Emmy Dijkstra

I’m busy all day with preparing a presentation which will take place may 26th.
The last few months I have been interviewing people, together with artist Eva Meijer, about art in their homes. We’ve visited 32 people in the neighborhood Velve-Lindenhof in Enschede.
Eva and I were curious about what people find beautiful art. Now we have collected 32 different stories and art works. I wrote down the interviews and Eva took pictures of the artworks. It was very suprisingly what people came up with.

Now I am making a presentation to show the people from the neighborhood what we have collected.But that is not the only thing: the presentation is a connection between art in the neighborhood and the art at Rijksmuseum Twenthe. From those 32 artworks I have selected ten pieces and went to the museum. I searched in the museum for artworks that have a similarity with the artworks we found in the houses. Not only by image but also by stories, how it originated etc. Those similarities will be featured in my presentation.

There were also people who came up with art made by their children. That reminded me of the COBRA group from which the museum owns a few pieces. COBRA group was inspired by children’s drawings, one of the most famous artist who belonged to the group was Constant. And there is this beautiful painting made by him ‘La Guerre’ and it is now shown at the Rijksmuseum Twenthe. Short after he left the COBRA group he made a series of war paintings. But the influence of COBRA is still visible: really powerful. You see this running figure, you don’t know if it is a human figure or a creature, running away from the war. The colors are black, white, red. It is so expressive that you can feel the fear and the pain that creature must have.

The beautiful part of preparing this preparation is that I have to do research to different kinds of artists and that is really inspiring and interesting. Where would we have been today as artists if al those artists before us didn’t do al those experiments, wrote down new ideas and thoughts? We should be thankful; at least I am!

This guy perfectly dressed in a suit and tie started to appear in my work after i saw him sitting in the subway. Now he is part of a little exhibition at Rijksmuseum Twenthe. Surrounded by his thoughts, his childhood and memories of his homeland.

Last week I finished a whole week of teaching at several secondary schools. Those art classes did not take place in their own classroom but in Rijksmuseum Twenthe. The museum invited me to exhibit some of my prints. I started the lesson by looking at my work together with the students and I told them about my work, what it means, what it stands for and where I get my inspiration. Then it was their turn to make their own art piece by using the same technique  i use a lot: stencil printing.

But before they started to work they had to think about a place they once were and where they would love to go back again.

The two pictures below show some results. I always hope to inspire the students by telling about my work but they definitly inspired me! Again!

The title from this post  is a sentence from the book ‘What is the what’ written by Dave Eggers.

I’ve read it some years ago but certain parts of the book i’ll never forget. Like: ‘You just couldn’t break Charlie.’ 
The book is about a Sudanese refugee and based on a true story. At some point the maincharacter runs into an old friend Charlie, who is just like him a refugee and has been through a lot. But despite that: ‘You just couldn’t break him’.
For me this character Charlie is a real inspiration, a strong person.
In life every person has his own problems and sorrow  and i hope i can be as resilient as Charlie when i’m facing difficult things.
Now, in my studio i started to make drawings of Charlie. He will be my leading figure.

During the opening of my exhibition ‘how far we will get i don’t know’, Roderik Rodenburg created this short movie in which i was interviewed about my work from this exhibition. I think he did a really nice job. It was for the very the first time i was asked to do this, and i don’t mind talking about my work. I like to share my thoughts and ideas whenever i get the chance.

So if you are curious? Just start the tape and enjoy!

http://www.gefilmdportret.org/emmydijkstra_dynamoexpo.htm

The last two weeks i have been on the road, going from one school to the other and learn to children how to make paper clothes. And even after two weeks it still isn’t boring. I get inspired by the children and the things they come up with.
A lot of people think these art lessons have nothing to do with my work as an artist, on the contrary: it has a lot to with each other, it is an interaction. I don’t see teaching and working in my studio as two different things. Because over the last two years when i started to teach art lessons to children my work has developed in a stronger way, it has become more outspoken,  more open. Because when i want to explain my art to children i have to translate my thoughts and images to their level and their perception.
This translation gives me the opportunity to take a good look at my work and try other directions. And that is never wrong, i think.

The last couple of days i have been ‘on the road’ going from one primary school to the other, making paper clothes with children. The next few weeks i’ll be teaching this project at various schools. I just started but i’m already having so much fun!
Every workshop i enter the classroom in my own paper dress. First the children look surprise but after talking about how i came up with the idea they ask me al kinds of questions.
After this conversation each pupil makes his own paper garment, and that can be anything: a dress, a suit, pants, a blouse etc etc. And if there is some time left they can add a bag or a watch. Everything is made from large sheets of paper.
At such a young age children already have very strong ideas of how their paper clothes should look like. And i just let them go their own way, i hardly interfere: it is not necessary. Every time i give children an idea they know their way with it and beautiful things arise.

This will be the title of my next show that opens february the 24th at Dynamo Expo at 1600 hours in Enschede.
I didn’t came up with the title. It’s from a book about the dutch explorer Alexandrine Tinne ( 1835-1869) she wrote this particular sentence in one of her letters. The funny thing is that I never read the book I bought it because the title appealed to me. A couple of years later I thought about it again and pulled it from my bookcase. Then my boyfriend suggested that maybe this sentence was the perfect title for my next exhibition. I knew he was right!
Because my work is about travelers, nomads and wanderers who search their way in live.
Sometimes they have to cross oceans, deserts maybe, to find their destination or they find it much closer to the place they already are.

The exhibition shows my New York Scenes series but also my stencil prints.

Going threw some pictures which i made a couple of weeks ago i came across this one: it’s from a school project i did last november. The students made their own piece of scenery and i took pictures of them. As if they stood in a very huge comic.

But this picture i didn’t made; one of the students did! During a workshop I often give the students a camera to play with. And at the end of the workshop they return it to me and sometimes they make beautiful images which really inspires me! Like this one. It’s not really sharp, even a little bit to dark, but it is playful and spontaneous.
Sometimes, as an artist you forget to be playful and spontaneous because you take it all very seriously , a picture like this reminds me of that.

My work in New York City! It arrived a couple of days ago at the Manhattan Graphic Center, i’m taking part in their Member show. I became a member of the MGC when i worked there last summer. The work in the frame is printed at the graphic center and belongs to the series: New York scenes; so much to tell.
I like the idea that the work flew over the ocean: now a little part of me is there.

       Foto: Rense Nieuwenhuis

During autumn the leaves fall from the tree. About a year ago Sabine and i went to Den Bosch just to walk around;
i hadn’t been there since a long time. Then we walked through a park and there we saw trees which were surrounded by a carpet of yellow leaves. It was beautiful.

Then Sabine came up with the idea to make our own carpet, but from paper to add to our exhibition in the forest.
So we did. Last september we showed our new piece. My carpet tells about my two months stay in New York. Sabine tells about her walk in the park in Breda.