Kaj Derks

When I took the picture it was because of the contrast of the young man tying his shoelaces against the background of cars moving by. I can remember liking the concentrated position and the colors of a moving BMW. Even though I generally find cars highly overrated in praktical way -I’d rather bicycle- when it comes to easthetics I find BMW’s pretty high on my list. It was in Berlin that I took this picture.

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Now it’s hanging in a kitchen, in Berlin, in between shelves with tea and breakfast and old Dutch communist party-posters providing a nice perspective on this picture. This kitchen is quite cozy, in fact the entire appartment is. It’s a little messy, a little improvised and everywhere is some kind of creative expression to be found. More Photos

This is how the first painting I sold in years looks like in it’s final, well maybe not final, destination. Proud to be hanging in Bram and Lonja’s livingroom.

It is wellknow that most times a flash kills more than it adds to a photo. This picture was a great example for that.

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The picture I used was flashed straight in the face, resulting in this lady in a uniformlike costume without an expression. Her face plain white like a mask.

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Giving me the oppertunity to play around with a shitload of white paint. But on second hand, I think I should take it easy with the titaniumoxide.

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With the other paintings to not overdo it.

The title has come to this with a little help from a Mexican friend. I needed her imput because the subject of this portrait would sure give me a bitching if I used her widespread language improperly. Not sure if I did it right but at least now I can blame someone else.

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Okay, the little story that goes with the portrait. We were waiting for the bus out of Berlin, to Hamburg. It was midsummer, too hot to put in words, she had just gotten rid of her haste, after a busy weekend, by reaching the busstation on time leaving a small hour to catch up. Which was also short because I’d rather hang out with this hermosa for hours and days and weeks and stuff, but that on the side. In this short hour we got sushi, our usual communication problems, quality time, sunlight and the joy of being in eachothers’ presence on a brick wall that resembled a plant trough of which it’s content had become a symbol of faded glory. It was full of weeds yet on the flipside it could be said that nature had taken over, it has been said that I am an optimist. More Photos

If Otto would be in his twenties right now, in Berlin where I bought this picture, he would be the boss of all hipsterparties.

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This because of his epic moustache. It is for this reason that I bought his portrait.

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I think he’s got a lot to thank his stache for. At least this painting.

Another on of those people I’ve never met in real. This is Apple, from Thailand. The idea to draw her next to the picture of an apple came from the fact that I was messing around with a printed picture of an apple.

At that time I had an e-mail adres that translates to ‘Kaj wants an apple’, since her name is ‘Apple’ I figured I had enough reasons to send her a message. She appeared to born on exactly the same day as my brother and was called ‘Apple’ because her mom thought she smelled like one.

Didn’t know babies could smell like apple

While painting after an old portrait I bought on a fleamarket in Berlin I noticed the similarity with a friend called Eline. It’s not like two drops of water but nevertheless the idea got into my head and I decided it could stay.

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No need to find another name for the painting if one has grown onto  one is it? Maybe I’ll call this one ‘Old old Eline’. Than Eline can decide for herself wether she identifies with it or not.

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I don’t know what more to tell about this picture so it’s best to leave it to this.

When this painting reached this state of beeing, it was immediatly clear that it was finished. Finished in the sense that it didn’t require any more work spend to it. Strangely I still don’t recognize it, although I do accept it as such (I made it, I was there), as beeing my work.

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Why do I have such hard time recognizing my own work?

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I’ll start calling some concrete possible causes according to the KISS principle: there is so much black, the lines and colorfieldborders are far from sharp, just a thin layer of paint and worst of all, it looks like and abstract orgy!

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Nothing bad about paintings or other work that consist of these characteristics. I only never expected to make something myself with one these things in it, let alone all combined.

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Property of Amarins Thiecke

No of course it wouldn’t make a meaningfull piece neither I find the composition very interesting.

But imagine how much fun it would be to paint this on gigantic canvas!

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(I can, and would if I had the resources)

Last time I showed this statue I was brutely sawing off what was left of his legs. Thought ‘brutely’ would be the wrong word since I was very carefull not to saw off too much and taking into acount how new legs could be attached again.

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This is the result: J-man got new limbs. After making a mold of my fathers’ arms and a friends’ skinny legs (big feet and toes though, but that on the side) I prepared some concrete new bodyparts.

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Here the statue is ready to be painted white again. The imperfections are smoothened out with an epoxy filler and the dirt left from it’s fatal crash has been rinsed off.

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I suppose the next time you see this guy is back on the cross at the side of a road.