United Kingdom
www.slow-journalism.com
I try to create pieces which allows the viewer to interact with their own thoughts, interpretations and imagination. Bollywood Sugar was the first artwork which portrays my interests in Eastern influences in my work. During travels I got more inspired about the different cultural aspects without a perseverance for one. I tried capturing my thoughts and inspirations that were sparked, into a fusion of the above. Where balance is key. Playing, searching and researching the different aspects and creating a melting pot where they can exist together. East meets West, Hollywood- vs Bollywood.
I developed my skills in graphic design and illustration throughout the years. After art school in the south of the Netherlands, I moved to Amsterdam. Its was spending time in a new city that gave me a sense of quietness and some time to reflect. This ended up being the true starting point where my pin-up mixed media work took flight.
My creations are a complex layered cut and paste mixture of patiently composed scissors cut collage combining digital collage with found material.
A mixture of classic pin-up body parts, over a backdrop of baroque and Victorian Neo-Classicism designs culled from international currencies and stamps, antique sheet music ornaments, playing cards, cigar bands, Asian papers and personal items.
The surfaces stand out in relief, almost three-dimensional. Finishing of with doodled avatar throughout with pen scratches and doodles either on paper, old wood or rusty metal.
I always keep my eyes and ear's open for new materials for my collage work. I love to gather the vintage stuff by accident, on the streets, in old buildings and boxes on the attic, at flea markets, browsing the internet, during travels, personal stuff and people even send me materials, which is great and inspiring.
I believe that vintage pin-ups these days have a more esthetic appeal. The use of vintage materials, the suggestiveness, and the way I portray the female form, strengthens the historic story of femininity. The tenderness they portray and the strength they radiate combined with collage materials makes the image complete. I want to touch below the surface of daily life, sexuality, eroticism and intimacy represented in an image.
Through sensitive touched borders and with recognizable imagery I would love for the viewer to search within themselves for their own message of what my work means to them, and how important they find the elements intwined, also the eroticism and sexuality it portrays. I try to capture the beauty of femininity with a classic sexiness.
I try to touch the beauty of interaction and the details that surrounds it.
Of course my work has a sexual and erotic feel to it, but it is also about past present and future elements and its about balance. The elements and ornaments I use are woven in cultures and have a tale of their own. they are small parts of history, that can be revealed or analyzed in their own way.
For me my work tells something about the small and different cultural facets of human kind, and has no specific intentional political elements to it. Maybe that some viewers see something political in my work. The collage elements have a history, and history can have a hint of politics to it. I do not intentionally create images to carry out a political message. I find it interesting where we’re coming from, our past and how to find that back in the daily materials. I get to re- in act cultural aspects and portray all this in the present with a Handiedan twist.
These day’s art, time and influences are changing so quickly, it's hard to keep tabs on it. My main focus is on the international scene. I must say that Chris Berens, Femke Hiemstra and The London Police are inspiring artists I admire.