In Between 17: Art In Transit

02/27/20 • 67 min

Several years ago when I wasn’t really sure what direction my life was taking, one of the ideas I kept coming back to was getting a Volkswagen Westfalia van and just driving around the country, allowing the universe to put interesting people and experiences in my path rather than trying to follow a specific plan. I hadn’t started podcasting yet, nor had I picked up my paint brushes again, so the “what I would be doing to actually support myself” aspect of it was pretty nebulous. Still, I loved the idea and for years it was a running joke between my friend Jude and me. Whenever one of us was dealing with some sort of personal or existential challenge, the other would respond with “well, you could always get a Westfalia van and just drive around.”

For Dutch photographer Maarten Rots and his wife Anne, the dream of van life has become a reality. For 6 to 8 months a year, they trade their home in the Netherlands for a Ford Transit camper van and travel throughout Europe, often without a fixed destination. For Maarten, this way of traveling almost by instinct has proven to be the catalyst for some of his most compelling work both as an itinerant solo artist and as a collaborator with other artists he meets along the way.

While I know the reality of it is not always as romantic as the way we see it from a distance, I can’t say I’m not just a little envious. In this conversation, I caught up with Maarten in Portugal where he was preparing a pop-up exhibit of his work, appropriately titled In Transit, at a local gallery.

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CONNECT

You can find Maarten on Instagram @maartenrots, or on his website at https://maartenrots.nl. Also, be sure to check out his magazine March & Rock.

If you have an interesting story to share, I’d love to hear from you. Email me at [email protected] or connect with me on Instagram @jefferysaddoris.

Music in this episode: Take Me Higher (Jahzzar) / CC BY-SA 4.0

If you enjoy listening to In Between, please consider leaving a review or rating wherever you listen or sharing it on social media.

CONNECT

You can find Maarten on Instagram @maartenrots, or on his website at https://maartenrots.nl. Also, be sure to check out his magazine March & Rock.

If you have an interesting story to share, I’d love to hear from you. Email me at [email protected] or connect with me on Instagram @jefferysaddoris.

Music in this episode: Take Me Higher (Jahzzar) / CC BY-SA 4.0

Previous Episode

Process Driven 32: Karl Taylor

This might be one of the most process driven episodes of
Process Driven
yet. I’ve known Karl Taylor for more than a decade. I was introduced to his work by my friend Patrick in the form of a DVD of Karl‘s
Photography Master Class
. What struck me straight away was Karl‘s enthusiasm for photography – that and his encyclopedic knowledge of the medium. 12 years after its initial release, Karl has created a brand new remastered version of his original introduction to photography built on a decade of learning and refining what was already an incredible understanding of both the art and science of photography. In this conversation we talk about some of the things he’s learned over the past 10 years, including a deep-dive into the biology of how we see and process images.

CONNECT WITH KARL
Website: https://karltaylor.com
Platform: https://karltayloreducation.com
Instagram: https://instagram.com/karltaylorphotography

MUSIC
Please Listen Carefully
(Jahzzar) / CC BY-SA 4.0

Next Episode

Iteration 61: Hang On Tightly, Let Go Lightly

Do you know the Serenity prayer? Even if you don’t know it by name, you’ve likely heard it. It goes:

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, And wisdom to know the difference.”

Originally written as part of a sermon in the 1930s by theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, the Serenity prayer has been adopted by a number of twelve-step programs, most notably Alcoholics Anonymous.

Regardless of whether or not you are religious or part of a twelve-step program, the core of the Serenity prayer - change and acceptance - are ideas that virtually everyone struggles with at one point or another. I know I do.

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