Ernie Bossmann

Mini zoo

No mega stables but a mini zoo.

Figures that are sketchy and schematic or realistically precise or fanciful but indeterminable. Discarded. Traditionally crafted, industrially produced and lovingly crafted; my collection of second-hand wooden animals is a hodgepodge. (And there are people in there too.)
Until I start painting: I paint all the figures the same bright orange.
With a simple intervention I bring everything together, turn them into a series, make them my own.

I only buy second-hand and I increasingly receive them as gifts: orphaned from an inheritance, sold by scavengers, spotted by thrift enthusiasts. Camel Hans, penguin René, Berliner bear from Bad Honnef, Aunt duck, three dromedaries from Morocco, heron Niels from the Oranje Vrijmarkt and others form an ever-growing parade.

I like to work with separate fragments, figures that I can combine differently each time.
I like working with repetition.
Also in text.
But this text is my last for MvAt.
Thanks to Ans Verdijk for unbridled enthusiasm and hospitality. Kudos! Her fabulous shelter on the Oeffeltseweg in Beugen offers shelter to wooden animals in February.

Minizoo by Ernie Bossmann, on display daily from February 1 to 29 in the MvAT.