All that a summer can be. Moinhos do Dao 2010.

What a summer!! The summer of 2010 at The Moinhos do Dao was one to remember. The experience of running my mom’s rural tourism business on the Dao river in Portugal could not have been more positive. The Moinhos was beautiful as ever, and the work that has been done on our accommodations and facilities like the kitchen, made the place even more welcoming. The highlight of this summer’s experience was the way the team of volunteers got along and did their work. We were in a flow together and that amazing to observe.
Having fun doing this work is very dependent on the people you work with and also who you work for: our guests. Also that aspect could not have been better. What fun, interesting and relaxed people visit the Moinhos! And how easily everyone got along!

We had a great team of volunteers. Many thanks to all of them for making it such a fun and relaxed summer together!

Clockwise from top left: George, rebecca, Sophie, katy, Jan, Eva, Noor, Marcel, Paulo.

Handimals

Our hands have ‘animalesque’ qualities, and are a versatile base for creating animals, and creatures that can come to live by moving our hands. I have started experimenting with various animals like birds, a crab, cat and just eyes, creating a more abstract creature. The first time I executed this craft was for Crab Cove Nature Center in Alameda California. It was a very successful first try although I learned that, unless I bring pre-drawn cut-out shapes, this is a craft for children in 3^rd& 4^th grade (8+).

Re-activating Gerard Scholtenstraat 96a

In 1997 the city council of Rotterdam granted a group of homeowners, home renters and squatters in the Gerard Scholtenstreet a 15-year ‘ownership’ of their houses. This was the successful result of a lobby for an alternative plan to keep the houses inhabited instead of the housing companies proposal to tear them down. I was one of the lucky members of this group of inhabitants know as ‘2012 Vereniging’.

Two of the 25 units stayed uninhabited for social, construction and storing purposes. One of them was a burnt out first floor that we used as a bike garage for several years (house nr 96a). In 2004, I proposed to restore the space and give it basic facilities such as a toilet, water, heat and electricity. We started with a little budget from the 2012 Vereniging. During the process we decided that 96a should be made available for small-scale social and artistic activities by the members of the 2012 Vereniging which would give the space a social function in the street and neighborhood. This made it possible to get local funding for the project. In May 2007 the project was granted an ‘Opzomerster’, a local award for projects that contribute to the social cohesion of a neighborhood.

Brazil experience 1.

During the months of March and April 2006 I worked as a crafts teacher for the NGO ‘Perola Negra’ (Black Pearl) in Joao Pessoa, the capital of the state of Paraiba in the North East of Brazil. For the first time in my life I organized workshops in drawing painting, and mask making for kids between 5 and 17, who lived in the poor neighborhood ‘Cruz das Armas’. The experience was irreplaceable.
When I came to Joao Pessoa I expected a team of educators but the NGO was only doing Capoeira and dance workshops at the time I arrived. Without any experience I started a process of trial and error in organizing and running the workshops. We (the NGO, the kids and myself) learned a lot, and had a lot of fun making it all happen. We worked with drawings based on Capoeira movements, the kids designed a logo using their own initials, they learned to mix colors, and make their own pallet. With the Friday group we used plaster and paper Mache to make masks that resembled their favorite animals.

Brazil experience 2.

Proud kids are posing with the masks we made over a period of 6 weeks.  Clockwise starting with the pig, we see a Dalmatian bear, a Phoenix, a Dragon, a Tiger, a Butterfly and an Elephant that lost its trunk.

Brazil experience 3.

A community center in the east of Joao Pessoa invited me to do a painting workshop on a Saturday afternoon for ‘some children from the neighborhood’. I brought my materials to what I thought was going to be a small Saturday afternoon program. It turned out to be a event that only took place once every three months, and more than 40 children showed up. I did what I could with the materials, space and assistance I had and in 3 hours time 30 kids painted ‘the tree they imagined to be’. Later that week I returned to the center with my friend Almeda, to give the trees a permanent presence in the community center. The result were three murals of fantastic forests ‘built’ with the kids trees.

Face Painting

Since 2000 I have been doing Face Painting for children. I have been the resident Face Painter for the Block Parties on the street where I used to live, at birthday parties for friends and family, and at my job in the Adventure Playground.
I paint clowns, ghosts, flowers, princesses, camouflage, butterflies and animals and action heroes, like Spiderman or Bat Man.