Newsletter #2

Two weeks have flown by. This is a good moment for me to stop and reflect. You're welcome to join me & feel free to respond :)

Hi Reader!

I thought I had 99 problems but the sun has made me forget what they were. I like to constantly question my happiness. Thankfully, the sun shining these past two days has made me forget to do that. I’m just happy in this moment, which is all that matters when you’re soaking up the sunlight.

End of a chapter

This past weekend was the final two days of my exhibition. I actually sold some of my work and on the last day, 4 strangers came to visit! I’m quite happy for the exhibition to be over though. Talking about my work all day is fun and all, but I’m looking forward to talking less about art and start making more of it. The ending of the exhibition feels like the end of a chapter that includes all the work I’ve made in the past few months. It’s time for something new. A fresh canvas. A bigger canvas…

A few pieces from the exhibition

Full circle

This week I will be executing a new and challenging project. I will be one of four artists painting a pillar in shopping mall De Heuvel in Eindhoven. The other artists are all more experienced than me. Which is intimidating and exciting. One of them, Nina Valkhoff, has been working as a professional muralist for over 20 years! Fun fact, in June of 2020 I had the viewing of the house I’m currently living in in Rotterdam. My (at the time) future roommates and I stopped at this cool mural that caught our eye in between viewings and decided to take a picture. Guess who painted that mural… It was Nina! And now, 2,5 years later I’m working on the same project as her. Full circle moment :)

Fun stuff!

In the meantime, I have started my internship at Opperclaes. Today I biked through all of Rotterdam to scout locations for an upcoming project. Soaked up the sun and ate a delicious Subway cookie.

I also had three successful DJ gigs and I’m already preparing and looking forward to the next two gigs (Read preparing as: being nervous half of the time and pretending it’s not really going to happen the other half).

Birth of Aan Tafel!

On the 17th of February I have one of my most exciting gigs to date together with my collective Aan Tafel! The collective consists of Charlotte, Leon, Julie and myself. Charlotte is in the Illustration department with me at the Willem de Kooning Academy. I met Leon through her. I showed the both of them how DJing works for the first time. Leon bought their own dj deck the very next day. That must be over a year ago now.

I met Julie randomly at an event last summer. We got invited to DJ and decided to play b2b without knowing each other (b2b=back to back, means you take turns selecting and mixing, essentially DJing together) It went really well! Charlotte and Leon came to see me DJ. The four of us had a drink on the terras and talked about how we wanted to play at cool parties but couldn’t manage to get in with the cool kids. So we decided to be our own cool kids. Aan Tafel! was born. “Aan tafel” is dutch for something along the lines of “come to the table” It’s what a parent yells to their kids when dinner is ready. We want to invite all the kids to our turntable and serve them some delicious tunes ;)

We will be taking over the basement of Poing, a popular club in Rotterdam, meaning we will be curating the sound & space. Putting up some decorations and DJing all night (I have the closing set from 3:30 to 5 AM). It was kinda crazy how fast this happened. We had a meeting with the programmer of the club about potentially woking together. A week later he told us he had a lineup planned that might be fitting for us to contribute to. The next thing we know, our names or on the big poster announcing all the Poing events of February.

Sometimes stuff is not so fun

I’m torn between being exhausted and so over-ambitiously wanting to do things that it makes me nauseous. My eyes hurt from looking at screens all day, or maybe it's just a residue headache from being sick last week. I’m so happy and I am also not so happy but also I am happy. But I guess that’s life. Grateful for all of it <3

I read Jennette McCurdy’s memoir I’m Glad My Mom Died. Damn. Good read. I listened to music. I’ll recommend the Dutch band De Toegift. I especially like the first song they play in this set at 3voor12:

Keep doing life and stuff. If you have any thoughts I'D LOVE TO HEAR THEM. That's me screaming into the void that is the internet. However, now I'm screaming directly into your mailbox. Maybe that's more effective.

Liefs,

Zena

113 Cherry St #92768, Seattle, WA 98104-2205
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