#1 From the series 'June' Painting

www.bekkenutte.com I am Eelke Renschke Bekkenutte, a Dutch artist born on October 5, 1993. My work explores the question, “What is life?” and I seek to create honest visual representations of the pure experience of being alive. I have worked with various media, including painting, mixed media, sculpture, and performance. Recently I transitioned to abstract painting. My artistic journey began during my study of photography between 2011 and 2015. While exploring the limitations of the written word and photography as truthful forms of communication, I became inspired to discover other visual languages capable of conveying life’s essence. Another transformative experience from that time, was fueled by a tour in an archive in Breda. There, I was shown a handwritten document dating back to the 600s. The energy of the hand that had penned it seemed perceptible. It felt as if life was being transferred to me from another human being. However, upon learning that the archive would be digitized, I felt a sense of petrification, fearing that the genuine, unfiltered life-energy within the document would be lost as it transitioned into the digital realm. This experience made me question the role of digitization in art and its potential impact on the purity, realness, and energy of life. My inspirations stem from the raw, honest, and unconditioned art that children create. Through years of babysitting work, in which I was able to observe their boundless creativity, I am lately developing a technique focused on unlearning and finding 'ultimate' creative freedom. In my new series paintings “The painting that wants to break free from itself” I am experimenting with this beginning technique. I feel driven to counteract the obsession with perfection, fueled by social media and the digital world, by creating art that embraces imperfection and is made of real/tangible matter.