‘Homespun Mythologies’

Using a range of mediums I build personal mythologies excisting somewhere inbetween the conscious and the unconscious.
In painting, sculpture and textile art, I create mystical, liminal worlds in which dreams and memories, beauty and decay, the domestic and the wild meet, to become new realities.
My love for folkloric history, archeology and the natural world are recuring themes,
in which I like to explore the relationship between the fragility of human life and the enduring power of the natural world.

“Since early childhood I have loved the old fairytale books and their beloved illustrations telling mysterious tales of witches and faeries,
inhabiting enchanted forests where animals speak in riddles.
Stories shrouded in symbolism in which some kind of struggle must be overcome often leading to a transformation of the tale’s hero.
With my art I am building on similar themes and ideas, creating a universe with my own mystical creatures and landscapes,
emerging from old world nostalgia and mysterious childhood memories, timeless and ancient.
As I create I connect to a tradition of storytelling that is deeply and uniquely human.
Many of my pieces hold small worlds within; a butterfly or beetle may be hidden in the belly of a doll, or a miniature theatre might hide a secret behind the drapes of its curtains.

To create my dolls and sculptures I use a mix of materials and techniques such as antique and upcycled
textiles, embroidery and handmade lace, feathers and hair, crystals and all kinds of beautiful or interesting bits and bobs that I collect at markets and secondhand shops.
I also love working with clay and paper-mâché for its directness and versatility.

I graduated many moons ago 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 in the memory of curious childhood creativity with not much more but some textiles, a needle and thread and paint.
Many years have passed since and I am now based in Maastricht, The Netherlands, where I work full time from my studio in the attic