Written by AnnaDenise on Thursday, January 26, 2012 at 23:23
Just a quick message to let those of you who don't know already know that a few weeks back a piece I wrote about Bikram yoga was published on Elephant Journal. Elephant Journal is a fairy popular online journal on yoga, buddhism, spirituality, and environmentalism (plus a lot of silliness, I must say) and my article made it to the top ten most popular blog posts that week.
You can read the article here (first three articles per day are free, after that you pay or you'll have to wait for the next day to come around).
PS: Reason I didn't share the article here right away is because it's so very personal. I know that sounds ridiculous coming from someone who shares her journal online, but that's of course a highly edited image I'm painting for you and this article is very, very close to who I am. Which, I feel, does make it a more powerful piece and is the reason why I did want to publish it. I'm fairly certain, however, that many people I know in real life would never read Elephant Journal, but they would read this blog. Due to the positive responses, however, I now feel confident enough to share it here. Be critical, if you want, but be gentle in your delivery if you can.
Written by AnnaDenise on Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 08:00
Click on the images to see (much) larger versions!
January 19th, 20th & 21st
Belgium Bashing
I love living in Belgium, but sometimes spoiled expats just need to get some things off their chest. To be honest, I thought it'd be easy to do this, but after the first three, I had to ask Ashwin to help think of some more things. So I guess it really ain't that bad ;-) I posted this one on Facebook the other day, and it's amazing how many responses I got from other expats and Belgians alike. It struck a chord with some people it seems, and I now have an inbox full of suggestions of things to draw about Belgium, haha. Which I won't do. I AM still a guest here, people.
* Also, a small note on the first picture: I work with a lot of Flemish people. Flemish people speak Flemish, which is pretty much the same as Dutch. However, the accent is very different and within two seconds of me opening my mouth, people will know I'm from Holland. Flemish people will pretty much ALWAYS comment on this (right away, too) and not always in a good sense, although part of that may be in my mind. There is a large group of people here who have a bias against Dutch people for being loud, bossy, and ignorant (which might be true), but I think also it's just the fact that I don't like to stand out and would just like to discuss the thing at hand instead of talking about Holland and engaging in superficial chatter about how I like it here (and I do like it here a lot, despite the title of this page, hehe).
Written by AnnaDenise on Sunday, January 22, 2012 at 23:34
Yesterday I participated in the 34th edition of the world wide SketchCrawl. This is an event organized every couple of months where people from different cities around the world find each other on the SketchCrawl Forum and meet up someplace to draw together. I joined the Brussels group in 2009, when we had just moved to Brussels. The blog post with my results and story (in Dutch) can be found here. I remember feeling quite insecure, surrounded by a group of 'real' artists and feeling bad about not being able to draw as fast as they could.
This time was different. We had a smaller group, and we sketched inside. Due to the crappy weather, we chose to meet up in the Musical Instruments Museum, where I had fun drawing corners (my attempt at getting more into drawing architecture - I'm easing into it, so to say), and of course, the instruments. I had to leave early, but I still managed to do two spreads and make some new connections. Fun times.
My fellow SketchCrawlers all did some really amazing pieces and you can check out their results on the SketchCrawl Facebook page.
Written by AnnaDenise on Friday, January 20, 2012 at 08:30
I've been feeling kind of blue these past few weeks, with the weather doing its traditional January-thing (rainy, cold, grey skies, dark) and work creeping up to the point where my five Bikram sessions a week have been reduced to three (which isn't very good for my mood, either). So, I had really been looking forward to our trip to London that we planned a while back. Ashwin had some work-stuff to attend on Friday and Saturday and I joined him on Friday evening.
We were both really tired and ordered some dinner before passing out. I drew the hotel room. Which was fun, but didn't turn out so great. Who comes up with these fugly hotel room colors anyway?
The next morning, after Ashwin left for the second day of workshops, and as the weather was cold, but beautiful, I decided to take a stroll (yes, not just a walk. A stroll. A leisurely stroll) along the Thames.
I ended up at the Tate Modern, where I quickly walked through the exhibition on Belgian surrealism (not my thing) and then proceeded to spend nearly two hours in the gift shop (not buying anything). How very cultured of me.
When I was done thinking about the categories in the Tate Bookshop ('illustration' was filed under 'design', next to 'street art' and 'photography'. Hm. ) I went outside to get a cup of hot chocolate and wait for my date for the day: Heidi! I had put a call out on Twitter to see who of my online art friends felt like meeting up and although Heidi lives in Cambridge, it all came together nicely!
It was very fun to finally meet Heidi (who now also works for Etsy, which makes her awesomeness almost too much to handle), someone I've been 'connected' with digitally for such a long time already and we had such a nice day together. We walked along the river, went treasure-hunting at a used book market, had cake and tea together, looked for, found, and rode the 'Singing Elevator', and sketched. Heidi is so fun, talented, and gorgeous (although she's kind of camera shy, it seems) and I'm so glad I got to meet her! Yay for the Internet!
In the evening, Ashwin and I walked through town and ended up eating at a little restaurant near the water. I kind of miss living in a city with water. All of the places I've ever lived in had a connection to the water by means of canals, or a river, or being close to the beach. I realize that I miss the air of freedom I associate with the presence of water. I suppose it's the same reason why being in the mountains (for example at my grandma's house in Switzerland) makes me kind of claustrophobic after a while.
On Sunday, Ashwin and I were planning to go to the zoo, but it was pretty cold so we ended up riding buses and visiting the Design Museum. Where we saw an exhibition on Terence Conran (very interesting!) and we (or: I) had tea and chocolate cake (I have decided that when you're in London, you have to eat cake and drink tea at least once a day).
And so we returned home on the Eurostar. Bellies full of chocolate pie, art, water, and design. A welcome break it was.
The End.
(it kind of felt like it needed an end, didn't it? Yes, after over eight years of blogging, I'm really getting the hang of this storytelling thing, I think).
Written by AnnaDenise on Monday, January 16, 2012 at 09:00
Dearest reader, you may not ever have expected this: but boy, will you be sorry you don't live in Belgium.
Yes, my friends, in the next 20 seconds you will become so jealous of all residents of Belgium, you will not know what to do with yourself.
Besides perhaps packing yourself into a car and driving to... Antwerp! Where I'll be participating in the Lolly Pop-Up Store!!! EEK!
It opens on Saturday and although it's free to come in and have a look, I'm predicting you'll be walking out broke, as I've checked out the participating sellers (besides me) and it's looking AWESOME!
To make it easier for you all to decide where to spend your money on, I made you an Etsy treasury (click on the image below). See, I can be nice!
So be there, or be completely lame.
Written by AnnaDenise on Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 23:58
I am losing my mind. I am sure of it. That, or I'm just insanely tired (which might be true).
I first wrote 'Tuesday'. And then only after correcting that and coloring the entire freaking page, I found out I had written February instead of January. Again. Arrrggghhh!
Anyways, this happened to me today (THURSDAY, JANUARY 12th - at least i got that right...) where I was in the bus on my way back and this lady was really kind of abusive towards her... granddaughter (she looked too old to be the girl's mother). She was just very aggressive the entire time, pulling her arm, raising her hand, yelling, threatening to hit the girl. It was terrible. Some other people and myself were giving her dissaproving looks (she didn't seem to care), but in the end no one did or said anything. In my head I was preparing to stop her from slapping the girl (who was really quite adorable), as I was sitting right next to them. Before that happened, though, I got off the bus and then I just felt really bad and weird.
I never know how to deal with these things. Like, when (if ever) is it okay to intervene (I think I'd draw the line at slapping)? And how would you do that, then? And then there's the language thing. I don't think my French is argue-proof yet. It's such a hard social situation, and I'm not sure how to handle that correctly. And would it even help the girl? Or would me intervening just mean more bad news for her? Or am I rashly assuming the lady was being abusive? Perhaps she just had a bad day (which is no excuse, I think)?
Have you been in this situation? What did you do?
Ok. I'm going to try and get some sleep. Ceerio!
Written by AnnaDenise on Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 21:30
So yesterday I went to the podio..podo...ehm podiotrician (leg and foot doctor) because my hip had been bothering me for a while (painful when walking, reduced mobility, bla bla) and my physiotherapist thought that perhaps my legs were uneven length, so off to the leg doctor it was. The guy was French, pretty cute, and generally just very funny.
He obviously took his job very seriously and after me trying my very best to 'walk normally', 'stand normally' and 'sit normally' (it's like not being allowed to think of that big pink elephant, it doesn't work) he concluded that while my legs were even in length, I had "zzee legs X". He even did the hand gesture. It was hilarious. Or so I thought. He kept reminding me that it was "ze problem he cannot fix", but I just kept laughing. It sounds so cute (and also, I now finally have a reason why I walk 'like a horse' - which is something my best friend in high school told me once. Ah. Who needs enemies when you have friends to ruin your self esteem, right? (also, this was right after she told me my calf muscles were 'gross', haha. Needless to say, we no longer hang out).
Anyways. He will now make me insoles (I wonder if he actually does make them himself) and although it will not 'fix ze legs ix', it will probably help overcoming my hip issues (for which he recommended me regular massages. See, I told you he was cute).
Written by AnnaDenise on Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 08:30
So far, 2012 is not bad, my friends. Not bad at all. The constant rain that we saw for Christmas seems to have let up (this is not to say the sun is shining of course), we've already had a bunch of very welcome guests stay with us, have a couple of fun trips lined up for spring (London, Berlin... Hong Kong?), and so far, no one in our little house hold has fallen ill (well except for the fact that my podiatrician told my I have "zze legs Ix", which I found hilarious, but more on that later). Good times, good times.
On top of that, I'm currently experiencing a true revival of the illustrated journalling fever. My new book seems to do its job perfectly and I've been feeling very inspired, resulting in the following journal pages:
See, I even attempted to make, like, an actual comic-comic! :-)
Hope you're all having a wonderful and inspired year so far!
Love, Anna Denise
Written by AnnaDenise on Friday, January 06, 2012 at 08:00
I don't know about you, but I listen to a lot of podcasts. A LOT of podcasts. I think if I say that I average about 2 to 3 hours of podcasts a day, I'm not even exaggerating. I love listening to a podcast during my daily commute to and from the office, when I'm cooking, when I'm drawing (in fact, that's my absolute favorite), and before going to bed. Sometimes I even listen to podcasts when I'm taking a bath (books ALWAYS get wet, despite the many precautions). There's a few Ashwin and I listen to together, and there's a few I like to listen to by myself.
Many of these you've probably already heard of, but maybe not. In any case, here's the complete list of podcasts I listen to (in no particular order):
- This American Life
- The Moth
- Fresh Air
- All Things Considered
- Planet Money
- Radiolab
- Freakonomics
- The Dawn and Drew Show
- The New Yorker Fiction Podcast
- 99% Invisible
- Stuff You Should Know
- The Nerdist
Do you have any podcasts you like to listen to? Anything I missed and I should absolutely subscribe to asap? I'd love to hear about it!
Written by AnnaDenise on Tuesday, January 03, 2012 at 17:09
Happy 2012, folks!
I hope you had a wonderful new year's eve, celebrating into the new year with those you love close around you. We celebrated the new year with my mom and her husband (who were driving home from their holiday home in France) and it was just lovely. I cooked a many-course meal, they brought oysters from France, and we walked to the Mont des Arts to watch the fireworks the city organizes each NYE.
On Sunday my mom and her husband left again, leaving me with a mild case of the new year's blues (also known as a slight hangover), which I combatted by listening to my favorite music, taking a yoga class, drinking tea, and... drawing in my new book!
Yes, that's right. It's not a Moleskine this year. *Shock* *Horror*. I know. It was a pretty big deal to me as well, but after five years I'd had enough of the daily planner and although I tried my best to find a Moleskine alternative I liked, I just couldn't find one that lived up to my many wishes. I even went as far as to email Moleskine and ask them for a custom book, but I'm assuming they must have thought I was insane, as they never replied. And to be honest, they've got about 50 different styles of books, so it really is me, not them.
Anyways, I'm hugely thrilled to have gotten started in my (Seawhite) book and I'm feeling challenged and excited. So accompanying this post are some of the first drawings I did in this book. Hope you like them! Oh, AND I also did a new mood board. Yes, I had a pretty long break this Christmas.
Have a wonderful first week back at work, everyone!
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