These two commissions came from Bev, who I used to work with many moons ago, and they are really special.

Bev asked me to make these pieces for Meriel Schindler. While I was working with Meriel, she was conducting extensive research and pulling together the manuscript for what would become her book The Lost Café Schindler. It's an engrossing account of her complex relationship with her father and, following his death, her deep dive into the Schindler family tree, spanning Austria and Germany in the late 19th and early 20th century. This came to a head with the discovery of Café Schindler in Innsbruck, Austria, a lively jazz club and a liberal haven - until the Nazis came.

The book was adapted into a play, staged at the Tiroler Landestheater in Innsbruck in April 2024, just down the road from the Café itself, which still stands today, bearing the Schindler name.

And so, the first piece is the Café itself, in its heyday, based on photographs from the early 30s, and the second is of the theatre where the inaugural production of Café Schindler opened.

Bev is a dream client. She knew exactly what she wanted, right down to the theatre posters advertising the show, which include the date of the show's premiere, and imagery based on the Cafe's original promotional material from the 20s and 30s.

It's always special when you get a commission that has so much thought put into it with personal details and touches. Bev gave me tons to work with here, and I'm honoured to have been asked to capture this important piece of family history. Plus I really recommend you go read the book. I finally got round to reading it to help me with this commission. There's tons more stories and revelations I've not covered here, and it deserves your time.

Pen & paper - A4 - February 2024