If you asked me, a lot of Smashing & Breaking had to be done before this rundown factory would be usable as a studio, that's for sure.
And by the end of the year it looked like this...
And yes, after all that Smashing & Breaking a lot of construction had to be done… by me. That'll teach me to hook up with an architect.
Meanwhile though I kept experimenting (still in the little unpleasant studio). As always, each new studio (good or bad) influenced my why of thinking about painting. Like in this painting, "Running On Empty", witch I particularly liked. (Oil on canvas, 120 x 150 cm.)
Many paintings followed, almost just as much as I destroyed, or better, repainted. Working in that small studio had a big influence on me, and not in a good sense. "Picnic" (oil on canvas, 120 x 150 cm) was one of the survivors.
Another “Picnic”. (Oil on canvas, 120 x 150 cm.)
This big painting “The Question” was inspired by an experience I had as a young boy. (A memory I used ones before in the graphic novel "The Order of the False Knights" from 1997.)
That year I created two set designs. The first one was "Altijd Prijs!"
This was one of my best set designs, I think. The shaky relationship between two guys in a city was symbolized by an asphalt-platform that could unexpectedly move a few inches sideways, without that the actors knew exactly when. During the play the frequency was going up, from hardly any in the beginning to constantly at the end. It kept the two actors constantly on their toes, so to speak.
The music was composed and performed live by Jean Yves Evrard.
The second set & poster design that year was: "Broeders van Liefde".
This play was loosely based the relationship between two brothers, each sort of jealous of the other.
To mark that precarious relationship, I had 7,5 tons of clear crushed glass, normally used as material for a garden path, deposited on the stage on top and in front of a single white canvas.
Meanwhile in my old studio every so often I made a new fur-painting, like this one of crows in the snow (140 x 300 cm). The crows are actually the unpainted black fur underneath.