Marie Blanco Hendrickx (better known as Mijn Schatje) is a French artist of Spanish and Dutch descent who works in digital media. She fits quite comfortably in the au current genre of baby doll surrealism. While many of these artists tend to add elements of darkness to their work as well, I find Mijn Schatje’s paintings to be sweet and pleasantly fantastic, occasionally even a touch erotic.

Here’s an amusing (and apropos) description of Mijn Schatje from her website: “As a small child, while other little girls were playing dolls, Marie Blanco Hendrickx AKA Mijn Schatje was making wishes and prayers on tombstones in the woods at her grandparents at le chateau des Ifs in the Paris area. She lived a tale of her own in that castle, and received memories made out of fireworks, treasure huntings, flower tiaras and ducks in the pond. Born to a Spanish father and a Dutch mother, Mijn traveled extensively as a child, all around Europe, then to Africa and Canada. Little Marie’s imagination took profit of that friendly and experiences-rich atmosphere to grow exponentially, she was obsessed with fairytales, mermaids, ghosts, carnivals and poetry. In her early years, not knowing much about spelling, she was also convinced Jimi Hendrix was her uncle.”

Mijn Schatje – Baby Mermaid

Mijn Schatje – Bedtime

Mijn Schatje – Crazy Beautiful

Mijn Schatje – Blue

Mijn Schatje – Title Unknown (1)

Mijn Schatje – Title Unknown (2) (2006)

Mijn Schatje – Title Unknown (3)

Mijn Schatje – Title Unknown (4)

Myspace: Mijn Schatje

Mijn Schatje point fr

Comments:

From Cyril on March 18, 2011
Hi,
If you like the Mijn Schatje’s work, I advise you to got to this website [this site has since gone definct] to discover a fabulous range. Journals, Postcards, Jewelry… this artist has made many different items for La Marelle, a french company working as an editor.
On this website, you can also discover many different french artists such as Nathalie Lete, Adolie Day, or Mlle Heloise.
Have a good one,
Cyril

From noblessoblige on May 6, 2011
http://everytomorrow.net/mijn/

From pipstarr72 on May 6, 2011
Thanks for the link. I’ll take a look.

Update: Having reviewed the link, those accusing her of copying others’ work definitely have a legitimate claim, I think. That said, artists rip off from each other all the time. Is there a visual arts equivalent of sampling (as used by rap and pop artists)? I would say yes. The question is, how much sampling/copying is too much? Mijn Schatje seems to straddle the line there. Her work is distinct and bears many differences from the original dolls, which to me legitimizes it. Others may have different opinions. As the Information Age advances, the lines of intellectual property will necessarily become blurred. Can the original artist(s) make the claim that Mijn Schatje’s work has financially damaged them? I suppose that is for the courts to decide. As for me, I enjoy her work.