Even as a child I was always busy with plants, seeds, everything green: I willed them out of the ground, arranged them and was amazed at the force they seemed to harbour. The neighbourhood where I grew up also was very green with large trees such as chestnut, beech, and oak. Then there was the sea, with a completely different type of force and movement. I was an observant child.
My own growth was accompanied by many questions: who am I, why am I here, where do I come from, where am I going? After a number of years of art school and a period of all sorts of endeavours I went to study psychology, followed by training in (psychoanalytic) psychotherapy and several specialisations. I worked as a behavioural expert for the court services, as the head of treatment in institutions and as a psychotherapist in my own practice. During these 25 years I also continued in numerous ways my self-examination and the exploration of my inner world, which also acted as a kind of cleansing.
To my great surprise, at the end of 2014 things started to move inside me. Images, associations and new thoughts welled up from deep within, asking with great urgency to be turned into a shape, to be materialised. I could not stop it: a force manifested itself that could not be held back in any way. The images had to be drawn, otherwise I was going to explode.
So I cleared a room, had a large table made, bought daylight lamps and purchased reams of paper. After so many years ‘away’, having been in another ‘country’, I noticed my reticence: where do I begin? Then everything started happening of its own accord. Directed from within, an inner stream began flowing, upwards from deep within, from inside to outside through my hands. This force could not be held back, but I have noticed that if I let my ‘self’ interfere and start ‘wanting’ things it comes to nothing.
Not only with regard to the process, but also regarding the content, my work is about this movement, this flow, and sometimes about the movement of drawing itself. Nature, life/death, identity and connection are recurring subjects for me, as well as the border region between subtle energy and solidified matter.
Apart from drawing I also focus on installations, three-dimensional objects (inside and outside), and working on assignment (site-specific or otherwise).