The Book of Lost Forests: Black and White paintings made of charcoal ink on paper, drawn from coals collected from burnt out forests in Oregon (USA). It explores again human relationships to nature. Compositions feel historic and vaguely narrative, but are ultimately very abstract upon closer inspection. This apparent historicity is Read more…
Tarnation: This series is an experiment in the meaning of materials. A kind of architecture is made from handmade waxes, tars and pigments. An almost ecclesiastical architecture arises out of bitumen and tar, wax and damar. Drawings made of charcoal ink, gum arabic, shellac, etc sketch a new direction for mixing Read more…
Aviaries: Both Aviaries and the series Harpies are an expression of “natures revenge” and inescapable human hubris. There is an architecture made to contain nature, in a sense to bring us closer to nature, but it is exploded and degraded. The human and historical elements are too apparent to ever allow Read more…
Harpies (Vengeful Flock): This series is an elaboration on the paper cuts from the past. Largely it is an expressionist diversion away from the literalness and narrative qualities of the paper cuts which were either done on commission or following a literary theme, such as the cantos of Dante’s Inferno. Read more…
Commissions come in all shapes and sizes. Additionally, the emotional teneur can vary quite a lot. Recently I’ve made two small paper-cuts that have served as memorials to the recently deceased: One as a pall accessory —the pall being the cloth that lays on a coffin at a funeral service— Read more…
My immersive installation “Black Eden” is open in the pop-up annex of M. Museum, in Almere. Black Eden which alternatively could be called “Carbon Garden”, is about cognitive dissonance in a scorched paradise. It’s a comment on human self image and ecology. Museum M. is making its mark by orienting Read more…
As a young man I lived in Rome. I learned Italian as one would —being before the time that speaking English was self-evident— and immersed myself in the glories of Rome: baroque architecture, ancient marbles, Carolingian mozaics, etc. But the thing that has endured with me the most is the Read more…
I’ve had three recent paper cut commissions, specifically for horizontal banners celebrating lives: a 50th anniversary, a 50th birthday, and the passing of a lived life. The Anniversary banner combined emblems of a shared life in a matrix of baroque ornament, all framing portraits of the beloved. The Birthday banner Read more…
Todd van Hulzen is also a paper cutter, mostly for fun. He makes garlands, rosettes and birthday streamers full of intricate patterns, often portraying animals and people. Here are some examples. See the more recent entries on “Rosettes” of Dante’s Inferno and on various commisioned banners.