ella nitters

New studio

2012-01-16T07:32:00.000-08:00

Some more news to start the year with: I have moved to a new studio space!!! It's located in the north of Rotterdam, in an old school building. My new adress will be:
Koraalstraat 17
3051 VE Rotterdam

For some photos, click here.

Upcoming set design projects in 2012

2012-01-16T06:40:00.000-08:00

I have started working on a number of set design projects for events that will take place over the course of 2012. First one up is the theatreplay "Het Bos van Dode Liefjes", directed by Joost Pluim, in april. In august, VIER! will be present at Lowlands again, with a new concept for "our" tower. If you have missed our Lowlands 2011 experience, check out this video for an impression. I will also be working on the set design for a new festival in Rotterdam, called "Hart van Rotterdam", organised by Ik Heet Welkom (who organised Nachtverhalen en Dagdromen last year). "Hart van Rotterdam" will take place in October and will be a multi disciplinary festival with the inner human body as a central theme. Right up my alley! And last but not least, I will be involved with the interior re-decoration of the Rietveld Theater in Delft. Theaternetwerk Delft has been given permission to use this beautiful building from the early 20th centrury, and come up with a plan for short and long term rebuilding/decorating.

So, plenty to do! But there will also be plenty time left for illustration and drawing, and, opposed to what this post might suggest, my main focus for 2012 will be on (commercial) illustration work and fine art drawing!

New website!

2011-11-07T06:08:00.000-08:00

I am proud to present my new website! It's now online here. The site (plus my whole identity and logo) was designed by Hanco Kamper from _notDef and built by Jeroen Visser from Vizi, who both did an excellent job!

Met de Spullen Bloot @ Woonbeurs 2011

2011-09-25T03:49:00.000-07:00

Our exhibition "Met de Spullen Bloot" is currently shown at the Woonbeurs. In this exhibition we display objects that have been kept away from sight in the homes of well known Dutch designers. Interior designs nowadays are often very stylish and we wondered to what extent these home interiors still reflect the personalities of the people living in it. Digging up these forgotten objects (sometimes worthless, sometimes with great emotional value) and displaying them will show a different side of the owner.

"Met de Spullen Bloot" can be seen from 24 september till 2 october, RAI in Amsterdam in the Top Design Club.

Cooperating designers & people from the design industry are: Piet Boon, Richard Hutten, Niels van Eijk & Miriam van der Lubbe, Jorre van Ast, Cok de Rooy and Thomas Eyck.

For more photos, see my Flickr page.

Human

2011-09-06T15:02:00.000-07:00

Recently finished some new illustrations for the next Human issue. Meanwhile, my website is still on it's way...planned for October!

Busy

2011-08-13T05:39:00.000-07:00

very busy working on a number of projects, such as "Zooom" for Lowlands (19-21 aug, with 3 other artists), new illustrations for the next Human issue, "Met de Spullen Bloot" for the Woonbeurs (24 sept - 2 oct, with Michiel Moormann), and my own new website.

In the meantime I thought I'd post an old little sketch I quite liked...

New illustrations for Clou magazine

2011-07-02T08:44:00.000-07:00

Chefs on Tour mural

2011-06-11T09:29:00.000-07:00

Mural for Chefs on Tour, expressing their creative process and high quality food creations through a sketchy yet refined drawing (www.chefsontour.nl).

Fence art 2011

2011-05-20T08:44:00.000-07:00

Some recent drawings

2011-03-30T03:57:00.000-07:00

The bunny is for Human #1 2011, magazine for Het Humanistisch Verbond (Humanist Alliance). The fish below is for the same magazine, to go with the animal column by philosopher Maarten Doorman.

Boekenbal 2011

2011-03-25T15:28:00.000-07:00

I designed this years entrance for the Boekenbal (annual writers' ball), in the Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam, together with Barbara Recourt.

2011 post #1

2011-01-18T15:43:00.000-08:00

A year ago I wrote my first blogpost, looking back on 2009 and making plans for 2010. I should probably post "2010" now and evaluate the year, but, january so far has been way too hectic to do so. Hopefully there will be time for reflection later on, because I really feel I need to find direction....but for now, I'll just post some of january's results: wall and ceiling embroidery concept for a home for people with dementia, Philsophia I & II (portraits of Betrand Russell and Socrates) and a set design for Atana Binoq's Night of Nights in the Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam (with VIER! about which I will post more later!).

Mural

2010-12-15T15:07:00.000-08:00

Mural I recently made:

Christmas Shopping

2010-12-01T07:38:00.000-08:00

I finally got my Giclee Art Print stuff sorted, and now have some high quality art prints available! I am also participating in a number of shops and exhibitions this month: Blaak 10 Kerststore in Rotterdam, the Weekend Winkel in Utrecht, the HYPO Kunstsuper in Delft and last but not least De Datscha in Delft. So if you want to do some Christmas Shopping, you are welcome to come to any of these venues where you will find a mixture of very orinigal presents by a variety of artists and designers! For more info about my Giclee prints, see the "Shop" page in the menu on the top right.

HYPO Kunstsuper

2010-10-22T06:14:00.000-07:00

My work in HYPO de Kunstsuper in Delft! I have 4 giclee-prints for sale there. It's like an art supermarket with lots of work from various artists from Delft. See their website.

A Book About Death

2010-10-22T05:53:00.000-07:00

I sent in two pieces for the exhibition "Ray Johnson and A Book About Death". In 2009 I also sent in some work for the original ABAD show organised by Matthew Rose (see blog here ). There have been many more ABAD shows all over the world since, and now a new show with both Ray Johnson's original work, the complete 2009 ABAD set and new contributions by artists from all over the world. The pieces I sent in for this are works I made this past year, which reflect my new experiences with the subject of death this past year, as well as my "old" anatomy/body fascination.

Datscha shop open!

2010-10-11T08:10:00.001-07:00

On friday october 1st, we opened the Datscha shop! The Datscha is a studio, shop and exhibition space in one and is located on the corner of Oosteinde and the Molslaan in the historic center of Delft. In this shop you can find a variety of art and design stuff made by a selected group of young artists. So come pay us a visit! See the website for the list of artists. More information will appear on the website in the near future! The shop is open every saturday, and during weekdays it is open whenever someone is working there, which means it will be open most of the time.

This shop is an initiative of Jeroen Visser, Bob van Vliet and myself. Jeroen and Bob are both independent designers and work in the Datscha studio space. I have worked there for about year, but am right now in the process of moving to another studio space, in Delft as well (but more about that later :) I will stay involved with the shop and other future Datscha events and exhibitions however!

Woonbeurs Amsterdam

2010-10-10T08:29:00.001-07:00

Recently, I participated in two pitching sessions at the Woonbeurs Amsterdam 2010 (the Woonbeurs is a fair in the field of home, furniture and home decoration). The first pitch was about ideas for an event or exhibition on the Woonbeurs itself. Michiel Moormann and I presented our idea, which will be revealed later, because, we won! This means we get to realise our idea on next years Woonbeurs.

The second category I participated in was the "Artist pitch", for which I presented my fine art work. The prize for this pitch was an article about your work in a home decoration magazine (EH&I). This prize went to my artist friend Caroline de Bruijn, whose beautiful work you can see here. It was a great opportunity to show my work and I got some very motivating feedback from the jury. Now, on to next years Woonbeurs for the exhibition design and hopefully more opportunities to make fine art in the meantime!

Plastische Vervorming

2010-09-12T06:51:00.000-07:00

I made a 7 m long spine for the theater production "Plastische Vervorming, het onzichtbare leven van trams" (Plastic deformation, the invisible life of trams). My intention was to express the vulnerability of the human body while at the same time use the suggestion of trams being living creatures. The location of the play is a tram depot in The Hague, and it will be performed from september 11 until october 23, on every thursday, friday and saturday. Go see it if you get the chance! For more info, see the website of Theatergroep Het Arsenaal.

Vermont Studio Center

2010-04-27T13:38:00.000-07:00

In march I spent a month as a resident in the Vermont Studio Center in (the not so very exciting town of) Johnson, in Northern Vermont, US. The fact that Johnson is a not so very exciting town makes it a great place for an artist retreat however. Having a spacious studio and little else to do gave me a great opportunity to concentrate on my work in the area of fine art. To be there with about 50 other artists and see their work has been very inspiring as well, particularly since there was such a great diversity of high quality art.

During my stay I wanted to figure out some things regarding fine art, illustration and the choice between them and also find some direction in fine art. One thing I have realised is I do not want to make a strict distinction between fine art and applied art. Partly because there is none, it’s gradual, like many things, and also I enjoy doing both and think that they can enhance each other. I have also noticed that whenever I am working on something I think of an “application” for that particular piece of work, such as “this drawing would work well as a mural”, or “this drawing would be great for a series of drawings to create a theme art book”. This made me think of the importance of the context and the way in which a work of art is viewed, such as in a museum where people come to especially to see the art or in a public space where people pass by it, from up close when reading a book or from a distance when viewing a large painting on a wall. In any case, I have discovered it is important for me to take time for experimental work, since it helps me to keep developing and evolving and this can also benefit my applied artwork. There’s a danger of becoming stuck in habits when it comes to illustration work, since most of that work needs to be done in a very short time with strict deadlines.

I had many plans for my time at the VSC but ended up working around two themes: “Rags of my anatomy” and “Spinal exercises”. Below are some results of the rags. I like the idea of my body being made up of fine, beautiful threads, disintegrating into a refined, delicate almost nothingness, so that is what I tried to investigate with these works.

2009

2010-02-01T05:26:00.001-08:00

Boekenbal and Kinderboekenbal
2009 has been a really great year for me and had a great kick-off immediately in January when I started working on designing the entrance for the Dutch annual writers’ ball, the “Boekenbal”. For me, this was a first step in the direction of set design, which is a long time -but until then, latent- ambition of mine. It was also great to work within a team of artists and designers and later on, in the fall of 2009, I also worked for the junior version of the writers’ ball, the “Kinderboekenbal”. Again, this was a fun project to work on and I met, and got to work with, some great people as well.

For the design of the entrance hall for the Boekenbal I worked together with Aliki van der Kruijs and Jeanette Jansen. They were both responsible for the swarm of origami birds. The two giant sparrows painted on hemp cloth were my responsibility, together with the title sign in the middle. This year’s theme was: “tjielp tjielp, de literaire zoo”, based on Jan Hanlo’s poem “de mus” (the sparrow).

The theme for the Kinderboekenbal was “eten en snoepen uit kinderboeken”, which basically meant it all involved a lot of food and, particularly, candy. I designed and made the decoration for the “ballroom” in an 18^th century Mozart/Rococo style. We decided on a white setting where only the food and candy was coloured, and we only used real candy for decoration. Michiel Moormann made the marshmallow chandelier and Juliette Verberk organised the workshops and activities that took place in this room.

Mooi Weer Spelen
In between the Boeken- and Kinderboekenbal, during the beginning of summer, I made a set piece for theatre duo Duplo during the Mooi Weer Spelen in Delft, which is an annual street theatre festival. The play was situated around the Oude Jan, an old church in the historic centre of Delft and I placed the set piece on the church façade.

Allerzielen Alom
One other set-design-related project I worked on was Allerzielen Alom. Although this wasn’t a “set design” project as such, there are similarities and I do see it as part of my development in that field. There were, however, more sides to this project and I will probably get back to it in another blog. The essence of Allerzielen Alom (All Souls) is to give people the possibility of commemorating their loved ones who have passed away in a serene, special and respectful setting. The tradition of All Souls is originally Catholic, but the aim of the Allerzielen Alom foundation is to give everyone, regardless of their religious or non-religious background, the opportunity for commemoration.

I was asked to “give form” to the ritual of “herinnerdingen” (herinnering = memory, ding=thing) and also worked on a light object. Herinnerdingen has to do with the meaning that objects can have for us and the memories that can be attached to ordinary things. Simply because maybe your mother always used to peel the potatoes with a specific knife, a simple object like that can suddenly bring back strong memories and emotions. People could choose one or several things or objects that remind them of their loved ones and place it in one of the spaces, along with a candle and a note. I participated on four of the organised Allerzielen Alom evenings, all four situated on different graveyards in Holland.

Drawing
Besides all this set designing I have certainly not forgotten my love for drawing. And I feel that I am developing my drawing more and more, albeit somewhat slower than I would’ve liked to. During the Boekenbal I was asked to make drawings that were to be projected on stage during the live performance of Camille Saint-Saëns’ Carnaval des Animaux. One of these is the elefant, of which I made a different version (see below) which I feel is very much the direction which I want my drawing work to take. Other drawings I worked on were the book illustrations I made for “dingen”, a hard to categorise modern kind of fairytale for grown ups. In the drawing below you see character Lo, swimming. In September I participated in “A Book About Death”, for which I made postcard drawings. I will write more about this later, along with the other death-project Allerzielen Alom. A little later in September I made another 3 postcards for the Harbour Safari in Amsterdam (Havensafari).

Editorial
As for editorial work, I have still been making some editorial illustrations for the marketing magazine Clou during the course of 2009, and was commissioned to make a series of illustrations for the magazine HUMAN (about humanism) in november. The theme of issue #4 ’09 was “value”, both in the economic and ethical sense of the word and I made five drawings of old Roman coins carrying symbols of the cardinal virtues. Apart from that every issue has a poem and article about a particular animal, in this case, a (dead) dog.

Plans for 2010
So far my overview of 2009…(To see more images of all these projects, go to: www.flickr.com/photos/ellanitters.) Now on to 2010 which is busy and full of plans already. Until the end of February I will be working on illustrations for issue #1 2010 of HUMAN, a card for Theaternetwerk Delft, possibly some drawings for Italian food label Bella Sicilia and will be preparing my residency in the USA.

I will be spending a month in the Vermont Studio Center in march. I want to use my time there to work on autonomous work, and particularly evolve my drawing. By going to the VSC, away from my everyday life, I want to force myself to do so, instead of my usual postponing behaviour. I am excited about this residency, but a bit anxious at the same time. It will be a confrontation with myself in any case and I'll see what the outcome will be.

Another exciting thing in 2010 is going to be the stage design for Duplo Toneel’s new theatre play. We have started working on the play already in a team of 7 people (2 actors, a director, a writer, a stage technician, a musician and me). This will be my first actual stage design and it is a great opportunity for me.

Something else I hope for in 2010 is either a Fonds BKVB grant, or, enough commission work to make a living, since my wwik has stopped in September 2009 and I am not planning to get any side jobs for the time being. My goal is to make a living from art and illustration alone and I want to force myself to do so. I am considering making an exception for a side job in building set designs as I feel that in that way I could learn a lot about the practical and technical aspects of it. Anyway, these are some plans and ambitions for 2010. Having written this now I can make another overview by the end of the year and see what has become of it :).