Gansevoort and streetart

Just the other day we met up with some old and new friends and had a very delicious dinner and cocktails at the restaurant of the Gansevoort hotel and afterwards went upstairs to the rooftop bar for even more cocktails! Lots of fun and a bit of a hangover the day after... oops...




Me and Love arrived a bit early so we went for a stroll through the meatpacking district and came across this huge piece of wallart! I don't know the artist, but how i love and appreciate discovering great streetart. Which reminded me of my walks through Amsterdam on the hunt for new pieces. And how i still have a lot of unshown discoveries on my hard drive. So added to my to show on my blog list. Maybe a couple pics on a weekly blog post or something.

Sidewalk Scaffolding

I was greeted by this gorgeous pattern on a piece of sidewalk scaffolding in the city the other day. Love it. It's part of an advertising campaign of St. Germain liqueurs.

I want to make a separate category on my blog to separate the posts with or about pretty patterns. But if i would call it 'patterns' i know there will be people looking for sewing patterns coming to the blog and being all disappointed... what to do? Maybe call it 'print patterns' or something?

It's so obvious i'm crazy for beautiful patterns. I can't deny it when i'm looking at the things i bought for the new apartment. Why buy plain if you can have a lovely design?
Yes, i will make pictures and show things off. The place is starting to look like a home. Feeling good.

Great wall of boxes

On my days in the city i love to chill for a bit in Washington Square Park. I like the whole vibe there. Walking out of the (east side) of the park the other day i passed Washington Square Windows.
(making pictures through a window on a very sunny day; not the best idea; won't come out as your best photos)

I was pleasantly surprised by three large window filled with all these great 'boxes' of art by Jon Lee.
(if you want to see them yourself, hurry up, this exhibit has been there since June 1st already and will only last through August 13th!)

Lee began as a graffiti artist fusing urban elements in his art. "There is something about the raw and pure energy, not to mention the dedication put into street art that makes me enjoy the medium so much. I take this fresh energy and explode onto canvases almost in the same [way] I would a wall--using the same materials I would outdoors. Aerosol, latex, hand-cut stencils and marker are layered, and then combined with more traditional methods of art and design.... My backgrounds are mixtures of paint dripping, splashing and dropping.... To the foregrounds I add dominant shapes and objects--taking control of the reality--making my mark."

Some more NY streetart, you know i'm always on the lookout for creatures on the walls. Geek, Plasmaslug and Oxy.

Today's biorhythm

This is what my biorhythm told me about today:

Physical: Give yourself a rest. It may be useful to save some energy for the next few days.
Emotional: You're nervous or unsure, or feeling an inner emptiness - that's just the way it is for now.
Intellectual: You are irresolute and don't know where to start. Just start - Anywhere!

It might have a point there. ;)
But no need to worry 'bout me. I'm doing fine, but moving overseas is just a lot of work and emotions. That's a plain fact. Like the biorhythm said, just the way it is for now. I wonder what it will say on the day of the actual move.

Photos: Some of my Ewos sightings around Amsterdam. Famous for his one liner "So much anger built inside" i thought it would be fitting to post now. Not that i have that much anger built up inside. Really not. The simply drawn, out of one line Ewos figures just look like they fit the biorhythm description.
More Ewos pictures on Ekosystem.

Creatures on the walls

For a while now i was spotting these in the streets of Amsterdam. They kinda make me think of friendly aliens coming to visit us. hihi.
Then like last week there was an item on a children's network about graffiti and spraying the walls. In the night they went out with two graffiti artists. At one point during the interview it was asked what they were going to do next. "Make some little creatures" the guy with the spraycan said, turned around and started making (my) friendly aliens! Ha.

Bikes in bloom

Amsterdam is definitely a city of bikes. The 750,000 people who live in Amsterdam own around 600,000 bicycles. Add to that all the abandoned bikes across town and there are more bikes than people! Nearly half of all traffic movement in Amsterdam is by bike. Historically, Amsterdam was not built for cars, in the 17th century, the inner city was built for pedestrians only and the narrow streets and canals do not allow for a smooth flow of cars, let alone sufficient parking space. (a big problem nowadays!) The city is compact and the maximum distance in the city central is approx five kilometres.
So bike people love the city.
I am not a bike person.
One of the few around here. No, i do not ride a bike. No, i do not own a bike. Yes, i do really live in Amsterdam. hihi.
I do have a drivers license, but hey, with this little parking space i don't like to drive around in circles around my block for hours to find a spot to park. I'm more of a public transport girl and lucky for me, i love to walk around.
I don't do bikes.

While most of them are just boring steel things with wheels, some people brighten up their means of transport. During my walks i kept noticing them. When you see so many bikes parked in the streets, the ones decorated with lovely colorful flowers do stand out and make the streets look nicer.

The orange mouse brought back some childhood memories. Does anyone know its name? I remember it being a cartoon on German TV back in the days.
Edit: I was still wondering about the name of that mouse. Today my girl saw this picture and was like, "hey, that's Der Maus!" Go figure. The German mouse is called That Mouse in German.

Streetart photo collections

These happy smiling fishies are from Pez. How funny are they? Pez is an artist from Barcelona, Spain. Please do come over to Amsterdam again! If your interested, I've found a photo interview with Pez.

Too bad the weather is getting so cold (it's snowing!), meaning: i won't be making so many city walks in search for streetart.
In just a couple of long walks through the city I've made so many pictures of great works of outside art. It still amazes me how many people don't seem to notice it. Very soon after i started to really look, i recognized stickers, stencils, artists. That adds another layer to the search; looking for series of certain artists, stickers that i haven't seen before. Guess it's basically something new for me to collect. Streetart photos.
Once you see, you cannot not notice it anymore.

What hardly can be overlooked are the large MIR stencils in the city. MIR is an artist from Norway. Thank you for visiting and sharing your art! The stencils with the man holding a heart in the air and the blowhorn is called "Love Protest" the others, with the fire suitcase is titled "Moment of Sanity".

Long after the elections were held i found the posters on which the Love Protest image was used. They're from the LRVP Love Respect and Freedom Party. (I had never heard from before)

Finding this guy always makes me smile. Hi there, egghead. Good to see you around! Except that this creature is called egghead, i haven't found out any more. I do enjoy finding him in the streets!

Sticky mail

Got some sticky mail!

I'd sent some Ismoyo stickers that i still had, to Stickertraders a couple of weeks ago and almost forgot about it. But then this envelop arrived with a cute meowing cat drawn on it and i remembered!
I wasn't expecting to get so many stickers in return, but I'm loving them. After going through all of them and being all excited, this feeling of doubt came over me. What to do with these stickers? I think the original artist would like me to put them up in Amsterdam. Get them seen out there. But some i love so much i would like to keep them. Put them in my sticker book. Could i? Or is that being selfish? I'm not sure what others do. If i show the stickers on my blog and give credit, is that getting the art out there? Maybe i should just send an email to Stickertraders with my dilemma... i want to send them a thank you note anyway.

Dollhouse Windows

I'm walking through the city thinking about the art of dollhouses when i turn onto one of the Amsterdam canals and discover this house on a corner of which the front and the side windows were covered by these stacked dollhouse rooms.
I didn't have a lot of time to make pictures of all the rooms, but i managed to take a few. I remember approx where it was so on my next city walk i will revisit!

Edit: I must say until now i haven't refound the location of these windows. I will have another walk/search soon. Did learn a new word today: Diorama. That's it. That's what these little houses are called! Diorama's.

Sights of the streets

This last Sunday i woke up early. When i looked outside the weather wasn't half bad so i decided to take this opportunity to enjoy my city when i most love it; early mornings. Funny enough, I'm not a morning person myself so i don't get to enjoy these moments too often. But this weekend i did. This city is large enough to be a big city with it's different area's and vibes, but then again it's small enough that you can cover a lot of ground walking around for an hour or two. Or three. And i took my time. It was lovely. The city was lovely.
Of course i spotted some great free art during my walk around town.

I'm getting addicted to making streetart pictures. Can't walk the streets normal anymore. Got to stop everywhere to take pictures. People look at me funny when i take a picture of a lamppost. Or a mailbox, plywood scaffolding or drain pipes. Boring city street furniture that has been decorated with art!

I have been making notes on different artists and locations and my thoughts on streetart. Will write more on this topic tomorrow or so. Got a lot of great pics to share too!

Hello alien

I was making pictures of stickerart in the city yesterday and look whom i found!
Moby's hello alien!

I made a felt version of the moby alien not too long ago, it's based on one of the friendly aliens who came to earth in Moby's video In this world.


Some other creatures i met during my walk.

Something non cute, crafty or otherwise creative: I'm still experiencing blogger beta problems. I'm trying to keep it to a minimum, but strange things are happening with the feed to bloglines, posting comments to my blog and publishing them and i can't preview my posts anymore before i publish them. Just a bare html editor to work with, so i hope this post comes out looking normal.

Mailbox romance

Stickered mailbox on the Rokin in Amsterdam.

I like the mailbox not only because it's covered with urban art, but also since it's still the old red edition. Our national mail company just recently changed names and color and now all mailboxes are being converted from red into orange. I should go back there and make pictures of the sides too. Before they replace it and it's gone forever.

Outside art

I have a thing for street art. A sort of fascination for graffiti. Not so much the little tags on the walls, but the larger pieces always get my attention. It was when i was a young(er) girl and my big brother had a book full of graffiti pictures that i learned about the oldschool graff artists.
Amsterdam has a long history with graffiti and i love the great collage of images on the walls. But how is it, that so many people just pass them by? They so much go unnoticed. How come nobody takes the time to look at them, let alone acknowledge them, think about them, or maybe only see them?
Nowadays you see a lot of sticker and stencil art on the walls. I wish i knew more about the culture, I'm clueless about who the people behind the images are. But at least i do see them. I stop to look at them. And decided to take pictures and share the free outside art with my visitors.

**Edit: That's the great thing about posting on my blog, visitor response! I say i don't know and want to learn, and voila, there's an answer. The illustration on the top left is by Bob Gibson of the London Police collective. He is currently residing in Amsterdam and treating our streets to some of his art.

Queensday pictures!

As promised, some pictures of Queensday which was held in the Netherlands this weekend.

The weather forecast was really, really bad. They predicted heavy rain and wind in combination with possible thunder and hail!
So we prayed for some sun, and what do you think? No rain all day! (other cities did, we didn't!!)

My brother is an artist and had to perform on several large stages throughout the city. I think this was the biggest one. It's on the Museum-plein. I heard that because of the large crowds, there was no way they would arrive on time at the next gig, so they got a ride with the police, sirens and all!

My girl and me wondered through the South of Amsterdam (my part of town) first on my search for goodies. Then we walked to the city center and met up with our other girl and some friends. Went walking over the canals to the Jordaan area and partied hard at cafe Werck. There was a guitar player on the roof!

I love walls and/or doors that are being used by artists to showcase themselves. I just had to put up an Ismoyo sticker on this beautiful artsy door!

Oh, we bumped into a lady with this cute little doggy all dressed up in the Queensday color Orange. So sweet!

The cute but kinda scary mascot of the day was this little creature which I've bought for 20 cents! I have fallen in love with it. hihi.
The cute scary mascot is a tradition of me and my girls. Started out last year when i bought the blue doll (which i also post a pic of since it was her 1 yr anniversary). When i noticed her last year i jumped up and down. Bought her for 25 cent and she was still in plastic. Brand new!
One of my girls understood, she loved her too. My other girl. No, no. She thinks it's ugly. Not only thinks it's ugly, but screams it out. So we're always having a laugh with her and the blue creature. We even named it after her! So we had a mission this year to find another cute creepy creature. I think we have succeeded.

I couldn't leave the rabbit with a personality disorder alone. 15 cents and it was mine. I need to give this one her own personality one day. It's added to my list of things to do.

I collect small plastic animal figures. I have a lot on display in my living room (will post picture soon). So on Queensday I'm always on the look out for cute new items for my collection. I found only three. Last year i think I'd bought 5 times more!
Okay, now there is a reason why i had to limit myself besides the fact that i didn't see a lot of treasures this year. Hm. You now what, i will make a separate post about it later today. It deserves to have a separate post.

About Queensday, we had a lot of fun. After the party at the canals we walked through the city some more, had something to eat and started to feel our legs. Our body got so tired from walking and dancing all day, we just had to go home and take a rest break at the beginning of the evening. Later that night I went to the Paradiso club with one of my girls to enjoy the final part of Queensday 2006. We danced, drank, walked, laughed, partied, met funny people, it was great!