Statement
Reality to me is an enormous universe (scenic and/or architectural) in which both figurative and abstract elements are entangled in a dance, a rhythm, a game.
One of the elements that I am currently concerned with while drawing, is how I can display the space in a drawing in such a way, that you are tossed a curveball. By looking at something a certain way, and to reinforce that in an image, reality gains something alienating.
The use of light and shadow determines the spaciousness or the flatness of the drawing.
I use abstract, decorative and figurative elements that I take from my own surroundings, observations, memories, music and vacation photos I took myself.
As a little child I lived in Paramaribo, Surinam and those years in the tropics still have an influence on the way I look at the world and on my drawings.
Human figures who are relaxing ‘carefree’ (a.o. reclining figures) in an artificial, almost theatrical scenery I find an intriguing topic.
In the so-called ‘scenic’ drawings, I refer to works by a.o. Courbet, Monet and Titian.
The placement of the elements and the size in relation to the surroundings determine the rhythm in the drawing. Is it moving; is it simmering or does it stand still?
To me, drawing is equal to thinking. Hence the diversity in my work and the various starting points (outside world and inner world).
Depending on the concept, (I often already have a (working) title in mind), I start formally and in the course of the process, it turns more free, more linear and drawing-like or the other way around. The drawing ends up drawing itself and it is very nice when that time has come.
However ‘dark’ my work may look, I always try to keep lightness and openness by using the white of the drawing paper.
In my small drawings I work with colour, depth, rhythm, time, different emotions, cheerful playfulness, sadness, words and movement, always referring to phenomena in social media, art history, and my personal life. There has to be an inviting, playful quality about them.
The semicircles in my drawings stand for a lot of different things like a hemisphere, a sunset, a sundown, a crescent, nail polish, a scallop, a bosom, a buttock, a bulge, a bump, a drop, a lens, an arc, a tunnel, a window. They represent something that is half conscious and half unconscious, an instinct. It’s familiar but also mysterious.