a happy reunion

last week i got my three manikins back from storage and welcomed them into my new studio. 

while re-assembling them i found their arms and hands were missing, probably stored in a separate box somewhere in a huge pile leaning to the storage wall......lol! so i'm afraid they will have to stay like this for some more weeks. i must admit i actually quite like them this way.

some of my old work has also been hung/positioned. i really love the way these images are grouped together. i 'see' them every time i descend the stairs.

the reunion with my three muses immediately sparked my creative fire.....

this last one is kinda special, a blend of my favourite manikin with a very poisonous plant called

arum maculatum. it is not very common here but in the park near the shopping mall their clusters of red berries appear every year at the end of summer, poking out from under layers of wet withered leaves surrounding the huge trees. apparently this plant has a range of very interesting names, such as 'lords and ladies', 'snakeshead', 'friar's cowl' and 'jack in the pulpit'..... i remember that last one as a painting by Georgia O'Keeffe, but she painted it in a different season, with the spadix still intact, and with no sign yet of the bright red berries emerging from within the spathe.

still no time to work in my studio, but already lots of ideas, almost too many to process...
just ordered a book on collagraphy, bought a dutch version of Art in Time, (a world history of styles and movements) and am currently reading Michael Wilson's 'How to read Contemporary Art'.
also discovered this workshop on mixed media and digital printing by Loek de la Haye. i would very much like to register, it seems to be just what i've been looking for.....  but i have no idea if can go, lots of previous arrangements and tasks to reorganise..... well, we'll see what can be done, no doubt this guy will offer more of this stuff next year, i now know how to contact him.