Patrick van de Ven Interview 1/6th July

Started by Graham Lee, April 04, 2008, 11:32:37 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 3 Guests are viewing this topic.

Graham Lee

Patrick has also very kindly agreed to answer any questions you may have for him,
he is a busy man but has kindly agreed to be interviewed from the 1st/6th July.
His work is just stunning, I worked with him at The Cafe Royal when I was helping Colin make the balloon dresses &
Patrick decorated the room with over 100 different cartoon characteurs.
When you walked into the room it was breathtaking.
Will see if I have some photos from this event & that it's ok to post them here for you to see.
For more details about Patrick's work please checkout,
http://www.patrick.balloonhq.com

Graham Lee
"Lets Improve Our Art"
Balloon Excellence 2012 Award Winner
For Services to the Balloon Community.
https://www.balloonartwholesale.co.uk
http://www.sempertexballoons.co.uk

Graham Lee

#1
Patrick, here are the first set of questions for you;

1, What road led you into balloon modelling?

2, when did you get started with balloons?

3, What's your best twisting experience?

4, What is the worst thing that has ever happened to you during a ballooning/entertaining session?

5, What do you most enjoy about twisting & why?

6, What's your favourite age to entertain?
"Lets Improve Our Art"
Balloon Excellence 2012 Award Winner
For Services to the Balloon Community.
https://www.balloonartwholesale.co.uk
http://www.sempertexballoons.co.uk

Roger

#2
Hi Patrick I would like to start by saying how I love your work. What especially impresses me is the sense of realism you can bring to your sculptures. The series of birds you have done are just so incredibly life like.  It also amasses me how you can be in a shopping centre see some one wearing a shirt with a design on and just recreate it. (Encase you have not worked it out yet I am a big fan)  

I love trying to work out how you have made some thing and recreate it myself (but as you have such a wonderful technical ability it is not always easy)

My first question is do you intend to produce an instructional DVD or CD & if you do would you use some of your own music on it?

How do you come up with the ideas do you see bits of other sculptures in the new one?

Do you ever teach and if you do would you think of coming over to the UK to take a class?

And finally what happened to the Dutch team in the Euros I had them down to win?
When it comes to the day I arive at the pearly gates I hope to slide in sideways saying to st Peter WOW!!! what a ride.
http://www.iglobo.co.uk
http://www.twitter.com/@iglobouk

Patrick

#3
1, What road led you into balloon modelling?
2, when did you get started with balloons?


To answer both questions, there are actually two roads here: one path of entertainment, the other one of creativity and artistry.
Started in 1988, I've been performing for 20 years now. The first 10 years I was a mime, doing a successful robot-act and I would occasionally perform as a doll in a shopping window; literally doing nothing ;)
I got in contact with a juggling course to assist with some local events, which lead me to another direction, entertainment-wise.
By that time everyone was doing the 'living statue' thing and I gladly moved on to something else: circus skills; something also everyone did, but refreshing to me.
Trying to make it unique I offered it as an interactive workshop in a package for birthdays, family events, sport clubs and schools; something I still enjoy doing today.
Next to the circus activities I developed a clown character in which I would combine circus and mime elements. We're around the turn of the century now.
While doing the clown character I would gradually stop the face paint and perform as my self.
Around this time I was always open to new things that I could add to my performance.
In a toy store I noticed a bag of 15 modelling balloons with a few instructions on the back.
I brought a few bags with me to the very next gig and opened it there on the spot, unprepared, and just tried the instructions. It didn't matter if it would fail, because that would've been fun too.

What happened surprised me...

Creativity and artistry is the other path that led to that pivotal moment. During those same 20 years I was also busy as a multi-instrumentalist/composer and occasionally painter/illustrator/text writer.
In my endless strive to bring something unique and pure into the world, I composed music that I wanted to hear; that didn't exist yet. Something with more thought, dedication and weight to it and of an ambient quality, a little similar to instrumental film music that sets a certain mood.
This would go as far as spending 6 months on sculpting a single piece of music.
For those who are interested:  http://www.ocaixote.com.br/musica/patrick_01.html

I also liked designing collages out of magazines, because I could play with abstract shapes and colours. I also enjoyed doing illustrations and abstract painting to express myself visually.

Back to that pivotal moment halfway 2002 where I got requested a dolphin, just after I made my very first balloon dog.
Because I had nothing to loose, I actually tried a dolphin. The end result was more like a pigeon, but the girl was very happy with it.
It was at that precise moment that I had this vision of being able to create everything out of balloons. This was the new thing I would bring 'pure' into the world. It would be the perfect combination: expressing myself creatively during an entertainment gig.
The first two years I would examine every animal in zoos and petting zoos to design a single-260 animal with it, since I only had assortment 260 jewel tone bags. This meant that a wolf would look like a wolf, and not a dog.
Slowly I started adding a round balloon to all my designs. The next step was opaque colours and different sizes.
From there on everything would just expand and my addiction was a fact.

Patrick

#4
3, What's your best twisting experience?
On a street busking day a cute little girl with ponytails and freckles came up to me, gently motivated by her mom whispering 'Yes, go on.. you can ask 'the clown'.
She hesitated and handed me over a notepad. Then she asked 'May I have your hand-signature clown?'  
I drew her a picture of my hand and also my real autograph. When I returned her the notepad her face just turned so happy. Her eyes got this glistening while she showed the drawing to her mom. I'll always remember that moment. It made me realise that we, as entertainers, are in a position to bring happiness in lives of others; to create memorable moments.

In terms of twisting, my most enjoyable experience is always creating something on the spot and having the time and inspiration to do so.

4, What is the worst thing that has ever happened to you during a ballooning/entertaining session?
Can I rant freely here?  
There was once, while doing my robot-act (the mime-period), that the atmosphere got grumpy and people started pushing me out of balance, taking off my hat and running away with it.
That wasn't fun.

Being referred to as a 'balloon clown' no matter what you tell them, how you dress or how you impress them with balloon art.

Greedy parents in a hurry
Greedy parents in a hurry and getting angry at you.

The worst: having to devide yourself into balloonmachine/balloonentertainer/traffic agent/kindergarten teacher with no room for you to express your creativity, wishing you had 8 sets of eyes and hands. Combine this with greedy parents who are in a hurry and think you're a balloon clown.

Luckely these are the exceptions. Most of my experiences were very enjoying... as you'll see in the next answer.

colin myles

#5
Hi Patrick,
Very good to see that you are doing this interview, I am looking forward to it. Can I ask a couple of questions

1) If you were stuck in a lift who would you most like to be with  (living or dead)
2) If you could be any bird or animal, what would you like to be
3) How do see balloon art progressing over the next five years ??

Look forward to seeing you soon, by the way I liked Willemijn's flower on MBD2 a couple of days ago
it looks like you have competition
                                                                                   best wishes
                                                                                                       Colin

Professor T Wist

#6
I had a look at the link at the start of this thread and


WOW absolutley awsome  :D

My question for you is........... who would you most like to make a balloon model for and why ? Also what would you make them?

Graham Lee

#7
Patrick, a few more from the compiled list that was made by the members of balloon chat;
thanks for answering the questions so thoroughly as it helps everyone to see where you are coming from.

7, Do you have the same act but vary the presentation for all ages or do you have set acts for different ages?

8, What's your favourite thing to make at the moment?

9, What is the most asked for model?

10, What do you tend to do more of if stuck in the 'balloon production line' model?

11, Who is your market aimed at?

12, What kind of work do you do mostly - parties? Corporate? Etc
"Lets Improve Our Art"
Balloon Excellence 2012 Award Winner
For Services to the Balloon Community.
https://www.balloonartwholesale.co.uk
http://www.sempertexballoons.co.uk

Patrick

#8
5, What do you most enjoy about twisting & why?
Being in the moment of 'now' and completely open to the flow of ideas.
Being able to surprise both my audience and myself.
Being able to materialize something boldly unique into the world.
Having a craft that's the perfect combination of art and entertainment.
Having the power to bring positive energy to my surroundings.
Being semi-famous in the neighbourhood ;)
Being recognised by little kids, loudly shouting my name and waving when they see me on the other end of the street.


6, What's your favourite age to entertain?

While I do entertain for adults, I'm most comfortable entertaining kids.
I love kids of all ages. Small kids can tell you their entire day and what stupid thing mom or dad did today, with the parents standing by secretly wishing their kid wasn't so open and honest.
Older kids are just cool. They want to wear an obnoxious hat you make them, or they have a great challenge for you.

The most creatively challenging kids however are the ones that carry a pluche toy or have an imprinted t-shirt that I want to copy in balloons.

Patrick

#9
Do you intend to produce an instructional DVD or CD & if you do would you use some of your own music on it?
It seems I can't free a reasonable amount of time to focus on making an instructional medium of any kind. So, the instructions I put out are done by one at a time. Most of them are shared in the instructions section on another forum (mbd2.com).
There are also a few sets of instructions placed on a site by Magic George: http://www.balloondesigns.net/guestartist07spring.html

There is a dinosaur I shared in an edition of Balloon Magic as well.

If I'd ever do a DVD putting my own music to it would be the perfect product, but for me it would take double that much of uninterrupted time and dedication.

How do you come up with the ideas do you see bits of other sculptures in the new one?

Ideas and inspiration are all around us. It can be a colour combination someone's wearing that triggers the idea for a hat.
I like to get ideas from shopping windows (colours, shapes), decorations, illustrations, clip art, pluche toys, kids drawings, other crafts and the occasional cartoon. I recommend visits to zoos as well.

Do you ever teach and if you do would you think of coming over to the UK to take a class?
I taught at Diamond Jam 2007 (private classes), Millennium Jam 2007, Twister Club Netherlands 2007, Diamond Jam 2008, and planning to be teaching at Twist & Shout 2009.
Teaching in the UK you say... I'll have to look in my crystal ball for that.

And finally what happened to the Dutch team in the Euros I had them down to win?
I can't give you a clever answer to that one, I'm not into soccer at all.

Patrick

#10
Colin, thanks for these more hypothetical/philosophical questions.

1)   If you were stuck in a lift who would you most like to be with (living or dead)
Eyvind Earle (http://www.gallery21.com) – he used to work at Disney studios as a background painter. Later he became an amazing landscape artist that painted the most beautiful aerial views of Californian landscapes. His work is striking and unique. For instance his use of colours: he uses red and yellow dots in a tree trunk, can you imagine that?

Steve Roach (http://www.steveroach.com) – ambient composer, creating aural landscapes so to speak. Although I'd rather be stuck with him in a studio ;)

2) If you could be any bird or animal, what would you like to be
I think an animal in the tropical rainforest (or what's left of it). I'd be a tropical bird that would visit the peacefulness of the upper canopy and watch over the greens of the trees.

3)   How do see balloon art progressing over the next five years ??
By then the current directions within the balloon art will be more diverse and deeper. Deco-twisting (like twisted centrepieces) will have grown substantially. Balloon fashion (like woven dresses) will slowly be known to the general public. Fantasy flowers (flower corsages and decorations using uninflated balloons) will develop more. Cartoon twisting (twisters reacting to the new box-office animation) might become more challenging because of the growing and competing output in the animation world.

There will be a new direction too...

colin myles

#11
Wow I looked at Mr Earls website the paintings are stunning, i know I have heard of him before, but wow i am
stunned by the beauty of the paintings.
Thanks Patrick

Patrick

#12
Who would you most like to make a balloon model for and why ? Also what would you make them?
That's a good question; I'll come back to this one later.. have to think about it.

7, Do you have the same act but vary the presentation for all ages or do you have set acts for different ages?
My two main 'things I do at parties' are an interactive workshop with circus tricks and balloon sculpting. These are the same but can have a different form and setup, depending on the situation.

I use a collection of items for these activities that I carry with me most the time:
- a mini bike to enter the room
- various suitcases with circus tricks
- normal balloon set-up (apron)
- large balloon set-up (suitcase with more 350's, 646's)
- tattoos/face paint (occasional use as part of a program)

For birthday parties I mostly use my apron and the circus materials.
The balloons are small and quick, because of the sugar-rushed kids and because I offer it as part of a tight birthdayprogram.

At family events I usually start with a circus-workshop, so the kids can get to know me. This gives me the chance to learn all the twenty names. During the balloon entertainment I like to make more impressive designs, sometimes strolling around the tables.I use the apron, combined with the complete set of circus-tricks

At festivals, markets, fairs, malls I demand a set location and use a show/demonstration format. Here sculptures can take between 15-30 minutes a piece. I work from the large suitcase.
 
Even when I'm booked for just balloon twisting, I carry along a suitcase with chinese spinning plates, just in case. There were a few occasions were I was happy I brought them along with me.

8, What's your favourite thing to make at the moment?
The cockatoo, part of a (still kept secret) series of birds I designed this year.

9, What is the most asked for model?
To get it out of the way: it's not a dog! The dolphin is the most asked for animal for girls. For boys it's definitely the tiger.

10, What do you tend to do more of if stuck in the 'balloon production line' model?
I sometimes fall back onto my single-260 animal collection and mostly make tiger, crocodile, dolphin, cat, seal, horse, dog.
Having said this I try to avoid being the balloon machine as much as possible. Luckily I found some good methods to do so.

11, Who is your market aimed at?
People who want an unforgettable memory of their party.

12, What kind of work do you do mostly - parties? Corporate? Etc
I love doing family events, having a select number of kids and having the time to come up with something unique for each child. I like the occasional corporate ones for being able to make larger creations in a specific theme. Markets and festivals are good to showcase your best works and/or improvise on the spot using the surrounding ideas and colours (t-shirt imprints etc.) your eyes meet with.

Graham Lee

#13
Patrick unexpectedly has been very busy this week so we have decided to only ask him half the questions this week as he likes to give a lot of time & thought to his answers.
Patrick has agreed to do another week soon to finish off the interview & answer any other questions you may have for him.
So the last couple of questions for this week are;

13, What is your favourite/ideal gig to do?

14, What irritates you most at a gig?
"Lets Improve Our Art"
Balloon Excellence 2012 Award Winner
For Services to the Balloon Community.
https://www.balloonartwholesale.co.uk
http://www.sempertexballoons.co.uk

Patrick

#14
13, What is your favourite/ideal gig to do?
A performance for people who appreciate art, where I have time for big sculptures and be a part of the ambiance of the party. And when I come home, have a few new ideas and some cool photo's for the portfolio.

14, What irritates you most at a gig?
- Requests from people, often while interrupting an entertaining moment, thinking you're a take-away restaurant.
- People who think you owe them a balloon because they have been standing there for 25 minutes already (while you've been there for 3 hours).
- Having to work your way through a ''shopping list'' of requests, instead of staying in the moment.
- The lack of patience or worse: fighting parents  :o

Over all, the primordial behaviour that seems to come out if people find out the balloons are 'for free'.
Currently I'm using a format where I let the kids guess a number between 0 and 15. Who wins it is always random. I announce there is NO order, so no one can demand a place in line. This seems to work pretty good for my particular style of balloonsculpting.