Leopold Blaschka's 193th birthday

May 27, 1822, Leopold Blaschka was born. 
Thus, today we commemorate his life 
and achievements as a scientific artist.

New Home for Older Art

In 1987 I made, circling around the fragment "shards of space and granules time" a group of “memorials.” These were reliefs constructed from nondurable materials: painted collages of newsprint paper and paper-mâché on plywood. 

My moving to another house recently, resulted in an improvement in housing, but not so much in storage. Thus, I decided to cede  a selection of these earlier works – the ones that were still in good condition - to art lovers. I managed to find a place for several of these works in the offices of the Utrecht University Library,  the building where I work.

 

Een steen en een brood,  1987, Collage-Acryl (70 x 90 cm) 

The work “Een steen en een brood” / “A stone and a loaf of bread “  summarises a deep truth: punishment and nourishment alternate in a perpetual movement. This work went to a private home.

Donations to The Utrecht Archive

When packing my things in moving boxes, I refound two slideshows with sound. Both were dating back to 1982-1983. 

One of these shows deals with the fate of the Utrecht neighbourhood “Vaartse buurt” that was taken down in the early 1980ies in order to make room for social housing. Yet, the condition of the houses was still perfect and they only needed to be populated by smaller households. This, because  by the end of the 20^th century, it was recognised that working-class families needed more space than was granted them in the mid-19^th century. This slide-show is titled “Uit de Vaart Genomen” (“Taken out of service”).

The other show  summarises the conflicting interests and urban problems caused by parking and  lack of parking space, which seems to be chronic. In this story, we had two actors trying their skills at comedy. This show is titled “Doodlopende weg” (“Dead end street”).

I conferred with a co-author of these two slide shows, Matthes, with whom I am still in contact. We decided to offer the materials to the Utrecht Archive as a donation, which was accepted. In 1986 and 1989, watercolours I made were acquired as topography by the same Archive, Then, I could not fathom that later on, earlier photographical work - these slides - would follow suit. 

Leaving the asbestos behind and joining the bees

Bee study, 2012 watercolour, c. 14 x 10 cm 

July 2nd,2014, I reported the presence of asbestos in the house I lived in. By December the landlord still had not taken any action to solve this matter, and thus I decided to find another place, and I succeeded.  Since mid-March I live in a house adjacent to the communal garden “Bikkershof” (Click for website in Dutch). I feel deeply moved by the presence of three wooden beehives, where the insects are busy, flying to and fro.  I like to remind that the German artist Joseph Beuys (1921 – 1986) was taken away by the insight, that a principle of honey and milk in nature showed the possibility of unity among living things, transcending species boundaries. In his view the life of bees also exemplifies socialism as the insects live and work together. (Click here for more on Beuys on bees).