‘Homespun Mythologies and Magical Imaginings’

My world revolves around storytelling and memories.
To me the old Fairytales, the Myths and Legends, are life lines.
I believe they are the soul’s fibres that connect us to a deeper understanding of the world, to our past and future, to ourselves and to each other,
and I am doing my bit continuing the eternal weave with my personal threads.
In my work I love to use time worn materials such as antique textiles, handmade lace and curious objects from my collection.
The aged qualities of old materials add an extra layer me as they already hold memories of their own and I like the idea of bringing these into the work I create.
My work touches on topics like beauty and decay, culture versus nature, the cycles of life and death, occultism and witchcraft, dreams,
femininity, creativity and the re-enchantment of the world, with a strong reference to childhood memories and a certain nostalgia to it.

I graduated from ArtEZ with a bachelor in Fine Arts.
During my studies I focused on large ink drawings and stop motion puppet animation film
Since 2015 I work as a full-time artist and it all started on a narrowboat in London.
There, with limited space and only the light of the oil lamp, I had to ‘scale down’ my creative process.
Remembering the cloth dolls I made at the kitchen table as a child, I felt a lovely smaller possibility being born.
The possibility to create from the soul with not much more but some textiles, a needle and thread and paint.
I made my first ‘Pantovola’ dolls there and although I have a lot more space to create now,
I believe it is that memory of curious childhood creativity that still runs through what I create.
I am based in Maastricht, The Netherlands, where I work from my studio in the attic of our home accompanied by our Petit Poodle Holly