Finally, after almost a year back in Ghent, I found a four room apartment in the center. Rundown but cheap. It even had a small garden.
It felt as if I finally was getting some were with the enamel paintings too. They became "simpler" and were painted on wood panels.
In a way, the enamel-paintings came very close to the fur-paintings.
But the fur-paintings were at that time my main thing.
"Triptych" (varnish on artificial fur, 135 x 190 cm). This work, after it was sold, was shown several times at the museum Atelier 340 in Brussels. The first time was at the show "Black in sculptural art" (18/6 - 17/10/1993), where it became one of the main attractions, especially because it was hanging between the black eggs from Marcel Broodthaers and a huge black piece by Bram Bogart, without loosing it's own.
"Triptych" (varnish on artificial fur, 135 x 220 cm). This painting was featured at a solo show at Art Twente, Holland and became my first serious sell, price wise that is.
Although it started off with fixating (with varnish) coloured fur, I soon only used black fur on which I applied several oil paint layers to get a deep monochrome color. It led to some of my most popular series, like for instance the "Cornfields" (varnish & oil on artificial fur, 140 x 140 cm).
Another popular series were the wolves. "The Pack" (oil on artificial fur, 130 x 200 cm).
"Cry Wolf" (oil on artificial fur, 135 x 160 cm).
A self portrait from around that time. A self portrait from around that time. I didn't do much of those.
I also picked up sculpting again, but instead of wood I used artificial fur. I designed a form, very much like a teddy bear, and stuffed it with foam. The idea behind that was if you could make an installation with toys why not creating them yourself?
(Newspaper clipping.) The idea of designing the toys myself to make an installation came to me when I participated in a big group show. One of the offered locations was an empty furniture store. Interesting place but ill suited for paintings, I thought. Hence the teddybear-installation. They quickly became known as the "Black plague" or "The nightmare". I myself preferred "The playing monks". One thing was sure, the more light you shine on them, the darker they became...