red shield Print

ARTIST’S STATEMENT Every artist dips his brush in his own soul and paints his own nature into his pieces - Henry Ward Beecher My creations, which I have decided to call “Episodes”, are generally known as doodles and are made subconsciously and compulsively during telephone conversations. I started doodling during my first years of employment in an office where a great deal of my work was done by telephone, demanding my absolute attention. Without realising it at that time, the mechanism which I subconsciously used in order to concentrate one hundred percent on the conversation, was to doodle. This very soon became a lasting habit. When the telephone rings my immediate reaction is to pick up some writing tool and as soon as the conversation starts my subconscious mind takes over and I begin to doodle. I do not see what I am drawing and I also do not recognise the work when I look at it later. Despite this, I do not consider my work as being done in a condition of total mindlessness, but as a “dipping of the paint brush” referred to in the quotation above. A few years into my marriage, my architect husband became aware of the numerous pencil and pen drawings in my notebooks. He was anxious that I should preserve all of them and make use of colour. This presented a problem because the moment I took anything in my hand other than a pen or pencil, I would be shocked into reality out of my state of unawareness. Later he came up with the idea that I should use felt pens (kokis). These solved my problem, except that the colour faded when subjected to light, thus making the work worthless for display. Today, however, the obstacle of fading has been overcome by the advent of digital imaging, by which means permanence of my work can now be achieved. Erna van Wijk BIOGRAPHY Erna grew up in a small, picturesque village in a remote part of South Africa, near the Kruger National Park. Being an only child her playmates were animals of all sorts and her playground the unspoilt surroundings of bushes and trees. This, together with the beauty of the countryside, instilled in her a great love of nature. As an adult she lived in the cities of Pretoria and Johannesburg until she and her husband, since deceased, moved to the scenic coastal town of Wilderness in the Western Cape where she still resides and where she, once again, can enjoy nature to its fullest.