I’ve seen a lot of new faces here over the past few days, so it feels like a good moment to reintroduce myself as I am now.
I’m Marieke Blokland: artist, art educator, writer, activist, and the person behind Studio Bloknote.
My work is about making visible what usually stays beneath the surface. Through images, words, raw expression, bold symbolic elements, and handwriting, I explore what carries deep, personal meaning.
I work a lot with art journaling, not as a hobby, but as a way to actually see what’s going on inside.
Right now, I’m building my art course Notes to Self, where writing and visual work come together as a form of self-reflection and expression.
At the same time, I’m continuing to develop my artwork, my courses, my writing, and a body of work that keeps moving closer to what I truly stand for.
My work touches on themes like autonomy, feminism, and breaking patterns, because creativity, to me, isn’t separate from how you exist in the world.
On a more personal note, I live and work alongside two black cats and two teenagers. My days are a mix of creating, thinking, writing, and building something that feels both honest and sustainable.
So if you’re new here: welcome.
You won’t find “pretty perfection” here, but I hope you do sense something real and honest. 🖤
Wake-up.
Raw self-expression in my art journal, using oil pastels.
I use art journaling as a way to get negative energy out of my system. Oil pastels have something smooth, direct, and physical about them. They release tension almost instantly. Kind of addictive, but in a good way.
#rawartjournaling #rawartmethod #artjournaling
Nieuwe sticker van de Dolle mina's!
Op 19 mei 1996 vond de laatste Heksennacht plaats, toen eisten vrouwen de nacht terug, luid en zichtbaar.
Bijna dertig jaar later brengen de Dolle Mina’s de Heksennacht terug.
Want nog altijd voelen vrouwen*, trans en genderdiverse mensen zich niet veilig op straat zodra het donker wordt.
Daarom trekken we opnieuw de nacht in: met fakkels, vuur, muziek en solidariteit.
ontworpen door Marieke Blokland.
https://derodelap.nl/product/heksennacht-sticker-dolle-minas/
Heksennacht poster dolle mina’s (a3)
Nieuwe gratis poster! Op 19 mei 1996 vond de laatste Heksennacht plaats, toen eisten vrouwen de nacht terug, luid en zichtbaar. Bijna dertig jaar later brengen de Dolle Mina’s de Heksennacht terug. Want nog altijd voelen vrouwen*, trans en genderdiverse mensen zich niet veilig op straat zodra het donker wordt. Daarom trekken we opnieuw de nacht in: met fakkels, vuur, muziek en solidariteit.
Poster ontworpen door @studiobloknote
https://derodelap.nl/product/Heksennachtposter/
I am teaching online at Mastering Mixed Media 2026.
Sign up through my link in the bio to support me and my work.
The event itself is free! But there is a VIP-experience option with extra in depth classes.
Hope to see you there!
Marieke x
With this post I take a clear stand: I support the No Kings protests today. @nokings.usa
I’m not American. And yes, there is a lot happening in the world right now, also here in Europe.
But this matters to me.
For years, I’ve worked with and taught a community of art journalers, many of them based in the USA. Through art and the internet, that connection became real. Warm and human.
If I were American, I would have been out there today.
As an artist and online business owner, I believe silence is never neutral. So I choose to speak up.
If you strongly support Trump, this space is probably not for you.
The images show a black top hat I painted for my Body Manifesto project last October.
A symbol of dominance and power, marked with phrases like “F* the Patriarchy” and “No Kings.”
#speakup #nokings
Anger Belongs Here.
At one point I wrote the words “Anger belongs here” in my art journal.
That’s how I work. My pages often begin as fragments. Thoughts, reflections, emotions. I collect them over time and slowly weave them together, like a weaver with threads, until something starts to feel whole.
These pages are not finished yet. I never know exactly when that moment will come. It’s not something I decide rationally. It’s a feeling.
But those words feel deeply true:
Anger belongs here.
Anger has a place in this world. It always has, and it always will. We have the right to feel anger. We feel it when something is taken from us. When we lose something. When our feelings are not heard. Or when something feels unfair.
Anger is an important emotion. It moves us, it pushes us into action.
At the same time, the sentence also feels like a note to self: Anger belongs *here*. Here, in my art journal. But not thrown at other people. Not leaking out as irritation, bitterness, or sharp words.
Like a reminder: Don’t put your anger on someone else’s plate.
❤️✊️📕🎨🖌
“Which Side Are You On?” is an old American protest song.
I had never heard it before, but recently I came across this version by Birds on a Wire. I am obsessed with the beautiful voice of Rosemary Standley, who sings it.
Music is very often a great source of inspiration while art journaling. The texts you see on my pages are often fragments of song lyrics.
While listening to music, I question things in life.
And there is much to question.
#whichsideareyouon
Listening versus speaking.
A she against a him.
I don’t know exactly (yet) what this spread means.
But I remember listening to Angela Davis, who calmly said the sentence:
“Listen: what does she have to say?”
She was speaking about Black women and women of color, about how their voices are so often unheard.
If I, a white woman, already experience this kind of silencing, what must other women and minority groups experience?
The older I get, the more clearly I see how a very small minority holds most of the power.
It is a minority. Because not all men oppress women.
But it is almost always a white man, often the suit wearing kind, who shouts the loudest. A man in a suit who claims to know everything.
Who claims the right to turn his opinion into a rule for everyone else. My art is often simple and filled with clear, obvious symbolism.
A shouting man with a tie appears in many of my pages. I amuse myself drawing him, making a little fun of the shouting man. Because he is, in fact, a weak being. He needs that suit and tie to feel wise and important.
It is about time for those men to shut their mouths
and listen.
#suits #artjournaling #symbolism
You are free to believe in any god; or no god. That is your right. A human right that deserves protection.
But when a religion takes advantage of the vulnerable and the weak, claiming that by believing harder (and funding them) people will be healed, it becomes dangerous. Dangerous for both physical and mental health.
Claiming to be able to cure autism, cancer, or MS through belief is false and harmful.
And last but not least: claiming that homosexuality is demonic and needs to be exorcised is heartbreaking. It hurts people who have already been oppressed for so long and are still fighting for equality. It is wrong. So, so wrong.
