In an (admittedly halfhearted) attempted to create some order in my very small studio, I’ve been looking through some of my old sketchbooks. I laugh, cringe, am surprised and feel inspired leafing through the pages. I also feel regret, moving around the world and from house to house, over the years I’ve thrown away quite a few sketchbooks. I’m making the resolution never to throw sketchbooks away again. Perhaps the ones that only contain a few pages, I can dismantle, I don’t know…

Some books contain only quick sketches and experiments, others are more like art books rather than sketchbooks because they contain more finished and polished works. I can see how my interests change over time, how I work with different media and techniques, I can see my artistic obsessions wax and wain.

One such obsession was collage and I filled an A3 size ring bound book with collages. Seventy-two in total. Some collages I made from scraps found on the art room floor, others are made with a more predetermined intention. What I love about collages, is being able to juxtapose images to create completely new worlds and contexts. Also, there is something very soothing about sticking pieces of paper on other pieces of paper.

Anyway, 72 collages. Some are related to each other, some are one-offs. I hope you’ll enjoy them!

Here is the first, titled “Mooi”

For this collage I used mostly found scrap images. The black and white image is a detail of Sandro Botticelli’s Primavera from an old art book. I found the bird in a magazine and the shape reminded me of a Venetian mask. The word “mooi” means “beautiful” in Dutch.