Ultradelarue, Parents Arrive and The Keukenhof in Spring Time

Well, my folks arrived on Saturday morning. Saturday night we had the opening for Ultradelarue which was awesome, awesome, awesome. Great work by all the artists. I really liked Wayne Horse large yellow Rooster Painting, Rich Jacobs mural wall, and Lil'Shy's pieces on felt, and Michael Perry's wall of drawings. Every artist had good work. Here are a few pieces from the show.


Wayne Horse's piece, 'I remain a Proud Cock'


Michael Perry's 'Pie Anyone', my mom's favorite piece from the show.


A very large 2 meter x 3 meter piece made by Chris Stain. Here it is during the install week.



Rich Jacob's 'Go To Bed Early With Yur Head'

Lil' Shy and Ellis Gallagher, 'I Swear To Fucking God' (I always feel weird just writing that down)

Michael Perry portrait 'action series'



My wall of 'found objects' that I made for the show, piece is called, 'Other Wall'

Rich Jacobs Portrait, from the 'cold chillin' series. It was such a great priveledge to work with Rich and get to know him better. I've known his brother Steve for about a million years and I really enjoyed kicken it with Rich who is a legend in our art scene.



Sunday morning the whole family went to the amazing Dutch gardens at Keukenhof, the literal translation is Kitchen Garden, but it is also known as the Garden of Europe and it is just outside of the small town of Lisse.


Addi having a walk around in some uncomfortable wooden shoes, 'klompen'



Installation after my own heart in the green house.


Windmill at Keukenhof.


Amazing floating triangle boat thingys. Reminded me of an artist we have shown a lot, Bonnie Ferrell Roman.


Keukenhof is the world's largest flower garden.

They have something like 7 million bulbs planted every year. Growers from all over Europe show off their hybrids here. The Dutch are the largest exporters of flowers in the world. Not bad for such a small country.

The garden is only open to the public for a few months from End of March to Mid May. The garden is of course massive, and there are great winding paths all through it. Very wonderful.


http://www.keukenhof.com/

Anyway, that's all for now, maybe a Jefferson Airplane song, since all the flowers gave me the ol' 'Summer Of Love' feeling

New York / Amsterdam Exhibit - ULTRADELARUE

Well, we've been so lucky and really blessed to work with some awesome people since moving to Holland. We're getting another great opportunity working on this exhibit with AFARAI.

Ultra de la Rue: Contemporary Urban Graphics

This exhibit is opening April 4th, right across the street from Beautiful Amsterdam Central.


The exhibit focuses on contemporary styles in art as represented by artists from the sister cities of New York and Amsterdam. These are two cities that share a long history (long for America anyway). The roster for the show is pretty 'hard hitting' :

NYC artists

Ellis Gallagher, www.ellisgallagher.com

Mike Perry, www.mikeperrystudio.com

Rich Jacobs

Chris Stain

Taylor Mckimens, www.taylormckimens.com,

Amsterdam Artists:

Lok Jansen, www.lokjansen.com,

Jeroen Koolhaas , www.favelapainting.com

Wayne Horse, www.waynehorse.com

Twothings, www.twothings.net

Lilshy, www.lilshy.net

Raymond Lemstra

The exhibit space is at Prins Hendrikkade 33.

This former public building is currently in use for exhibitions but is slated to be developed into the first art’otel in Amsterdam. Another example of how the Dutch finding exciting and excellent temporary uses for buildings slated for other develpements.

Let's see, what else. Grandma and Grandpa Mather arrive the same day of the exhibition opening. A nice timing. Addison has a birthday coming up in April, I'll write more over that later.

Spring is in the air, leaves are starting to sprout, city and people are coming out of their caves for the first time in months. Time to bike off all the winter cookies. I love the way Dutch people say, Cookies.

Still trolling for a boat, not literally, but Manos and I are in the market. Oh well, that's it for now, just really wanted to plug the show!

hyland

Auntie Katie takes Holland by Storm

Well, my sister, 'Auntie Katie', was just here for a visit. It was great.




She and her friend Thomas stayed with us, they also did some traveling. Thomas got as far south as Paris. Katie went to Brussels and Antwerp and Brug, I think. I never listen.


Thomas and I closing up shop in some Saki bar near the redlight district.

It was fun to go to bars with my sister. Here she is with my friend Sean on his birthday. Sean was a founding member of our Lovers Of Fresh Ideas Artist Coalition many years ago. It's good to see him becoming a responsible adult as he rounds the corner into his 40's.

Katie crashed her bike later that night and then refused the help of a very polite British stranger. My friend, Manolis, seemed to think it was pretty funny.


Being 'socially rounded' people we had been to the Van Gogh earlier this day and had seen 'The Starry Night'. The painting is on loan. I'm glad we got to see it. Amazing collection there now, many classic's on loan for the next few months.


Last year Sean fell in a canal twice. That's not bad for a guy who lives on a houseboat.

Here's me and Manolis, good thing neither of us is driving.



Spotted in the distance! this lucky photographer snapped a rare image of the Albino Wombat.


Auntie Katie, and Addison in Monickendam. Check out the little bruiser, my little Paul Stastny. He's got whipping cream 'slagroom' in his nose.



The ride to Monickendam is 15 or 18km and Addison was bored out of his skull. Katie Loved the ride of course.

It is so great to go around on bikes with Katie. She was always up for a good long ride, which is one of my favorite things to do.

At one point in the ride, I said to Katie, 'I think we should go to Monickendam, it will be super pretty.' to which Addison replied, 'I think we should go home to the house, it will be super warm. Total smartass.

Katie and I enjoyed long bike rides to Monickendam, Ransdorp, Durgerdam and along the Rhine Canal. In Nederlands, long bike ride, 'lange fietstocht'.


Addison's greatest new triumph is the invention of a card game he calls, 'Patterns and Pairs'. After a handful on not so successful attempts over the years, Addison has finally developed a game that our family can play for years. Played with 2 standard decks of playing cards plus 6 jokers, and similar, but more complex than 'memory', I love his game. Last night he and I played a 3 person version with Brant Seathaler, an old family friend.

Also on Katie's visit, she and I had a chance to 'jam' music which was a wonderful first. Katie rocked the drums and my friend Pepijn and I played electric guitars. There is a really awesome practice place called, quite appropriately 'Jam Studios' http://www.jamstudios.nl/ and it is across the street from Westerpark. We tried our hand at a few classics, Bowie's 'Queen Bitch' and The Nerves, 'Hanging On The Telephone' .

Just like every other cool place here, Jam Studios has their own bar. There's a bar at the skatepark, a bar in the music studio, and a bar in every ice rink I've been to in Holland. Nice segway for the next topic, Amsterdam THOR, the ice hockey team I play for was eliminated from the playoffs by the Enschede Lions enschedelions.nl


This photo tells the story pretty much. Here I am in the background looking to the Lord for some strength after they pounded in their 8th or 9th goal of the game. Good luck to Enschede in the championship.

The weather is getting really nice here, in a few weeks Grandpa and Grandma Mather will be here, our first effort to see the mega-fields of tulips is coming up quick.

Hyland

Tourists in our own Town

A couple of months back we bought Museum Jaarkaarten. The passes enable you to visit a whole slew of museums throughout the Netherlands for one low fee (35 euro). You also get to bypass the line, and get discounts in the gift shop. In short, they rock.

Last weekend we went to the Rijksmuseum for an hour or so. Earlier this week, Hyland and Addi went to the Amsterdamse Historisch Museum. Addison prefers artifacts to paintings, so this was a fun visit for him. Earlier this month, we stopped by the Verzetsmuseum, a museum dedicated to Dutch Resistance. Addi and I did the children's guided tour all in Dutch. Very interesting, and educational. They focused mostly on the Resistence during the Second World War, but also had an exhibit featuring posters, videos and fashion relating to other eras of social uprising.

When we first moved here, we weren't very interested in all the tourist stuff, and just focused on trying to be locals. Now that we are in a comfort zone with our surroundings, regular museum visits are really attractive.

And, now that it is warming up a tad, we have been exploring the parks again and Addi has been riding his bike like a natural.


Here's a cool swing in a playground we visited in Amsterdam Noord with our friends. The boys dug the panama canal.


Hugs and Kisses,
Malia

Happy Valentine's Day

Today is Valentine's Day. Yippee.

This is the first time in my life ever, since the days of walking around the desks in primary school handing out Valentines to every member of your class, that Valentine's Day has been pressure-free. Neither Hyland nor I will worry about gifts, candy, flowers, fancy dinner, or any of that consumer-based loving that has gone on in the past. We're just loving, plain and simple.

Don't get me wrong, they do celebrate Valentine's Day here, it is just FAR more mellow. In the States, there is constant advertising telling you that you are a failure if you don't give or get something fabulous on Valentine's Day. The jewelry stores are pumping propaganda over the sports talk-radio shows for a full month in advance, pushing men to buy buy buy and women to expect. Most of the Americans I know despise this too, it's just so in your face you have to push back to deny it.

One year, I tried to diffuse the situation by scheduling dinner in the steak house at the Diamond Cabaret. (You know the old joke: women get Valentines Day, so men should get Steak and BJ day) To my surprise, we were one of the only couples there that night. Go figure. The steak was awesome ;).


Earlier this week I had a gezzelig lunch with my friend Alex, and was delighted to see these Dutch Valentine Hearts on the counter at the restaurant. They say Leuk and Nee, which translates to Nice and No. It was this cute little reminder that Valentine's Day even existed. If it weren't for these, I might not have remembered at all. It's nice that there is a day especially for remembering love and those you love, but it's just better when that is what it is really about, instead of getting or giving things.

Hearts, Stars, Rainbows, Moons, Love.
Malia

Bright Trade Show, Frankfurt Germany

Bright Trade Show was the first stop for our traveling group exhibition, 'Where On Earth Have You Been?'

4 to 6 hours from Amsterdam is Frankfurt, Germany. Again, the proximity is just tasty! Frankfurt is an entirely different culture and has a really nice skyline. It isn't all fabulous though.

The city is intensely brown. Various Shades, but brown brown brown.







There is good public sculpture for the most part, but Lil'Shy commented on a particularly ugly one of a Giant Glowing Blue Euro Symbol floating in a lake of Golden Stars. It was awful and she summed it up nicely in her very french English, 'Zis has to be ze most fuckhing uglee zculpture I have eeever see, it es sooo fuckhing terrible.'
















I met up with my longtime friend Sonja Bergstrom, we used to work together at GOOG design in Denver. she is from Germany and is back living in Frankfurt now, her place, Bergstrom Studios is the bomb! She is so gifted and the visit to her place was a highlight of the trip. She and her partner Rafael make these really great sheep stools. She's going to be a mazillionaire from them.
















Let's see, what else. The streets were very clean, except for the homeless people, but they were clean too. In a weird way they didn't look homeless, well accept for the couple we saw 'shooting up' in broad daylight in the middle of downtown. That was weird and really stomach churning. I always flirted with trouble and don't mind a few grinds in my coffee, but I can't even look at hard drugs, Thank God. I ate a big hamburger.














The Trade Show was cool. We skated the bowl, and it was cool. There were some nasty lines being drawn in there by some of the amazing skaters. Good skaters are like Kung Fu masters.




















The Where On Earth Have You Been exhibtion was well received. Many people told us it was their favorite thing at the entire event. I saw some other amazing stuff. Saw Jon Fellows new Hession Mob skateboards in the flesh. Hooked up with my sponsor and grabbed some new
kicks.


















Jeroen and Lil'Shy were very fun to travel with. We made a good team, curating together and working the whole time side by side in near harmony. We even got our party on one night.




It was fun, dancing, and drinking hard, except for Jeroen who is one of those great people that doesn't drink or do any drugs whatsoever and just has the best time out. What up Vin Comparetto and Andrew Novic! Lil'Shy and I however got hammered.


Then, somebody I know
proceeded to absolutely 'smash' the club. At one point, she even had some boys in such a frenzy that she wrote on this guy's teeth and all over his face. When I came to try and herd our little princess into the taxi, the dude threatened to kill me, but I told him it was hard to take him seriously because someone had just tagged his grill.




Here he is the next day. 'Es everybodys frenz, no?' He was cool, Shy was the coolest.

Hopefully we'll be able to move the exhibit to other locations soon and keep adding more artists to the collection it was so impressive to see everything up on the walls. I was really really happy with it.

The most popular pieces that we showed were the Kenjon Bajus piece he made from 'working in centimeters', Evan Hecox once again, the Dutch artist, Shoe, and the Jeremy Fish original painting I bought at the show Ryan Riss curated in 2006 at Andenken called, My My Hey Hey.


German countryside was really nice, rolling hills and old farms.















Fancy bathrooms in a gas station in Germany were like the chill room at a rave. Sweet smells pumping with ambient music. They even had these self cleaning toilet seats that were so 'german jetsons'. I'd never seen that. Then again, I've never paid 50 euro cents to take a huge dooker at the filling staion in Germany. I felt a little out of my league in that bathroom, a little under dressed. It was almost like a limousine ride that bathroom.

When we got back to Amsterdam I felt really glad to be 'home' which is exactly when it hit me, 'I live here now, with my family. This is my home.' Such a good feeling, I really hope we can stay and stay and stay.

As far as Where On Earth Have You Been? We need to make a long list of artists to add to our collection and start searching for funding.

Anyway, as we say in Germany, super ciao!

Frozen Waterland and New Year Mayhem

Well, it is very very cold here right now and the beautiful canals are freezing, or frozen. The boats are frozen into the grachts and as I rode my bike North of Amsterdam and into the heart of the nearby Polder farm lands the water in the Markermeer looked like a true Arctic Sea.

The population is still out on their bikes, though not for entertainment.



I've started to dread long rides that I know I have to make at night...or really at all. Hopefully it warms up soon.


On the flip side, I have been able to do some nice outdoor pond hockey and also enjoy the really amazing outdoor rink that the city maintains which is beautifully located in the cross shadows of the Van Gogh and Rijks Museum on the Plein.















Things have finally settled back into normalcy after the holiday season. Addison is back in school. Andrea has returned home after a nice visit. It was so cold though that we weren't able to show Andrea everything we wanted. Note to visitors: Come when it's warmer, or bring your ice skates and a thermos or whiskey flask.
















I've yet to stroll into the Red Light district in the winter to see if the working girls still have on their bikinis. :-)


Oh, and New Year's Eve was crazy here, there were so so so so many fireworks all over the place, and nobody seemed to be 'officiating' . Everyone, everywhere was lighting off fireworks, it was bordering on scary, but it was beautiful. At the party where I was, there were probably 40 different groups of people lighting off fireworks, not just little black cats either, full on shoot into the sky and explode into a giant color flower bombs! At one point I just had to laugh there were fireworks going on all around and people were dancing and kissing and the railroad tracks were on fire. It was mayhem.
















Anyway, because I've been longing for some warmer and longer days, I made a little slideshow of pictures that I took in the summer / early fall. I have it over on the www.matherkunst.com