Dream a little dream of me…

Already a year ago, after a decade of deliberation, I decided to finally cut the knot and go for creative entrepreneurship. Since then I have felt more inspired in life than ever before. Perhaps most of all because of all the sweet, nice and interesting people I’ve met.

 

In the past year, among other things, I came across the organization Don’t-do-it-yourself. Don’t-do-it-yourself organises networking events, where it’s not so much about networking, but more about working for each other. For me, it represents a guarantee that I will have the most inspiring day or evening, full of brainstorming and sharing cool ideas. Arnoud and Marcel and their friends always know so well how to inspire people, to make them let go of what they know, let go of fears about a room filled with new people, and to just have a wonderful afternoon. Every time the best new connections arise. (Dutchies: kom op, waar wacht je op, meld je aan!)

 

When Don’t-do-it-yourself announced that they would organize an evening especially for illustrators, I immediately responded. They were scouting for illustrators to work on a book about the analyzing of dreams. Interesting! We came with dozens of us to team up with the writers. I’ve already showed you before what work I made that night. After submitting it I had to wait for months to know if I was selected and as you’d expect by now…

 

I did it! I’m in the book!

 

ellen vesters wat heb jij gedroomd vannacht

 

The book has turned out beautiful. Dream Coach Nicoline Douwes Isema attracted writer Cathelijne Esser to put all her knowledge into words and they have certainly succeeded. In a very accessible and entertaining way, they discuss how your brain works at night and how you can make the most use of all those nocturnal images. Besides the compelling content the book is filled with the works of talented illustrators.
(Unfortunately for now it is only available in dutch)

Find out more about the power of dreams here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_y5fJ_t3zvQ
http://www.wathebjijgedroomdvannacht.nl/boek/

 

ellen vesters wat heb jij gedroomd vannacht

 

ellen vesters wat heb jij gedroomd vannacht

 

ellen vesters wat heb jij gedroomd vannacht sloth luiaard

 

 

7 Days of Inspiration

Let me tell you about a beautiful dutch initiative. In 2009 Martijn Aslander felt inspired by the clean up project in Estland and decided to found the 7 Days of Inspiration. His idea: to give the Netherlands an upgrade by spreading inspiration on social goodwill, culminating in 7 Days of Inspiration.

 

7 Days of inspiration has grown to be a week full of positivity.

 

This year the 7 Days took place in the first week of march. 14 Dutch cities were involved! All kinds of people came together to start all kinds of inspirational sustainable initiatives.

I contributed to the magazine that was launched that week. The magazine found it’s inspiration in a dutch part of the twitter community called “dare to ask”. You can use the hashtag #daretoask if you have some burning question, and with which you can make an appeal to other tweeps to help you out. The magazine thought this was characteristic of social goodwill.

41 Professionals collaborated in this magazine. Illustrators and photographers were asked to use a tweet as inspiration for their art. The one I used said: who wants to make a dance of joy with me?

My illustration:

 

ellen vesters vreugdedans dance twitter

 

ellen vesters vreugdedans dance twitter

 

Very happy when I opened the magazine (and the paper smelled sooo good!):

 

ellen vesters vreugdedans dance twitter

 

Here’s a link to the complete magazine, I am on page 31:

http://www.7dimag.nl/

 

Poetry Collaboration

It’s been a little while ago, but I wouldn’t want you to miss out on this fascinating collaboration. In february, together with the amazing Gilly Rochester and Daria Hlazato I was featured on the Creaure Mag blog with an illustration accompanying a grim poem by Ben Macnair.

The image of a crime scene immediately made me think of an infamous, brutal murder in the Netherlands. On the 2nd of november, 2004, filmmaker Theo van Gogh was murdered by an extremist, because of his controversial opinions. The illustration I made was inspired by one of the most well known pictures from this time. The ice bears are a reference to the snow in Bens poem and to the white suits, worn by the crime scene investigators.

 

Bens poem and my illustration:

Crime Scene
Don’t follow the red snow,
it is a warning,
that around here are
Grim fairy tales
with an eighteen certificate.

ellen vesters crimescene