Sam Dillemans - Authors

Sam Dillemans - Authors, a set on Flickr.

Remarkable expo of more than 300 portraits of known authors (creators), painted between 2010 and 2012 by Belgian expressionist painter Sam Dillemans; superb work and quite a few original painting techniques. A ingenious creator of masterpieces of the plastic arts. (I shot the photographs on a Canon PowerShot S110, and when its battery died, I did the rest with... an iPhone 5! Pas mal...) 

I didn't quite like expressionism in the past. I found it to be an articulation of some form of anger, or a cover-up for the ...lack of painting skills! I'd never think of Ingres or any of the Flemish primitives of the 15th Century becoming expressionist. These artists were genuine masters of the strictly visual aesthetic painting craft and sketching skills. On the other hand, Rouault's head of Jesus (that I first saw at the museum of beaux arts in Ghent) seemed to me a peculiar waste of paint.

Sam Dillemans - Humo Magazine

First time I saw Sam Dillemans in a Woestijnvis documentary, I was struck by his power, obsession, self-criticism, tense motivation, persistence, personality in general, but I wasn't sure I liked his work, nor was I capable of totally grasping what he said about the arts and his canvasses. I even thought he was being slightly pretentious, not to mention arrogant. After visiting the 'Authors' I felt otherwise. I am not an art critic, nor I know that much about visual arts, but I have 'painted' amateur stuff all my life to know how extremely difficult it is, and how much skill you need, to paint meaningful portraits. Looking at Dillemans portraits I became more than convinced that the man is a talented painter who didn't get to that by an intricate play of nature and inherited information stored in a few thousand chemical connections in his genetic double helix, but by an immense motivation to become one of the great Masters, and by sheer hard labor, an insanely hard toil that often insulates and isolates him from the rest of the world for years. 'The hardest struggle is standing in front of a white canvas', Picasso once said, and Dillemans added, 'if it was so for him, imagine how hard it's gonna be for the rest of us'. This is a struggle that Dillemans fights every single day that he spends in his atelier. At the same time, he exercises (boxing) like an obsessed too, to maintain his physical strength and health condition, and make sure he lives to become 90, and continue painting until then. By doing that, to be able to potentially reach the perfection of a Michelangelo, or a Rubens. He sets his targets that high indeed, because only then will he be able to achieve the excellence he is after. Only hard work can lead to the answer. I said that again and again...

In 'Authors', Dillemans painted famous creators and artists, literature, visual, performing. He calls them all 'authors' by virtue of the meaning of the word in English. Reminds me of Jobs's campaign 'Think Different' in the nineties. Besides, few of the characters used in that campaign (Callas, Picasso, etc...) are also among Dillemans's portraits. By definition, such painting subjects had a huge personality, each one of them, men or women. Writers, poets, performers or plastic and visual artists. It almost seems to you like magic, when you look real close at any of the Dillemans Authors, and typically feel like lost in the thousands of colors and dry brush strokes of paint mass, forming quite a plastic texture on top of the canvas, and then, very clearly, like out of nowhere, you recognise the personality (not just the figure) of the painted subject by the play and relative position of few equally sophisticated as simple strokes of Dillemans's brush on decisive positions of the underlying canvas. It's a cause of awe for the viewer. And adoration of the Master.

The expo runs until Sunday June 16th. Don't miss it!

So, what do they do with their free time?

That was the very question I received from a friend, as a reaction to my previous blog about labor ethics in Greece and the West. He also gave part of the answer himself. "Do they go to the beach and enjoy a drink and a swim?". That is certainly an answer with a large cut in the statistics piechart if one decided to perform a gallop. But they also do a lot more. Especially the men. Hanging in any of the dozens bars for hours in any downtown of any city, large or small. Visiting my birth-town of Alexandroupolis in the North East of the country in October 2010 (so, a lot later than summer vacationing), I was walking at 10 am on a normal weekday on the city's main-street (Dimokratias), and I was shocked to find all bars packed with young people, sipping with noise their Italian style coffee and a variety of liquor beverages. At 7-8 euros a pop, mind you! I asked my Greek companion, a longtime acquaintance still living in town, 'who are these people?' and 'how come they are not at work, spending so much money in leisure when the country's collapsing?'. Visibly embarrassed, he tried to 'justify' the 'obvious'. He thus gave me the most incredible excuse: "Some may be unemployed, some are students, and some might be working shifts, like policemen or so (there's no industry in the area)". I thought he was convinced I was simply born yesterday, and took me for a moron. I pretended I agreed and simply 'forgot' the matter, there was no point arguing. Be sure, another huge piece of the time spending piechart goes to 'lazing around and hanging at bars and coffeeshops'. Wasting time, like the song goes. At least Redding was only sitting at the 'dock of the bay'. Only 'time wasting'. No 'money spending'.

How about sleeping time? I don't know about that. I certainly know of people sleeping more than 12 hours a day, and lazying for the rest of it, criticizing each and every man in their step, predicting the demise of the country. Of course, how can a country's economy advance if all were like them? Thankfully there are not too many obsessed souls like this, I hope. The cases I am aware of are quite exceptional, and, by the way, Paris, France is also full of likewise cases too. They call them there clochards. Or homeless and vagabonds, elsewhere. However, I don't believe Greeks sleep more than the rest of us. Those who work for themselves and want success, work really hard, like the rest of us in the West. Especially in the region of Attica, around Athens that is, the microclimate is such that you don't need much sleep anyway. I spent 5 years in the capital forty years ago studying at the Polytechnic and I remember I didn't need more than five hour sleep each day. And still felt fine. So, sleep, with some exceptions must still be a thin slice of the pie.

Recently a growing pastime appears to be quite conspicuous and emerging. Spending time online, surfing the internet, reading blogs, posting 'likes' on Facebook. Yep, Greeks adopted the internet big time. Most don't have a clue yet finding their way thru, like a cousin who once admitted the only thing he was able to do is surf to a homepage with real time coverage of tennis games (in his sixties he was an obsessed player and a pro-game fan, believe it or not). He seemed to be intrigued by the iPad, when I demoed one to him, but he felt he wouldn't be able to handle it. Too complicated, he said. Could he still watch his tennis games? I doubt it, I told him, as those obscure sites he watched are used to show TV clips on Flash technology, at which point he switched off. Despite their online fluency or lack of it though, blogging and commenting on blogposts is a great pastime for Greeks. Facebooking too. The one thing you can never blame a Greek is lack of knowledge of technology trends (iPhones and Cayennes by inhabitant ratio the highest on the planet), and what is also trending in terms of popular brands at any time. Social networks are extremely popular too, as the proverb about "opinions are like a-holes, everybody's got one" especially goes to Greeks, and this from the times of Democracy in the Athenian Agora 2500 years ago. So, having an opinion about everything is so embedded in the double helixes of the Greek DNA. This represents a huge slice of the gallop pie. Commenting and blaming all but oneself, that is.

Another not too surprising time spending in Greece is anything related to a form of cultural activity. The country bursts with artists in any color and shape, visual, performance artists, writers and poets, concert performers, actors, movie directors, etc. Preferably most belonging to a leftwing party. A way to be considered 'cultural' or 'cool' is to support Karl Marx's ideas. Regardless whether you ever read the dude or not. The cultural bit is a national tradition, and an average Greek is far above anyone else I have known in Europe and the US in terms of cultural awareness. Of course it takes a lot of time to read and watch, and this is a large slice of the pie too. For many however, cultural social events are the place to be only to be able to show-off nouveau-riche acquired goodies from known or fake popular brands, as the cultural dimension of the events they attend wouldn't wake-up their cultural ignorance if it even slapped them in the face.

How about sexual endeavors related time spending? Say what? Naaaay! Greek population only grows with immigrants these days; the obvious correlation between sex and new-borns justifies my answer. Besides, with a crisis like in recent years who can think of shagging? That's only for horny tourists arriving during the summer. I don't believe that's any different from anywhere else, although Greek male population think of themselves as the greatest lovers around, like Italians and French, that is. They are probably more active than the Swiss, but then, every single male on the planet is more active than them Swiss. Buying condoms by the dozen, one for each month... They work too many hours to think about sex, anyways. As for Greeks, take a small to medium slice here.

So, in conclusion, I believe the not-too-scientific response to my good friend from Vegas, concerning Greek free-time allocation, is: enjoying the great weather, hanging on bars and coffeeshops for socializing downtown, attending shedloads of cultural happenings, maybe some napping and lightweight shagging here and there, and a lot of social online activity.

If you have a different opinion, lemme know. Comments are free and unregulated.

The difference a labor culture can make...

In the news this morning I'm reading that Greek high school (secondary education) teachers (as a side comment, for obscure reasons I never understood they always called themselves 'professors', a job title reserved for higher education lecturers in the rest of the world; humble Greeks, you see...) are thinking of sabotaging the country-wide exams in the coming weeks (a sort of Greek version of the French baccalaureate). Reason was the Ministry's decision, among other austerity measures, to increase their weekly labor requirement by 2 whole hours, that is 120 entire minutes, or 7200 secs! 

Most of us in the Western world who have gone down to 36 hours a week from 40, when I started my career, would sympathise with the teachers. But then again, I always worked north of 12 hours a day and a few more during the weekend, which brings my average closer to 60 than the 'legal' 40. The 40 h/w was merely theoretical. In June 1997 I found myself in the middle of a serious company takeover and subsequent management planning process for merging two software companies and plan the transition. For the entire month of June we all worked 18 hour days, in Dallas Texas, at the offices inside the well known area of Crescent Court. We stayed at the luxurious hotel right opposite the offices to which our company spent a fortune for a 5 to 6 hour sleep tops, if not less. They used to feed us four meals a day during these 18 hours (they kept three shifts of cooks for this reason), and in between snacks to provide us energy and keep us going. In the US meal services are always in abundance; they are only quite strict on alcohol usage (we had some wine from time to time), for the rest we could have whatever our heart desired. I picked up a few pounds easily after a month like that. When we finished each night at 1 or 2 am (there were reprimands if anyone quit his/her desk before then) there was nothing left in the hotel bar and the barmen already had closed their shift. We sat at the hotel lobby telling jokes about the day, and having fun and plundering our room minibars in collective nightcap parties (where did we find the energy?). I was then literally and culturally shocked to realise that US was what it was primarily because of the hard labor of its people, and second, I could also surprisingly adopt the same labor rhythm and daily load in my working life. I lived like this for 30 days, the entire month of June, working for 30*18 = 540 hours, if not more... If you think I am pulling your leg, I can produce in a heartbeat more than two dozen witnesses to confirm that in their word of honour or before the courts! I swear.

So, Greek teachers are complaining about their workload. I asked a friend what she thought the teachers' weekly workload was. I knew from myself, that at least in this country, as a part time lecturer at the University of Antwerp, they have doubled the total hours of my lecturing and maintained the same pay percentage. It happened gradually, and Belgium is far better than Greece in terms of current economic crisis, certainly Flanders, wherein I live. So, I was anxious to find out about the Greek teachers' weekly workload. What are we talking about? 40 hours? 45? What? I knew Greek teachers have time off (big time) during several months in the summer, and also four more weeks during Xmas and Easter. Nevertheless, they got such a hard work to perform, poor buggers. So, their weekly workload is a very serious business. Nobody touches this, to add just like that another two whole hours! God forbid. What the heck?! Are you fokkin' mad? 

Are you still waiting to find out how many hours these dudes work a week? Simply curious? I'm gonna tell ya! No worries... Brace for the worst, kids! Well, I heard, and I repeat, I heard this from a reliable source, a Greek teacher's workload for the week is 17 entire hours of 60 minutes each! Yes sir! 17 hours! This is less of what I was doing in a day during that fabulous June 1997! So, in that month I had worked more hours than Greek High School 'Professors' are doing in a year! And they now threaten to throw more oil in the Greek clusterf*ck austerity bonfire by protesting against their Ministry's additional requirement. 

Chance had it that I watched a recorded TV show yesterday, aired in the Dutch TV a few weeks ago, about a kid travelling and interviewing people in the Silicon Valley. He reported about startups and their employees' lifestyle, and also their rate of success. In that program he spoke of Whatsup, Instagram, Pebble watch, and a few others. What I was mostly impressed by were two things: That only 5% of those ventures succeed and become world news. And second, these people work like their life depended on that. The reporter showed us an interview with one of these people, a founder and CEO of his company, who during the final days before the launch of an app, he worked for 22 hours a day! He only slept two, and he called that entire app launching period his 'Death March'! He slept under his desk, his fingers had grown cysts with liquid by the millions of his keyboard taps; he was writing notes to read when he woke up to know where he was, as his brain, after just 2 hours sleep 'lost access capability to his memory', he said, for him to recognise his whereabouts, and more goodies like that. Work until death do us part, sort of thing.

The moral of the story. Not many things come to you by a strike of sheer luck. You can look for really lucky ones as for needles in a stack of hay. Hard labor is the only way. Manual, mental, combination of the two. What modern Greeks were taught by their PASOK leaders during the last 40 years was how to steal from everywhere around, lead a life of luxury on credit or stolen goods, and with as little work as possible. And if anybody tries to merely 'stroke' those privileges, then jump behind leftist parties with loads of K's in their acronyms, and claim your rights with unseen passion. Protest and burn down the house. In days like these, I like Frau Merkel, a lot! A whole lot!

The 'Sagan' touch

Much ado about nothing? The energy spent in the media about the infamous incident at the winners' podium in this year's Tour of Flanders is beyond belief. In short, Peter Sagan, ending second in this year's day-race 'Tour of Flanders' on Easter Sunday, after almost 250 kms of cycling toil, thought no better than pretend to pinch the blonde's 'derriere' smiling at the photographers in front, while she was busy kissing innocently Fabian Cancelara, this year's Swiss winner. Poor Sagan had to apologise to the blonde, and give her flowers later that day. Female models playing such cosmetic roles during trophy ceremonies in the cycling events of this country are euphemistically named 'flowerpots' in Greece, and right they are them Greeks to call them so, as the only aim of the winner's kiss by a blonde is to add... I don't know what really...
        I enjoyed the readers' comments in articles and blogs about the incident following Sagan's touch. Many said he was right to do so. Others got crossed with him and wrote whatever your heart desires. Simply hilarious. Cancelara himself looked quite puzzled with the cheek-kisses by the blonde and the brunette (the latter rushing away with a smile in the shot above, while the blonde seemed to enjoy and continue what she was paid to do), as the poor sod's wife with their child was watching them just a few yards away.

       Just a few moments ago I got the answer I was looking for to my righteous question: Does this thing with winner's kisses by young models happen when the cyclists are themselves female? Do then chippendale boys come up to kiss them winners? No? Why not? Apparently, in the recent US Redlands Bicycle Classic, the number three of the race (Australian born Loren Rowney) decided to pinch a man's butt while he was shaking hands with the race's number one. Way to go, girl! I loved every bit of that picture, which I am glad to copy here for reference...
        On a serious note, someone with authority should stand up and teach those race organisers once and for all a lesson they'd never forget. Like forcing them on a winner's stage with their bare asses, and have the entire female contingent of East Flanders (from 8 to 88 years old) step by and pinch the f*ckers real good. Who ever said that we men want to see ceremonies with 'flowerpots' like that? And, for what is worth, where are all the so called 'feminist' organisations in Belgium, swallowing the tasteless 'ceremonial show-offs' by those male chauvinist dickhead race organisers? What is this? The 60ies? For crying out loud!

Thatcher

I wanted to title my post this morning with a reference to Baroness Thatcher's having noticed the movie posters of the 2001 blockbuster "The mummy returns", on her way to address a Tory rally in Plymouth, UK, and she wondered indeed whether they weren't simply referring to her. Unfortunately, as I was searching the exact data of the incident, I fell into the obituary by the Telegraph and "too late for that!" I thought. Many others are equally smart and much faster than I will ever be...

Anyways, I have been quite fortunate in my life to have seen the extraordinary woman on one occasion, only a couple meters away from where I stood, when we invited her back in 1998 to a Sterling Software User Conference in Dallas, TX, as a non-technical keynote speaker (we used to invite personalities of the sort, and customers really loved it; on one occasion we had a Lovell/Kranz double act about Apollo 13). It was after Thatcher's keynote, when she was escorted to a little tour around the conference stands. I remember she was extremely upbeat that day, and she didn't mind signing autographs. One of our female colleagues, very proud indeed as Thatcher came from Venus too, emerged as one of those with an autograph of hers on the back of a Sterling business card. A hilarious quote I remember of Thatcher's on that day, during her keynote, was about the then President of China. She referred to a meeting she had with him when she was PM, many years earlier, and told us she was reasonably impressed by his skills. "I could have used him in my cabinet", she stated, at the audience's ultimate amusement. Yep, Maggie was simply the best! She'll probably get the house in order up there in heavens where she arrived earlier this week...

My prime motivation for posting this today is not that I feel particularly qualified to say anything about this giant of leadership in world politics - who am I after all? - but about the lack of respect by younger people for her personage. I saw this picture at BBC this morning and was sickened by its view. Slogans like 'the bitch is dead' written on T-shirts, and a youth 'drinking' bubbly from a bottle to celebrate her passing. I wonder whether he didn't pick it up empty from a nearby litter and was just posing to show off (his utter thickness). Now tell me, how useless, brain-dead and good for nothing does one need to be to do something like that? Is this the kind of youth that is supposed to rule the world and make it a better place for us all to live in? Dream on. Thankfully, most sane people around, I'd like to believe, would think the way I do about those demonstrating jerks. Centuries after they do pass and disappear into nothingness themselves, the History will still remember and quote Baroness Thatcher for her contributions to the UK and the World, whereas, at the same time, the BBC picture with the drinking youth, most likely unborn during Thatcher's reign as a PM, will have vanished into oblivion too...