HUSH THE RUSH

Sometimes I wonder what went wrong. Our society seems to be always busy. Always running around, juggling tasks, feeling the pressure. I think we are so caught up in all of those things we feel we need to do, that we forget to enjoy the moments. The things that really matter. Things that seems so ordinary that we are almost blindsided by the fact that those are the actual things that make us happy. Sometimes we need moments to sit still. To be still. To live exactly in that moment and remember ourselves who we are, what we want and who and what we love.

I absolutely love artists that can do that. Artists that leave you breathless and speechless. Whether it leaves me melancholic or shocked, they do something to me, they make me feel something. Because sometimes, in all that rush we seems to have, we forget to feel.

Last week I was at the premiere of Conny Janssen Danst, which is, even being biased, one of the most wonderful dance companies in the world. Not only because they are a bunch of extremely talented dancers, and the lighting and music seems beyond perfect, but because they leave me mesmerized. They leave me stunned. The performances take you to a higher level, and for those moments you just forget you're sitting in a theatre with hundreds of people. Nothing else seems to matter, but for right there and then.

Another video that I came across that hushes the rush, is a video made by artist Arev Manoukian. This video is in slowmotion, which directly gives it this thought. But also, it focuses on the moment between a man and woman. That one glance, that is over in about a second, but can tell so many stories.

Hope you enjoy the video as much as I do, and don't forget to Hush the Rush.

AREV MANOUKIAN - NUIT BLANCHE

'BUT I'M NOT ARTISTIC'

Yesterday I read the article 'But I'm not artistic' which you can read here. It's about the idea that adults often don't feel artistic enough, which often is a result of not enough room for creativity as a child. When children don't get the encouragement to be creative or to create art at a younger age, they feel a lack of confidence in this sense when they are older. The article mentions that thinking creatively is often seen as the key to success these days, and therefore starting at a young age with expressing creativity is a good tool to accomplish this.

Normal teachers often feel like they (or actually do) miss the skills of using art as a right tool, which can be difficult. Although art can still be art for art's sake, it is nowadays also used as a tool for community, learning how to work together, communication or problem-solving. I believe the good thing about art is, that it can be all of these tools, whithout it feeling as 'work' or 'learning'. Art can be a way to learn through play, which makes it often more accessible to children who are better at visual or motoric learning. 

Not being able to use these tools is not the fault of normal teachers (whether in pre-school, primary school or secondary school). It is often because they do not get the chance to develop these skills. Special art learning centres can be a great way of learning through art outside of the classroom, as well as museums with programmes tailored for children (read more about ArtPlay as an art learning centre in my blog post here).

Going back to the 'But I'm not artistic' phrase, comes from both a lack of skills and confidence. It is important for children to show both skills and confidence when using art (whether as a tool or not). The thing I think is important is that you do not have to be an artist to be artistic. As long as you know what your goals are and how you want to reach them in art classes, you are already half way there. Encouraging children in art is of vital importance and it will fuel their interest in art and being creative. Being able to do this has shown to be so important for when the child grows up. 

So in the end, you don't have to be a Picasso or a Dalí, but you have to have the right mindset, motivation and skillset to teach art and creativity. Therefore I'd like to end with the phrase:

I'm not an artist, but I'm artistic.

#ImnotanartistbutImartistic

Below you will find photos of a few drawings I made, which are originally from Fiep Westendorp, an amazing illustrator. I might not be the original artist, but I am still creative in making these cards to send out to friends. And that's in the end what it's all about.

THE ART OF BAKING: BUCKWHEAT

For people who have issues with wheat, buckwheat is a great alternative. Although the name is slightly deceiving, buckwheat actually is not made out of wheat. They call it a pseudowheat and the part we eat are the seeds. When these seeds are finely grinded, you get buckwheat flour. I would not recommend using it for pizza dough or bread, as it doesn't rise that nicely, but it is great for cookies and cakes (and gluten free for the enthusiasts). 

Although I have been using buckwheat flour for a while, this was a new recipe to try out. And I can tell you, it is delicious! It's hard to keep yourself from eating the batter, it's just so good. And most of all, it's free from refined sugar or refined butter. So what's not to like?

Ingredients

3/4 cup of buckwheat flour
2 heaped tea spoons baking powder
1 heaped spoon raw cacao powder
1 large pinch of salt
1/4 cup of grated coconut

1 egg
1/2 cup of coconut oil
1/2 cup of raw honey (or agave syrup)

50 grams of chopped extra dark chocolate.

Pre-heat the oven to about 175 C. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix the wet ingredients in another bowl. I actually heated the coconut oil to a real oil, but if you have spreadable coconut oil you can use that too. Put all the ingredients together and add the chopped dark chocolate. Create little piles of the dough on a baking tray with baking foil. Put it in the oven for about 15 minutes and you're done! Enjoy!

THE ART OF CURATING: Stedelijk Museum Schiedam

Today I went to the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, a small but surprisingly interesting museum. Upstairs they have a good collection of Karel Appel and the other CoBRa artists and downstairs they have a variety of exhibitions.

They currently show an exhibition about Dutch art after 1945. Next to a variety of sculptures, paintings and collages, they also play videos of around the 1950's. There were also black buttons to be found on the floor, and if you stepped on these buttons with your foot some information lit up on the wall about the artist and the art piece. I like the idea of a bit of interaction with the public and searching for information. This exhibition was very well curated. Not only did it involve a large variety of art pieces, you could also walk in, around and through some of the works.  The lighting was magnificent and created beautiful shadows. Curating is an art in itself and I think it is something that is often either underestimated or goes unnoticed. I was therefore pleasantly surprised that the curating aspect was so visible during this exhibition.

Especially this exhibition downstairs showed a lot of experience and class from the curators. However, the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam has a lot of financial problems. Like many museums in the Netherlands, it is difficult to get enough funding to get the museum going. They also have a large debt for the rent that they owe to the municipality. The museum is working on a recovery plan to be able to pay off its debts. Although the future might be uncertain at the moment, the director is confident that the museum will not be forced to close its doors and will come up with a plan. Although I might be slightly biased as this is the town I was born, I highly believe it would be a shame that a museum like this, with a high quality of curation, would disappear from the old town of Schiedam. 

WHO: Me on fine art photography
WHAT: I love Holland. Dutch post-war art. - exhibition
WHERE: Stedelijk Museum Schiedam

THE ART OF BAKING: HOMEMADE MUESLI

Breakfast is my favourite meal of the day. Making my own muesli was therefore an easy step. It is very easy to make, you just blend in all your favourite ingredients and bake it in the oven! 

Tip: make sure you buy the nuts and oat flakes unsalted and unbaked.

Ingredients:

- 500 gr oatmeal flakes
- 100 gr pecan nuts
- 100 gr almonds
- 50 gr walnuts
- 100 gr sunflower seeds
- 100 gr mixture of: dried cranberries, mulberries & goji berries
- 3 table spoons grated coconut

- 3 table spoons coconut oil
- 3 table spoons honey
- 3 heaped teaspoons of cinnamon

Put the nuts in the food processor and pulse until the nuts are crushed. Put the oat flakes in a big baking tray together with the nuts and sunflower seeds. Mix the coconut oil, honey and cinnamon on the stove until it is one gooey mixture. Poor this mixture over the dry mixture in the baking tray and stir it in. Put it in the oven for about 30 minutes on 180°C.

Stir it every 5 to 10 minutes to make sure it doesn't burn in the oven.

After it's done, let it cool down outside the oven and stir in the grated coconut and the dried fruit (you can add other dried fruit too). Store it in air tight containers.

I like eating it with greek yogurt, but of course any yogurt or milk will do.

Enjoy!

THE ART OF BAKING: SPELT BREAD

I cannot think of anything better than the smell of fresh baked bread. And making bread yourself makes it very easy to have both the good smell and the good taste. Bread made in factories most often has flavour enhancers, ingredients to keep bread fresh for longer or other additives. Some people are more sensitive to these ingredients, and therefore making bread yourself can be the solution. I decided to make my own spelt bread, both because of health reasons and because I love baking! 

This is a very easy recipe and gives you one loaf of bread. Spelt bread is not gluten free, but it is wheat free. It is possible to eat for people with wheat allergies, but not for people with coeliac disease.

Recipe:

- 500 gr spelt flour
- 7 gr dried yeast
- 350 ml luke warm water
- 50 gr sunflower seeds
- large pinch of salt

Mix the yeast with the water until the yeast is dissolved. Mix the flour with the salt and most of the sunflower seeds. Add the mixture of water and yeast to the flour mix and knead until the dough is firm. Then leave the dough in a bowl under a towel for about 40 minutes. Set the oven to about 200 C and bake for about 50 minutes (depending on how strong your oven is).

Afterwards, let the bread cool down and then you can eat it with some of the homemade notella! Enjoy!

THE ART OF BAKING: NOTELLA

Baking has long been my hobby and passion. It's something I love doing in my spare time, and often on the weekends. Getting some fresh ingredients from the supermarket or market and creating something new is very exciting. Sometimes I am not happy with the results and it needs some finetuning, it's just a process of trial and error! I have been hosting dinner parties whilst in Brussels, Brighton and Melbourne, and hope to do this back in the homeland too.

Although I usually eat quite healthily, I recently started eating with as little processed foods as possible. I always had problems with my stomach and digestion system, so being careful with what I eat has been a second nature to me as long I can remember. So all the healthy food blogs have been quite handy in finding new and healthy ideas for recipes.

Now I got my own food processor (love it!), I can make a lot more recipes. Today I created my first 'notella'. This is kind of a mock nutella, with the rich and creamy goodness of nutella, but without any preservatives, refined sugar or butter. Instead, you use only 4 ingredients! How easy is that? The recipe is not made by me, but I used two recipes from two different food bloggers and adjusted it a little bit. Here we go:

- 100 gr white hazelnuts
- 2 table spoons raw cacao powder
- 2 table spoons raw honey
- 1 heaped  table spoon of coconut oil
- some water to adjust the thickness

First, you have to soak the hazelnuts for at least 6 hours. You can do this overnight if preferred. After you have soaked them, drain the water and put them in the food processor. Blend until quite smooth. Heat up some coconut oil and pour the liquid in the food processor. Then add the other ingredients and mix until all is smooth. You can adjust the thickness by adding some water, depending on how you like your 'notella'.

And then you have yourself some healthy spread for on your slice of bread! (or eat it straight out of the food processor if you can't wait!)

Enjoy!

PS: One of the recipes can be found on food blogger that always gives me a lot of inspiration. Find her blog here

MADE IN JAPAN

Japan, the land of the rising sun. A land that has an old and rich culture, where shrines and temples set the street scenes and where people hold on to the stories and myths of their ancestors.

I was lucky enough to spend Christmas in Japan, a country I have been wanting to visit for a long time. Large parts of what I expected Japan to look like was true: the rich culture and history of the country is visible everywhere you go. The pagoda's and shrines are absolutely beautiful to see. Not only are they still present to see, people are stll very much involved in ceremonies and services. Unfortunately all the museums were closed because of Christmas (in my opinion not the best move with so many visitors around in Tokyo), so I will have to go back one day to visit them.

Although Tokyo was beyond impressive, it also felt extremely busy, crowded and basically non-stop. Tokyo has 35 million inhabitants and is always on the move. To me, it lacked some of the feels that Japan should have to it. Luckily, we spend some days in Narita, the town just beside the airport. It is a lovely town, with old streets, shops, market stalls, a beautiful shrine and real Japanese architecture. Although it's in the shadow of the airport, the town is definitely worth a visit if you would like to interact more with Japanese culture. Interestingly, Japan felt very Japanese. In other Asian countries I have been, I feel and see the influences from the Western world often very clearly. But Japan has been able to keep their own culture very much alive. I appreciate how genuine it seemed to me, as I am a big advocate of preserving local heritage and culture.

Although most people do not speak or write in English, they are utmost friendly and respectful. I have not seen any form of vandalism, robberies or violence during my stay, which gave me a very safe and sound feeling.

I have seen only a small part of Japanese art and culture this time, but really hope to go back one day to visit Kyoto and its ancient history and also the natural wonderland of Hokkaido.

Japan, I will be back.