Rainbow

The rain was so brightly lit by the sun that it looked like silver: these were the perfect conditions for a rainbow. And indeed, I found a spectacular one at the other side of the building, enveloping the city from its west end, covered by clouds, til the bright city center. There was a second one, and even a third one, inside the first.

It is sheer coincidence that my final film 'City Colors' ends with a rainbow, which is a symbol of hope, the meaning of which dates back to the days of the Great Flood. When I downloaded my pictures from my camera, I noticed that the date of my camera is incorrect. All rainbow pictures are dated Tomorrow...

More to see...

During Max the Mutt Industry Night, I had the pleasure of spending all night next to the theatre where the final films of this year's graduates are screened. I will never forget how every few minutes another melody with accompanying sound effects filled the room, and every time exactly one pair of eyebrows jumped up: "Yep, that's me!"

The school can be happy with this year's round of final films. Starring in alphabetical order: Jennifer Foreshew ('Victor Tours Paris'), Sara Guira ('The Magician'), Aaron Long ('Trainfilm'), Benjamin Luk ('The Jump'), David Mark ('Nutjutsu'), Justin Mark ('Boss of the Woods'), Connor Ross ('Tyrannical Fury'), Jen Schollen ('The Inventor'), Ashley Vanchu ('Sock Hop'), Erikos Petrou ('Melodia'), Alina Shamova ('Inspiration'). I will never forget these names, and I hope you will remember them after watching their films at the Max the Mutt YouTube Channel.

Operational issues...

In early March, I sent the board of the Dovercourt Baptist Foundation a letter about the way the student residence here at New Horizons Tower has been torn down, while all complaints were answered with blunt intimidation; I asked them for a justification from a Christian perspective. The letter was intercepted by NHT management, who refused to pass it along.

Yesterday, however, I received a response which seems to have been signed by Michael Harris, president of the Dovercourt Baptist Foundation. Without even apologizing for the fact that the response is three months late, the letter states that "we consider this to be an operational issue and not a matter for the board, and as such you should direct your concerns to the management of New Horizons Tower" The response came to me as an email from NHT management.

It was interesting to discover that the response was directed at "Izak van Langevelde", that is me, while I only used a formal "drs. I.A. van Langevelde" in my letter. I sincerely doubt whether Michael Harris ever read the original letter. More to follow, I will keep you updated.

Switching gears

The last few months have been very busy for me. Producing my short film 'City Colors', building a portfolio, a website, presentation boards, a booklet and bookmarks to hand out at the school's Industry Night. It all ended last night, at the school's graduation ceremony. It is over.

Over the past four years, I have thought more than once that you can only be a student once in your life. Being a student is so much more than being in a position to learn. It has a lot to do with growing up, and that is something I did about twentyfive years ago, when I was a student in Computer Science. As a result, yesterday's ceremony was more about fetching a diploma, than about turning over a new leaf.

Yesterday does signal, however, a new phase in the masterplan, dubbed 'Operation Switch' about five years ago. Now that I have completed my formal education as a visual artist, it is time to look for a job, and finding a job at this side of the world means that I will need to get work permit first. I consciously made the decision to first graduate, and build a portfolio, and only then to start the formal procedure to get a visa. Over the next few weeks, I hope to start sorting out the formalities.

In the meantime, feel free to take a look at my portfolio site, which features my final film titled 'City Colors', and a good selection of other artwork I have worked on over the past four years. Enjoy!

Dark Horizons

Quite a few people asked me, slightly worried, about the state of affairs at New Horizons Tower. The student facilities have been torn down, while the students are still paying for it, whoever dares to complain is told to leave, and the remaining students will be forced out this month.

An interesting development was that I have been offered a larger appartment in the tower, for the same price. On my reply that they cannot buy me, management responded by offering me $750 and, really, I only have to accept it, and they do not want anything in return. They discovered they cannot intimidate me, so they are trying to catch me with honey.

I decided to report the whole issue to the Board of the Dovercourt Baptist Foundation, which happens to reside at, you guessed it, New Horizons Tower. I sent a more or less formal letter, through registered mail, as a probe to test the waters. I was not really surprised to learn that my letter had been intercepted by management, and they refuse to pass it upward. A second attempt through the pastor of the church failed in a similar way.

As Shakespeare wrote: "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark." A good deal of the organization here seems to be rotten to the bone. I have sent out some more probes, and activated some contacts here and, also, there. I love puzzles. Really.

My Ass

In my first week at Max the Mutt, I was caught by one of the security guards in the mall around the corner: he wanted to see what I was doing. At that moment, I was still sneaking around, trying to sketch people without being noticed myself, which is exactly the behaviour which triggers the alarm bells of those responsible for public security. We had a nice chat about school and life in general, and I somewhat reluctantly showed him my sketchbook, which was at that point filled with 'blind contours' and very rough 'gestures', exercises which are more about the drawing process than about anything else. He tried to say something nice, but his blank stare suggested he was thinking something else.

It became a habit over the past three and a half years. I returned almost every day to try to catch human nature in all its beauty, peculiarity, ugliness, flirtyness, playfulness, whateverness. For almost two years, it was strictly technical for me, and I did my sketching as the bodybuilder pressed his kilogrammes, the pianoplayer plays his scales and the athlete runs his circles, for the sole purpose of getting better at it. And only after two years did I get some satisfaction out of it, finding pleasure in the occasional nice drawing.

I have started to wrap it all up. I am building my final portfolio, and there will be pages from my sketchbook in it. When I took some time scanning them, I realized I do not really care which ones to put in: they are not all good, but there are so many of them that I do like. A quick estimate suggests I have been doing about 20 quick studies a day for more than two years, for a grand total of more than 14000 quick studies.

Today I spent some time in a coffee shop around the corner, sketching my coffee away. A lady spent some time watching me, bent over and said: "You're good, you're really talented" I had just completed sketch number 14001. Talented, my ass...

Levator scapulae

It happened more than a year ago, during a life drawing session. The female model was wearing a robe, which fell open when she bent forward in my direction, granting me a clear view of her anatomy. The teacher was standing right behind me, and whispered over my shoulder: "Lucky you, from this angle you can see her levator scapulae really well!" I had to look that one up, it is a muscle which, as its name suggests, is used for raising the shoulder blade. Ah, that is the pleasure of an anatomically inclined teacher.