she's just been too busy? I don't know why Geeske hasn't blogged about SKELETMAN yet. Skeletman en Rib is the title of a comic she recently finished. It's a bittersweet story about a skeleton that loses his floating rib. The drawings of his desperate attempts to get his rib back are heartbreaking and hilarious. Will skeletonman be reunited with his rib?? You can order a copy for just €12 (please note it's in Dutch). Contact Geeske through our website or her MySpace.

charity shops: a win win win situation

The lack of flea markets (or car boot or table top sales as they call it here) in Cardiff, is more than compensated by the existence of CHARITY SHOPS. I love charity shops! It's dead cheap, you recycle and the money you spend goes to a good cause. Now that's what I call a win win win situation! This week I was working on an illustration and I really could use a bit of inspiration. So I decided to take a break and walk over to the three charity shops around the corner in the hope to expand my 'library'. Well, I spent four quid and came back with eight awesome books! I bought five Roald Dahl/Quentin Blake paperbacks for just 25p each. Among these was The BFG, which I had only read in Dutch. It contains my favourite word in the world: SNOSCUMBER. Or in Dutch SNOSKOMMER, which I think is a more than excellent translation, it sounds better than in English!

I also got this DIY sewing book for kids. It has nice drawings of sewing machines and sewing instructions. And some really nice 70s fonts. Can't wait to make my first egg cosy...

Last but not least I bought a cook book, also from that era. I just love the colours of 70s food. Doesn't it look delicious?! It makes my mouth water. And they really knew how to decorate back then! Check out that piece of meat with peaches and cherries!!

Talking about charity shops, there is this guy who blogs about the cassette tapes he buys at an Oxfam charity shop in London: dalstonoxfamshop.blogspot.com. He also travels quite a bit and buys cassettes where ever he goes. On his blog is a story about him having a day lay over in Honolulu. Instead of going to the beach or whatever, he and his girlfriend headed for the wrong side of town to go to the thrift store. On their way back they stumble on a yard sale where he buys old school 80s RnB dance tapes and a black TDK cassette with a sticker that says 'funk rock'. Go listen to this funk rock on his blog!

Rotterdam invasion

Dutch Dolls are invading Rotterdam!! First the NL10 magazine with our I ♡ Rotterdam-spread was all over town, now the streets are flooded with Dutch Dolls postcards! The cards are provided by our AGENT, Barkode Agency. Pick it up for free and send it to friends and/or possible Dutch Dolls lovers. Or keep it and frame it. Or just have it lying around somewhere...

seventees

He is SO good, we could break his fingers in envy... Lennard Schuurmans. Our friend and former class-mate is having a solo exhibition in Amsterdam! Inspired by the seventies he designed 7 t-shirts (SEVENTEES hehe), which are on display in De Kijkkasten, a 'street gallery'. A couple of these shirts are for sale, but in a very very limited edition. Highly recommended!!

Till June 2. Sint Nicolaasstraat (off the Nieuwendijk, next to Hema), Amsterdam.

An ode to kapsalons and poliopigeons

All you Rotterdammers: if you happen to come across one of those piles of NL10-magazines this week, make sure to pick up a copy (it's free :-), ‘cause we’re in it! We made an ‘ode to Rotterdam’: a spread packed with lame jokes about local heroes, likes, dislikes, and of course the poliopigeon. If you don't live in Roffa, or you're just too lazy to pick up the physical thing, you can click on the image above to view it in all its glory.

legends of rap

At last it's mine, mine o'mine: LEGENDS OF RAP - A TRADING CARD DECK! 32 cards brilliantly illustrate the early years of New York hip hop. The drawings are done by Tobias Krafczyk, published by Superclub, Berlin. www.legendsofrap.com.
But no way I'm gonna trade them with anyone!!