Doowopthatthing 01 - Limited Edition of 5 Print

Doowopthatthing to you, my latest art print, no06 from the Helden/Heroes B-side series. This is my second portrait of Lauryn Hill. Rebel was the first one from the A-sides series. Doowopthatthing is printed on canvas 120/80cm limited and signed 1/5. Artist Lauryn Hill is like a rough and polished diamond with many facets. My premiere encounter with her music was with her first solo album The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill. The song Doo Wop That Thing echoed trough my (borrowed) earphones while sitting on a bench in the sun in The Cloisters (park) New York with my co traveller Anne Marieke (1999). This song resonated for us the New York vibe we were experiencing at the time. But this specific album is still one of my favourites. It is upbeat, cheeky, bold and out there. Love it. She did not produce a lot of records and for a while her life and career went downhill or rephrased Hill went down. Some time passed by and the Unplugged album caught my ear. This album was undeniable still very much Lauryn Hill but drenched with the life she had lived and emotions she had gone through. The album starts with a conversation (intro) with her audience, which she keeps on doing throughout the whole unplugged session. I picked a few significant lines to illustrate her metamorphoses: “And you know, it's real interesting because I used to be a performer, and I really don't consider myself a performer so much anymore. I'm really just... I'm sharing, you know, more or less the music that I've been given. But if I stop, if I start, if I... you know... feel like saying, "Baby, baby, baby" for eighteen bars -- whatever, you know? I just... I do that” She also refers to her voice later on, that has become raspy over time, but that's ok she said because she now was a singer with a lot of stuff on her throat. I mean..... If an artist is capable of such introspection and personal and artistic output, it adds so much value to everything he or she does and her legacy. In this perspective Miseducation was her coming out as a solo artist after her career in the equally successful hip-hop formation Fugees. And it is without a doubt a great performance but the unplugged sessions proved her to be an artist with great depts. Doo Wop That Thing seemed naïve, almost innocent in comparison with for instance the song Rebel from the unplugged sessions but in their unique ways they were both extremely powerful. And somehow it both suited my own coming of age. Lauryn Hill, a singer with a lot of stuff on her throat. I hope to have captured it sufficient with this visual tribute to her.