Our Holidays so far

Ok, to recap, we had two Thanksgivings, an art show, a rock show, a Sinterklaas, an amazing christmas eve dinner, a white Christmas filled with friends and merry making, and a partridge in a pear tree.

Here are some photos to prove it:

The Art show was entitled Mish Mash Kabash, and was held at StreetLab. It was such a nice show. Here we are:

The Rock Show was a really special occasion. Our friends John and Chad of Drag The River played at the Winston and Hyland's act, Barnboy, opened for the show. Drag the River was touring with a band called Chris Wollard and the Ship Thieves who were a really tight act of super cute young men. One of them is named Addison. It was a fun night.

Christmas was very gezellig. The Jordans came over as they did last year. It was just like a typical family Christmas, except no one got in a fight about something inconsequential. We even finished a puzzle together.

Here are Addi and Ferris foolin' around.

Hyland was like a kid on Christmas :)

Addi got tons of presents.

Happy Holidays!

xoxo Malia

Conference Bike

This afternoon, we were invited to go on the Conference Bike to a birthday party for a bicycle shop called Work Cycles.


The Conference Bike was invented by Eric Staller, and, as you can see, is just plain cool. Here are a few snaps of people riding along.


Addison's legs were just the tiniest bit too small for the bike pedals, but he rode anyway, and still had a nice time.

Hyland drove on the way there.


These lovely ladies are Amy Joy, Billie and Sietske.

Party shots:

While we were at the party, Hyland took a little stroll through the Jordaan, and spotted these Faile stencils. Never misses a trick, that one.


It was really fun riding the bike, running into people we know at the shop, and then riding the bike back again. Go check out the site for Conference Bike. It's really cool. If you live in Amsterdam, you can even rent it.

Awesome Autumn for our Family of Artists

I have plenty I should be doing, so I guess I'll blog instead....very common condition in this day and age, yes. Ok, so we have had a lot of really good things go down lately. To summarize, we have a new studio here in Amsterdam, and both Malia and I have exhibits up at the moment. It has been a nice autumn.



Malia hosted and curated a show for the Ladies Fancywork Society at Wolf and Pack the area mainstay for up and coming hipster art types. Julian at Wolf and Pack was a great host and an overall bad ass transplant from the New York City. The show was a crocheted triumph and we were very lucky and happy to host a few of the Ladies from the group at our flat.


I also have a show up right now at StreetLab which is an awesome awesome space down the street from our new studio. It is a 'string fort' like the installation I made at the 400 a few years ago. Addison helped me with the 'other blocks' component. I could not be much happier with how it turned out and StreetLAB was very happy too. I am curating a show with other artists there next month. Should be great.




More work on display at StreetLab


Ok, now about our new Atelier (studio) is located on the Kinkerstraat and it is in a building with a number of other studios, very much like any of the Andenken locations...so we are very used to the format, only this time we are a sharecropper and not the lords of the building.



I cannot tell you how nice that is for the time being. Somebody else is saddled with the responsibility for keeping everything rolling and we just get to do our thing. It was pretty nasty when we moved in but we've cleaned and painted and put in a second level and new floors etc. We are just about ready to have an opening thing in a month or so.


Lastly, Malia has been learning a little guitar and we are playing a bunch of old Cowboy songs together, so far she has 'Back In The Saddle' , 'Hey Good Lookin', 'My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean' and the Dean Martin title 'Five Foot Two'. Look out for more from the Mather Family Band.

Here is an awesome song by Coconut Records, featuring the sk8boarding of The Gonz.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTzEp4CeWT8

Anyway, that is the update from here in Amsterdam.

Are You Kidding Me?

Ok, so Addison was on a field trip the other day with his class, and they went to the Petting Zoo, they call is a Kid Farm here, 'Kinderboerderij', very cool. I've mentioned it before, they are all around the city. I've probably been to 10 of them with Addison. I had though, before last Wednesday, never been to the one that is located outside the Flevopark in Jeugdland oost. They had everything they normally do, chickens, goats, pigs etc, but they also had spotted Deer (which you never see in the 'wild' here)...but the really amazing thing that they had was not the farm, but this unreal 'shanty town' of forts made by children. It was so incredible and dangerous looking the parent in me was astonished, but the kid in me was in heaven. They had a zip line over a small canal too, which Addi heroically challenged several dozen times.


Anyway, I was so intrigued and I went home to see what I can find. Amazingly I think this shanty of construction by children has been organically evolving for a very long time...like more than 60 years as near as I can tell. Check out some of these photos I found.





Allright, so that is one amazing thing lately, and the other is that we went finally on a huge houseboat barge onto the Ijsselmeer for, get this...a sailing race of turn of the century barge converted house boats. It was amazing of course. Here are some pictures from that too.



Many of the brown sails are made of hemp (I believe sailing is how the Dutch got into the Marijuana business in the first place), but anyway, show me a canvas sail that is a hundred years old and I'll show you my copy of a Gutenberg Bible. Here is my daily dose of politicin...'Hemp....it's not just for smoking anymore.'

So yeah, it has been good around here lately.


Malia is working for a company called Airworks and they make giant inflatable things for concerts, and festivals etc. Here is a giant blue horse they made.

My sister Katie was here on another visit and my friends Jasper and Rena were also here at the same time. We goofed around, but nothing too too crazy.


Well, that's it for now I think. We have a new studio...but that is another post. Hockey season just started and I couldn't be happier about that....Blah Blah Blah.

It is starting to get colder etc.

peace,
hyland

Camping Dutch Style

We just returned from a relaxing, if not exhausting camping trip to Bakkum. I say exhausting only because we rode our bikes there and back with all our gear and child in tow. Don't get me wrong, I really liked the bike riding, but it was a bit of a stretch for my current level of daily exercise and the last hour of each leg was tough.

I am such a baby. It was only 45 kilometers each way.

Here is my photo essay:

Part One: The Journey



Part Two: The Destination

There is no real wilderness in Holland, I'm told. So camping is always in organized grounds or on a farmer's or otherwise owned land. Lots of times these camp grounds include caravans. This one is almost all caravans with the exception of some yurts and other temporary buildings.




A cute little Ampitheatre at the grounds. Kids do little plays and stuff here. Addison got pretty good at throwing pine cones on the roof.








There is a nature preserve called the Noord-Hollandse Duinreservaat that flanks the campsite. It is really pretty, so I went for a nature hike one morning.







I found these longhorn cow creatures in the woods eating the shrubbery and looking very docile and mellow. Cute, eh?





There are tents, but they are always accompanying a caravan. A guest room, if you will.




Part Three: The Return Journey








Did I mention it was one of the hottest days of the summer so far? It was.

Love,
Malia