Mychael: We've had quite a journey with this project as we met initially on zoom for a whopping 6 hours in three sessions before any drawing or writing properly happened. What we immediately realised we had in common was that we were both immigrants (Jan from Holland and me from Canada) and had Amsterdam, my first port in Europe, in common. 

Jan: We both were drawn to Rembrandt's house on Jodenbreestraat, Amsterdam and after we watched a documentary for research purposes, we were intrigued by a study of two greyhounds, listed on the inventory of Rembrandt's possessions when he went bankrupt, but not seen again since.

Mychael: What then happened was that I did some etching and Jan did some writing and we got together physically at a halfway point between our homes in St Pancras Station, right by the platform where the Eurostar trains depart for Amsterdam. We took on board what the other had created and carried on working.

Jan: This study by Rembrandt has never been traced by anyone since. Were these greyhounds perhaps really phantoms running from one artist's imagination to the next?

Windhond

(Dutch). n. Greyhound

Blew in on a breeze from Breughel

Or in their slips from Agincourt

All the way to Amsterdam

Where Rembrandt's mind was waiting

Resting for a moment there

Then taking form in oil

Listed in cold lawyer's ink

A dead-eyed notary's inventory

Spectral strays have slipped their leashes

They've vanished into air

Sniffing out new niches

In minds in want of muses