van Hier naar Verder 30.10.2023 Artwork - Limited Edition of 5

Every day I start something new. “From Here to Further”. My works are inspired by nature, from earthly to cosmic. I make abstractions that depict 'becoming, growth and origins' in all their apparent arbitrariness and capriciousness. I sketch an upward movement up to a tipping point towards erosion and decay. I place myself at that tipping point and from that position I make my calligraphic expressions. My works are mixtures of something and nothing. Ultimately everything dissolves, but the coherence is not lost and the processes continue: “from Here to Further” is my theme. I am like a tracker who draws material from my archive of images and data that I made earlier. Then again I make new images depending on what comes to mind, fascinates or moves me. When I start working on something new, chaos arises in my head from which I look for direction or end up on a track. Then I continue working and something grows. I link my memory to the terabytes of data on my computers. I use those images as a painter mixes paint on his palette. Or I take my digital pen, brush or pencil at the same time - which moves with me according to my feelings. Intuition, emotion and feeling steer me in a certain direction and I let myself drift along with that current. One thing leads to another during what I experience as an exciting journey of discovery. My work builds up in layers. Sometimes I lean towards the gloomy side of erosion and decay, but more often it goes the other way towards emergence and growth. In addition, there are questionable works on that tipping point in between. There are days when I have results within a few hours, but it can also take days or weeks until something is finished, printed and signed. It happens that I pick up work from years ago and apply it in a different setting or as part of a new creation. I love color, especially pure pigment, but it plays a modest role in my work. Because it distracts from the imagination in my art. Its essence is movement, direction, a track, chaos and randomness. That you see movement but do not understand where it comes from or where it is going. I like the fact that you have no idea what you're looking at or what you're seeing. Ton van Velsen