I hereby proudly present my latest painting to you
Insomnia- [ a bed piece about bed peace ] 2024 – part of the Brave New World series.
Insomnia(a bed piece about bed peace)-Acryl op canvas- 155 x 90 cm- 2024
This canvas took me a while. The messy bedding, duvet and wrinkled sheets forced me to look closely and study what was actually happening there in that fabric. I saw so much detail, hue differences in grey tones, fold lines, creases and bulges that had almost human traits, that there was practically no way out. In the second instance, I chose to leave out a lot of detail again, by erasing it. The turmoil in the image depicts my own turmoil from a while ago. This is my reckoning with that period.
2023- Haunting thoughts kept me awake during a period of 3 months. The thought of haunting thoughts kept me awake. The fear of the thoughts of the haunting thoughts kept me awake and made me anxious to go to bed.
Tossing and turning, it seemed a never ending attempt to silence my restless heart. Tried [too] hard to ignore noises of wind blowing, cats on roof, a car starting, a street conversation, a train passing, a party in the distance, even the comforting respiration of my man and the snoring of my cat. I hold my heart and belly as my breath is too high up and going too fast.
My eyes wide shut.
Hoping to shut the flow of insecure and sad voices within.
A glance at the alarm clock tells me that it’s four AM.
I scare myself.
All I ever really wanted was peace, peace of mind, peace of heart, bed peace.
Interview @ Startdesignart – Theory Of Khoas- 2018
(NL) Er is een kort interview gepubliceerd op StartDesignArt, (startpage for professional art and design). In dit interview probeer ik wat inzicht te geven in mijn denk en werkwijze.
Hieronder een beknopte weergave, het hele interview is te lezen opStartDesignArt.
(ENG) StartDesignArt (startpage for professional art and design) published a short interview with me . In this interview I try to give some insights in the way I think and work.
Below a brief summary, the whole interview can be read at StartDesignArt.
As an artist I am driven and stimulated by the zeitgeist, current events, daily absurdity and human shortcomings. In other words, the condition humaine. Engagement is not so much a choice but a visual outcome of what naturally goes on in my head. I look for the common ground and wrap it in a somewhat aesthetic image. I find aesthetics an important part of my work because it is the connection for the underlying idea. The term elusive is used when people want to characterize me. That elusive is not my chosen definition. For me everything falls together in a logical way and there is a clear underlying motive. …….read more click me
I like to set something in motion, no matter how small. That may be my motivation and the bigger concept. Painting is kind of a spiritual necessity for me. It calms you down but it is also a fight, a fight with matter, patience and with myself. With painting, more than with anything else, the action is never self-evident, you can never fall back on previous successes, the solution for a good result is neither self-evident. ………..read more click me
“Be a master and a designer of yourself”, says Friedrich Nietzsche. This is about empowerment, about the ability to improve yourself, to be allowed to develop and grow despite (at least that’s how I read it) descent, nature and nurture. By shaping yourself you also make a start on shaping finer and better circumstances and who knows, maybe a slightly better world. ………………..read more click me
Basically I have this certain urgency to create. This urgency can also be ‘disappearing for a while’, but more often it is a compelling thought that imposes itself on me. This can be an idea, a word, an image, a sentence, a statement. By nature I have a restless soul and a head like a crowded house. Producing out of something that goes on in my head is tantamount for opening a valve to let some pressure out and create new space. So for me personally, a creative process is also very healthy for my mind. It keeps things in balance. …….read more click me
Conversely, it would be vain to state that I might be able or willing to influence others. I hope perhaps to inspire others. If we zoom out for a moment, you can currently see that engaged art is regaining a place within visual art. That is a great development. …….read more click me
Al-Tiba9 Contemporary Art is an international exhibition of contemporary art, featuring art in the field of Photography, Installation, Sculpture, Video art, Virtual Art, Performance, and Fashion design.
For a short impression see below:
10 Questions with Marit Otto
Marit Otto is a multi-disciplinary artist. Her artworks have a strong sense of aesthetics and a firm arrangement of color and composition. Her creating process is comparable with the process of a graphic designer. The concept, the idea is leading.
Otto’s art is often a personal reflection of social issues and current affairs. Her art is highly aesthetical, but it also contains distressing elements that evoke a feeling of uneasiness. This contradiction is a recurring theme in her artwork. Do you really see what is shown? What lies underneath?
To the artist, innovation is not a purpose in itself but the result of progressive insight and the need to stretch and push her own boundaries. Her two latest series, Metropolitans and Brave New World, are her response and reflections of all that occurs in modern society. It shifts from irony to dystopia.
She is also working on a series of digital artworks that listens to the name Heroes and a larger multi-disciplinary art installation called Remains Of Today. This contains small environmental artworks of found objects and materials, short philosophical stories to accommodate it, music composed by a musical composer called Ali Reza Tahoeni, and the artist making a video clip to finalize it.
Marit Working- Videostill from Hands by Morgendust. Made by Raymond van Olphen
INTERVIEW
You are a multidisciplinary artist; thus, you work with a vast range of different techniques. How and why did you start experimenting with different techniques?
Me experimenting with various methods and techniques have something to do with the lack of artistic dogmas. My background is as a graphic designer, and I brutally entered the art world ‘without asking’ when I was 25. I had no academic approval, so to speak. At first, this was a disadvantage when it came to opportunities and credibility. On the other hand, it was an advantage; I had no set boundaries and, more importantly, no pretense. I just wanted to make myself happy before even wondering about me getting accepted in the art world. This gives tremendous freedom to experience and create. My first and biggest artistic love was painting. I felt a deep need to paint. Nothing tops what kind of magic a simple brush can do. Mentally stepping into this other world, feeling lifted and in touch with some kind of hidden universe…….
Al-Tiba9 Contemporary Art is an international exhibition of contemporary art, featuring art in the field of Photography, Installation, Sculpture, Video art, Virtual Art, Performance, and Fashion design. Its annual exhibitions held at MAMA National Modern and Contemporary Art Museum of Algiers, majestic five-story building, is one of the jewels of neo-Moorish architecture and popular venue for contemporary art in Algeria. Al-Tiba9 Contemporary Art aims to seize, in a particular way, the social reality that consists of creating an interface between the West and the Arab world.
Al-Tiba9 exhibits many well-known, established artists from different backgrounds. It introduces emergent artists to the international scene with a primary focus on contemporary art reflecting modern society and its environment, encouraging innovation and diversity of mediums, which engage potentially the today’s art scene. For this reason, Mohamed Benhadj, founder and curator, has established annual international exhibitions since the Al-Tiba9 foundation in 2013. This has grown a network of collaborations with museums in Algeria and Spain, Art professionals, and international artists.
Al-Tiba9 (الطباق) focuses on light as a manifestation of energy, to achieve multiple levels of reality. This transgressive contemporary show emerges between lights and shadows, human and artificial from here and there, reaching for profound hope but staying rooted in reality.
De serie Remains Of Today (bestaande uit verbals en UFO’s die ik gemaakt heb gedurende 2019> 2020) is de 60 stuks gepasseerd. Het totaal kunstwerk wordt steeds lijviger en er valt steeds meer in te ontdekken.
Remains Of Today > 60! De serie Remains Of Today (bestaande uit verbals en UFO’s die ik gemaakt heb gedurende 2019> 2020) is de 60 stuks gepasseerd. Het totaal kunstwerk wordt steeds lijviger en er valt steeds meer in te ontdekken. 60 kleine kunstwerkjes opgebouwd uit gevonden teksten (verbals) en definieerbare en ondefinieerbare gevonden objecten (UFO’s) Inmiddels ben ik al weer hard op weg richting de 70.
Ik licht de laatste 5 kunstwerkjes tot 60 hieronder nog even toe:
Crossroads- verbal no 56- 2020
flexible stof en schoenveter op hout- 30 x 30 cm. Onderdeel van de Remains Of Today Serie.
Art (verbal no. 57) 2020
letter plak folie, zinc wit en tape rose en wit op canvas. 30 x 30 x 3
Framed (verbal no 58- UFO no. 18.2020
plastic raster-vormeg gevonden object en potlood op canvas op houten frame. 30 x 30 x 3- onderdeel van de Remains Of Today serie
Horizon (verbal no 59) 2020
tape, schuurpapier, dekzeil, toilet-seal banner- touw en snoer op canvas en houten frame. Onderdeel van de Remains Of Today serie
Best Bud (verbal no. 60) 2020
Flexibele stof met kleur test en ondergoed verpakking op houten paneel op houten frame, 30x 30 x 3. Onderdeel van de Remains Of Today serie
56- Crossroads – verbal no.56 (UFO 17). Een crossroad, kruising is een letterlijke en een overdrachtelijk plek om keuzes te maken. De simpelste vorm is rechtdoor, links of rechts. Een keuze die naar aanleiding van een eerder gekozen bestemming gemaakt wordt. De overdrachtelijke vorm heeft vaak te maken met grote levensvragen. Ga ik door op de ingeslagen weg of neem ik een afslag is dan vaak verbonden met onderliggende vragen als; Vind ik mijn baan of relatie nog bevredigend? Wil ik een nieuw avontuur aan gaan? Maar op metaniveau, de mensheid, kan het ook de vraag zijn of het ingeslagen pad der vooruitgang ons verder gaat brengen of zelfs houdbaar is. Dan vraagt een afslag om moed.
57 ART- Verbal no 57. Rest folie tekst van eerder kunstwerk – To Me Or Not To Me (Stardust), roze schilders tape en witte acryl op ongeprepareerde kaasdoek.30x30cm. Het woord kunst als kunstwerk. Een soort droste effect. Er is een goeie reden om het woord ART-( kunst) even in de spotlights te zetten. Kunst is altijd aan onderhevig aan erosie. Het moet verdedigd worden tegen het onterechte toe-eigenen. Het moet zichzelf verdedigen voor haar bestaansrecht, en tegen vervlakking in een vlakke wereld. Dat terwijl de kunstenaar zelf, de schepper zich op dagelijkse basis moet wapenen tegen anti kunst cynisme en de verleiding van het commerciële dan wel nakende armoede, zowel geestelijk als fysiek. Kunstenaar zijn in deze tijd is geweldig en vreselijk in een. Er is zoveel beeld concurrentie dat de subtiele stem bijna niet meer wordt gehoord. Er is zoveel commercie dat de scheidslijnen diffuus dreigen te worden. Kunstenaar en dichter Lucebert schreef het al “alles van waarde is weerloos”, daar voeg ik aan toe; “maar waard om voor te vechten”
58 Framed. Verbal no 58 UFO no18.
Collage: plastic object of unknown origin of purpose. (found @ de Grote Voort, Zwolle) and pencil on gesso primed canvas on a wooden frame.
Part of The Remains Of Today series.
Framed, as in a framed artwork, framed: as in your caught. Everything seems framing these days, positive or negative framing. I grew up to believe that others mostly determine how you are valued. Making your self a key subject and advertising your personal life is a relative new phenomenon. The creation of a digital alter ego, a perfect version of the imperfect mortal vulnerable one. Every step of the way is self-controlled and moulded for the public eye. One could say that framing is kind of a simple and foremost a flat representation of someone or something. By lack of real interest or in-depth inquiries, a quick draft of someone, and what he or she stands for is quickly made, just like simple judgements.
59- Horizon Verbal no.59. Tape, roze, zwart, wit, afdekzeil, geel schuurpapier, touw, roze snoertje en hotel toilet-reinigingsbanner op canvas en lakverf op houten frame. De horizontale streep die de aarde van de hemel scheidt is magisch. Toekomst perspectief en het woord horizon worden vaak in adem genoemd. In de wetenschap spreken ze van een nieuwe horizon. Maar bij de Vikingen en of de Noormannen was de horizon de aanduiding van het einde van de wereld, iets waar je van af kon vallen. Een lijn tussen de onderwereld en het Walhalla.
60- Best Bud (Verbal no. 60). Ondergoed tasje en overblijfsels van flexibele stof , met kleur test, dat voor een ander project gebruikt is op hout. 30x30cm. Who’s your best bud, wie is je beste vriend? Buddy en buttocks gecombineerd maakt het woord bud. Een goed gekozen woordgrap door de maker van deze ondergoed tasjes. Je hebt natuurlijk maar één butt en die is altijd de beste want het is de jouwe. Een die altijd letterlijk achter je staat en hangt. Is bud, but eigenlijk mannelijk? Hoe zou het uitpakken bij damesondergoed versus vriendschap? Zou het dan booty of bum worden?. Of schuift het op naar andere rondingen? In dat geval zou de vriendschappelijke equivalent waarschijnlijk de bossom friend, boezem vriendin zijn.
De complete serie en alle losse verbals & Ufo’s + teksten zijn ook zijn ook te bekijken op:
The Remains Of Today series (verbals & Ufo’s made in 2019 > 2020 combined) is holding 60 artpieces now.. The sum of all small artworks is getting more and more extensive and leaves more and more to discover. 60 small pieces of art made from found text/characters, identified and unidentified found objects(UFO’s) In the meanwhile I am allready coursing at 70.
I will enlighten the latest 5 artworks to complete 60 to you:
Crossroads- verbal no 56- 2020
flexible stof en schoenveter op hout- 30 x 30 cm. Onderdeel van de Remains Of Today Serie.
Art (verbal no. 57) 2020
letter plak folie, zinc wit en tape rose en wit op canvas. 30 x 30 x 3
Framed (verbal no 58- UFO no. 18.2020
plastic raster-vormeg gevonden object en potlood op canvas op houten frame. 30 x 30 x 3- onderdeel van de Remains Of Today serie
Horizon (verbal no 59) 2020
tape, schuurpapier, dekzeil, toilet-seal banner- touw en snoer op canvas en houten frame. Onderdeel van de Remains Of Today serie
Best Bud (verbal no. 60) 2020
Flexibele stof met kleur test en ondergoed verpakking op houten paneel op houten frame, 30x 30 x 3. Onderdeel van de Remains Of Today serie
56- Crossroads- verbal no. 56 (UFO no 17).
Collage: leftover flexible fabric used for a unique- (due to Corona- non published)- swing design called ‘Vluchthaven’ and black shoelace on a wooden frame.
Part of the Remains Of Today series
A crossroad is a literal and metaphorical site to make choices. The simplest form is straight ahead, left or right. A choice that’s determined by an earlier made destination. The metaphorical form is a bit more complicated because it involves larger life questions. Will I continue the chosen path or will I take an exit. These choices are often connected to underlying questions such as; is my job or relation still satisfying? Is new adventure luring? But on a Meta level, humanity, there’s a more universal question whether our defined path of progression is sustainable and will move us forward? In that case any exit needs courage.
57 ART- Verbal no 57. Remains of foil from an earlier artwork ‘ To Me Or Not To Me’, pink tape and white acrylic paint on primed canvas on wooden frame. 30x30cm. There’s a good reason to put the word Art in the spotlights. Because art is subject to erosion it must be defended against unjust appropriation. It must defend itself for her right to exist and against flattening in a flat world. While the artist, the creator must stand up to anti-art cynicism and the temptation of commerce as remedy to imminent poverty, both physically and mentally. Being an artist in this time is awesome and dreadful at the same time. Day in, day out Images are pouring out in a constant flood to such extent that the subtle voice is easily overseen. Commerce rules and borderlines are getting vague. Dutch artist/ Poet Lucebert wrote, “ everything of value is defenceless”, I would add “ but worth fighting for;’
58- Framed- Verbal no 58 UFO no18. Plastic object of unknown origin of purpose. (Found @ de Grote Voort, Zwolle) and pencil on gesso primed canvas on wooden frame.
Plastic object of unknown origin of purpose. (Found @ de Grote Voort, Zwolle) and pencil on gesso primed canvas on wooden frame.
Part of The Remains Of Today series.
Framed, as in a framed artwork, framed: as in your caught. Everything seems framing these days, positive or negative framing. I grew up to believe that others mostly determine how you are valued. Making your self a key subject and advertising your personal life is a relative new phenomenon. The creation of a digital alter ego, a perfect version of the imperfect mortal vulnerable one. Every step of the way is self-controlled and moulded for the public eye. One could say that framing is kind of a simple and foremost a flat representation of someone or something. By lack of real interest or in-depth inquiries, a quick draft of someone, and what he or she stands for is quickly made, just like simple judgements.
59- horizon verbal no.59. Tape: pink, black, white, covering-sheet, yellow grinding paper, rope, pink wire and toilet-clean seat-banner & paint on canvas on wooden frame. The Horizontal stripe that separates heaven from earth is magical. Future perspective and the word horizon are often verbally used in one breath. In science they refer to new horizons. But the Vikings and Normans believed that the horizon was the proverbial end of the world, you could tip off. A imaginary line between the underworld and the Walhalla.
60 Best Bud (verbal no.60). Underwear bag and remains of flexible fabric with colour test used for another project on wood. 30x 30 cm. Who’s your best bud? Buddy and buttocks combined makes the word bud. A well-chosen gimmick created by the designer of the underwear bags. We only have one butt so it’s always the best because it’s our own, one that always stands or hangs behind you. Is a bud really a manly thing? What would it become with ladies underwear versus friendship? Is it bum or booty? Or does it shift to other curves? ? In that case the friendship equivalent would probably be; best bosom friend.
The complete series and all loose verbals and UFO’s with short stories are also to be found on: Singulart en Saatchi Art
De 26e editie van de Kunstschouw wordt van 15 t/m 23 juni 2019 gehouden. Het is een route met een breed scala aan mooie, spannende en onverwachte hedendaagse kunst.
(for English scroll down)
De 26e editie van de Kunstschouw wordt van 15 t/m 23 juni 2019 gehouden. Het is een route met een breed scala aan mooie, spannende en onverwachte hedendaagse kunst.
Ik ben een van de deelnemende kunstenaars van de Kunstschouw 2019. U kunt mijn werk bekijken op locatie Fletcher Hotel (Landgoed Moermond), Renesse.
Het bestuur van de Stichting Kunstschouw Westerschouwen nodigt u uit voor de officiële opening van de 26eKunstschouw op vrijdag 14 juni a.s. om 20.00 uur in de Hervormde kerk aan de ring in Haamstede.
Tevens is er een opening- op locatie- in het Fletcher Hotel. Bij deze opening is er gelegenheid ‘ons’ (zie deelnemende kunstenaars) te ontmoeten en ons werk te bekijken. Deze opening vind plaats op woensdag 19 juni vanaf 20u.
Vanaf woensdag avond zal ik dagelijks afwisselend op locatie aanwezig zijn. Wilt u mij spreken of ontmoeten is het raadzaam een afspraak te maken. Er is verder altijd iemand van ons aanwezig op locatie tussen 11 en 17u.
L.C.D.Liquid Crystal Dismay- acrylic on canvas-acryl op canvas- 150/100cm- 2018
(English) Kunstschouw (Art-watch) Zeeland, 2019
The 26e edition of the Kunstschouw will take place from June 15 till June 23 th, 2019. It is an art-route with a wide range of beautiful, exciting and unexpected contemporary art.
I am one of the participating artist of the Kunstschouw 2019. You can encounter-meet me and my work on location Fletcher Hotel ( Moermond Estate), Renesse.
The board of the Kunstschouw foundation Westerschouwen invites you for the official opening of the 26th edition on Fryday, June 14th at 20.00 hours at the Reformed church at ring Haamstede.
Furthermore theres an separate opening at location Fletcher Hotel. With this opening there’s opportunity to meet us, the location artist and our works. This opening will take place on Wednesday June 19th at 20.00 u.
From Wednesday evening you can spot me daily, off and on, on location (till Sunday June 23 th) If you wish to meet me in person it is best to make an appointment. Otherwise there is always someone present between 11 and 17.00 hours.
