UNDER PRESSURE Verbal 241 Collage

I can experience art on many levels and in many different ways. Then I look for aesthetics and eloquence but also for a particular angle. I make contemporary engaged art. It has a certain urgency. It is reflecting us, people and the zeitgeist. Images speak louder than words and basically appeal very directly to our feelings. My images are something of a mix between activism and philosophy, they want to engage in dialogue.” I am born in Hoorn (NH) (1970) and have been working as a visual artist since 1994. My studio is located at the Rieteweg 10 in Zwolle. I am a multidisciplinary artist. My autonomous work includes painting, collage, installation, digital art, photo manipulation, video art and 3d. I also work on commission and on a project basis. Typical for my autonomous work is the key role for man in its shape and behaviour. It is often a reflection of current social themes, but also mundane and personal issues are important sources of inspiration. Through small interventions, repetitions, inversions, or breaking surfaces with architectural forms, a new image is created in a somewhat familiar image. Although my work can be seen as aesthetic, it often conceals certain uneasiness, abrasive aesthetics. This duality or ambiguity is also a recurring theme. Do you see what you see? The resulting images are often on the cutting edge of fiction, realism, graphic and plastic. Contemporary (sur)realist?- My work cannot be placed in a tradition or movement. There are certainly surrealistic elements in my work and occasionally some abstraction, but in terms of style I draw from (contemporary) realism. Until now, I have been able to express myself best in the figurative, although I do not rule out anything for the future. As far as I am concerned, art is fluid and and artist never stop evolving. I do not wish to limit myself, neither to a medium, nor to autonomous art. I see myself much more as a conduit of concepts and ideas. Often my ideas are interspersed with philosophical questions and/or social themes that occupy me. I therefore sometimes set myself the task of casting these in project form, if only within the limitations of visual art. This has resulted in a number of projects varying from social to future-oriented.