a bunch of self portraits from this week

I bet most of you wish I could find a better lookin' model....

strange art

So, when I'm done with a painting I almost always have left over paint. With that paint, I often start playing with a blank canvas to use up the paint. Since I don't really care about it, it is fun just to play with color. Here is one of those paintings. I guess you could call it a doodle.

Sometimes Holland is frustrating

But then we remember the cheese and koek, with Becel, in the morning. Then we are happy.

I have a computer, under warranty, with Dell. In the States, it would have been one phone call and the problem would be repaired the next business day. Here, I have already made five phone calls, sent multiple emails, waited six days, and have no appointment to show for my effort. I'm being told, "If your problem is still unresolved, please call customer technical support." When customer technical support is callled, one is transferred twice until a voicemail message is reached. The clear message: we don't really care about you or your computer. The difference in job security really shows -- it's very difficult to fire anyone here.

While it can be frustrating, there is a positive flip side. Things take a lot longer, but the pace of life is much slower and more rewarding. I think that people are more relaxed and overall maintain a much better work/life balance.

Hooray!

Congratulations President Obama!

Help me choose a "Work of the Week!"

Every week, I choose my favorite artwork made during the prior week and post it to the web on my website. This week I'm undecided, and need your help to choose. My friend Clair Garman set up a webpage that allows you to vote for your favorite artwork. You can check it out and vote at this link. Let me know which one you like!

Clair will update the site to also show the polling results....

Here's the art:




,

more frozen bits

A friend asked to see pics of the animals living in the pond under the ice. Here they are!

After the party

The opening of the art show was great: loads of nice people, lots of wine and cheese, lots of sales, and overall a fun time. The party moved to Ingmars afterwards, and we finished the cheese and much of the wine and wow was it fun.

Family came from all over Holland, which was super and made me feel great. We had a great time here at the house beforehand, the family came to the house - we ate a great lasagna and hung out. We are really part of Holland now in a way that we never could have been without family here.

Pics below show Tamara's reaction to one of my paintings at the art show, and some fun pics of family spying on the (alive) fish and frogs that can be seen under the ice. I shrunk the Irish wool sweater that Geis is wearing (yes, knit by my mom) but I am glad it is going to a good home.

It was cold in Holland.

This pic was taken a couple of days ago, showing a sunny day on the ice just like Heironymous Bosch used to paint it. Now it has turned warmer (40+) and all of the ice is melting.

It is COLD in Holland!

For the first time in 12 years, the canals have frozen enough so that the elfstedentocht is likely to take place this week. The Elfstedentocht is ice-skating race of 220 km that includes 11 cities, and is very important to Dutch. Everyone is talking about it. Here's a picture of me posing with the day's groceries on our fish pond - me, the bike, and the groceries weigh exactly 250 pounds (115 kg).

Holiday family pics (for Alex)

Spending the Christmas in the Netherlands was great, because we were with family and because Christmas is celebrated twice. Tamara has two Aunts that live here, and we spent the first day (the 25th) with Tuta, Willem, Ingrid and Sandra, and the second (the 26th) with Pien and a group of 12 or so family. It made us feel totally at home, and connected to the Netherlands in a way we hadn't before. It made the holiday's grand.

The pics below show the five course feast at Tuta. Sorry, no pics from Pien's house because of a camera malfuntion - too bad because it would have been nice to show the dancing we did there until 1 in the morning.

Random fun pics from Berlin.

It's cold in Berlin!

Or should we say, Brrr-lin? The hat Erik is wearing earned him the nickname "Thumper" and the enmity of animal rights activists. Tamara stuck with good ol' petrochemicals and faux fur, earning moral credits, but imperiling our climate. You decide: who gets kicked off the island this week? HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!