Yes me, dear Reader. I was supposed to make 10 pages , us ing Readymag. That was not poss ible for me, no internet a t home. Therefor I got permiss ion to upload my work here At ISSUU. Bes ides be ing grate ful for the so lut ion, I t a lso ra ised the quest ion: What s ize to use . One page on Readymag g ives the same reading -experience as 2 at ISSUU. I so lved i t my way. I made my 10 “ Readymag-pages” And then cut them in hal f . Meaning the next 20 pages should be treated as : 20 hal f pages = 10 pages Thank you. Barbara

Me ???

Me A booklet about me About Barbara Hoijtink About @dutchladyone

Specially made for #Design1o1Redux

Enjoy reading

Me The first time you meet someone, he or she is like a blank piece of paper to you A naked body, you have no information at all. The body you see here is not my body. It is Eve, part of the painting Adam and Eve Painted between 1508 and 1512, by Lucas Cranach the Elder. It can be seen in the National Museum, Warsaw, Poland When encountering people the first thing they see is how you look, The first thing they ask is : “Where do you come from?” I never understand why. Because, when I tell you ….. “My name is Barbara, I am born in Hengelo, the Netherlands and have lived years and years in Almelo”. What do you know about me? Absolutely nothing. Besides from: Knowing that Dutch is most likely my first language And that I am female.

When you see you my clothes you can´t tell who I am The outfit you see here at the right-side is not an outfit I wear in real life. I made it at scale 1 to 10 for the course Design1o1 Redux. Making it brought me back to memory-lane. I don´t want to tell much about my childhood. I did not like it. Apart from the last month before Sinterklaas . That is celebrated the 5th of December. It was the outmost important day in the year for me. On that day, in the Netherlands, we give and get presents. Not at Christmas, like in most Cristian countries. Then I used to shop for presents, spent all my savings.. However, the wrapping was even more important than the gift itself. It had to be a surprise-packaging, accomplished by a poem. Assumingly being written by Sinterklaas. I used to lock myself up in my room. Because no-one was .allowed to see what you made. The whole period was one of expectation and mystery Would they like your surprise? What would you get?

When I left school, I wanted to go to the university of arts. But I did not like their way of teaching It was too vague for me. Too much “do as you please” Some teachers work for me some don´t. I did not want to move away from my town By that time I had a steady relation. He was glued to his hometown. I am not. So I had to look for something else. I wanted to make and create things. It is the only thing I have ever known for sure. That is how it happened that I became an upholster. I learned it from a very wise and good upholsterer. We stayed friends till he died, 25 years later. I am not a person that likes to work for a boss. I want to be independent. Therefor, despite my boss being the perfect boos, I started up my own company. When you start you expect things to follow a fixed grid, A certain pattern…… I have had my own business for many many years. I did it till things went wrong. Terrible wrong.

The snake in the garden of Eden I lived at the most beautiful place I could imagine…. Big garden, Dead-end street. Quiet and peaceful. For me it was a dream come true. All went well, rebuilding the house was fun. My work shed for the upholstery was precisely what I always wanted. Made of wood Nice, cozy and warm. Everything looked nice and peaceful . I expected it to last for ever and ever. Then the new neighbors moved in. Nice friendly people, fun to be with. Man, woman, 2 kids. Model-family. But he also had a dream. He wanted to be a professional guard with gun and dog. The dog he got, and the attitude. Lucky for me not the gun. Unfortunately for him, never the job. Sometimes employers are wise……..

The dark pages The man was terrorizing the neighborhood with his need for guarding and controlling. And slowly things got worse and worse. I hardly left the house anymore. He was monitoring every step I did with video-camera´s. Things were bad, very bad.

The dark pages To me it felt like I was shrinking. Getting completely lost in a huge mess. Too much booze. Too little social contacts. It had a huge impact on me and my relation. I am still here, the relation ended. The house was sold. Same for the upholstery. A new start in the Netherlands was not possible. All I wanted to do was get out. Move away. Far far away. I went to Slovakia.

Slovakia Why Slovakia? In the past I owned there a beautiful little summer-house. It was perfect, the village was perfect. The people friendly. So when I got a job-offer I accepted it immediately. Believing that the sun would shine once again. Good salary, nice apartment. Interesting job, I thought. Nothing could go wrong, I thought. That was a big mistake, first of many. Murphy´s law, was actively interfering with my life. I managed to lose all my savings, and lots of dreams. But, there is always a but. That is the nice thing about “buts”. I also did very nice things. Found some fabulous friends via unexpected ways. True friends are precious and rare. Life was hard, the job a nightmare. My private life a mix between night-mare and fantasy. The language-barrier was a very tough one to tackle. When you can´t communicate, you can´t socialize. Nevertheless I managed. Travelling abroad was fun, dating even more. Brought me to other worlds. Once I had a blind date in Dubai… Dating learned me a lot about me and my body. About the difference between real worlds and dream-worlds. Then I woke up. And realized that I had to go. A good salary is nice. Worth a lot. But not enough to stay put in a place you hate. I decided to quit the job, pack my things and start travelling!!!

Travel Why did I want to see the world? Because I was curious. Wanting to know and to see is part of my nature. I was one of many saying “one day I pack my things, and go” I am one of few who actually did it. Though I have to admit that it is a lot easier When you have nothing to lose. And all to gain. I sailed the ocean, been on a camel through the dessert. Spent time at the country-side and in big cities. What did it bring me? Not money, I am poor. It did bring me memories. And you don´t need a big house to store those. Modern technology takes care of that. I cherish my memories and I use them. I use the pictures I made during travelling for the pictures I make for Design1o1 Redux What else did travelling bring me, were am I now. I ended up in Portugal were I plan to stay. Because I finally know what I want to be when I grow up. I want to be a designer, and live from my work. I did sell my first posters. I left a world that was full of misery and found the opposite. Sharing the house with a fabulous man. Feeling alive again. Ready to face the world. Show what I can. Going through difficult times in my life enriched me. Though I would have made other choices if I could do it all over

Here my story finishes for now. I hope to read yours one day That will be a nice day I plan to write a success-story as sequel. Follow me at Instagram @dutchladyone For the latest updates. For information about my work you can contact me at: DutchladyOnePosters@outlook.com Thank you

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