post by Grubb
Our friend Hendrik met us on the terrace outside Pavlov’s Bar and Grill in Den Haag this afternoon. Hendrik van Leeuwen is an artist (hendrikvanleeuwen.nl) who teaches painting and reviews art for numerous publications. Along with his wife Gina, he was to have accompanied us to the Vermeer exhibit at the Rijksmuseum on Sunday, but he got slammed with a cold and had to cancel. Today he was well enough to teach his morning class and bike over to Pavlov’s to see us before we head to Copenhagen tomorrow.
I always relish talking with Hendrik about painterly things. We both marveled at how Vermeer, the father of eleven children living in close quarters, managed to depict people caught up the quietest of moments. Hendrik sees this as an intensity of focus; I see it as fervent escape, which, I imagine, amounts to the same thing. I found it interesting that during our conversation Hendrik told us about how, when he was six or seven, he purposely disappeared into a forest while out walking with his parents. He didn’t know where he was going, but felt excited about losing himself in the woods. He ended up finding a sunlit glade where he absorbed himself in an atmosphere that was magical. When he returned home he was surprised to see his mother in tears. He didn’t understand that his desire to stray from the chosen path could be so upsetting. Till this day he is fascinated by what happens when a set pattern is changed. It’s part of his art, it’s part of his outlook on life.
A not-so-subtle hint at Pavlov’s.
Interesting that the sign is in English, but most Dutch speak it, at least somewhat, and English is pretty much the universal language.
Many Dutch speak several languages which makes sense because almost no one else on the globe speaks Dutch.
I would be interested in hearing what Hendrick things about the generative AI image programs like midjourney or dall-e. The whole idea of those programs is to generate set patterns based on what they have been trained on so he might not find them interesting.
Interesting question. Perhaps I will pose it by email.