About work
The portrait
The human face intrigues me and so does the portrait - it's a life long passion.
Assuming we all possess a story, I search the human face for traces of that story.
I'm intrigued and touched when I have a glimpse of it.
To see and to be seen is essential both on the physical and psychological level. To look at someone while drawing is a very intense way of seeing. Doing a portrait feels like confirming that person's existence.
Words
Words often trigger my imagination. Memory and identity are good trigger words.
Memories can be picture-sharp. Then there are the elusive ones.
Elusive, yet embedded in my consciousness in the way a bad habit carves a path within the nervous system; hard to erase but impossible not to walk.
I find 'identity' a frustrating concept; hard to nail.
Creating images has become a strategy for deciphering and connecting memories and identity.
How I work
I'm slow and I'm not a natural risk taker. Still, I'm forcing myself to, by facing new risky challenges like manipulating digital photos, using encaustic, collage, transfer and printing. The risk is I will never really master anything, but rather that than boring myself with safe and good traditional portraits.
I struggle to create a dialog between motif and tools, in working with or against the technique; but technique should not become the main focus.
Apart from this, I plan and brood and follow an occasional sudden impulse.
Why I work
I often start a process in order to clarify certain aspects of my perception.
Like "Why and how do I observe a person, a situation or a specific scene?"
Making images allows me to draw attention to insignificant scenes and stories that intrigue me.
In questioning I'm taken to new levels; How do I read the symbols surrounding me?
- To what extent are interpretations personal? - Is how we interpret symbols a cultural thing or more personal; part of our identity? - How do symbols affect me?
By questioning I define myself - I don't really answer anything.
When I create an image based on a question or a thought, I have deepened my understanding, and can move on. It's a way to live my life.
Motifs
I like to work in series and I 'collect faces'.
If abstract, my themes are dots and rasters - bits of my old designs and patterns.
I prefer the manmade over nature.
The dressed model, not the nude.
Symbols and signs - like road and traffic signs.
If plants - the cultivated ones, like roses.
If animals - sheep, because they get a 'hair cut', or snakes for their symbolic significance.
Butterflies are an exception - but they look totally manmade.
I would like my paintings to have the energy of my drawings - to paint with the confidence I feel when using colour in interiors - and then to dress the way Matisse painted.
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The photo is a testprint - handstamped lino squares on paper.
