You are There

I paint to encourage others to become aware of their personal views concerning socially critical thinking. I show them a situation where all individual relations are laid bare and can be viewed without any impediment in their interpretation.

The image I convey consists of a situation in which individual persons are depicted. This situation has to be abstract in order to invoke an image of a landscape or an industrial, urban, setting. The individuals being portrayed are devoid of all physical characteristics and any corporeal reference.

What I do is not paint bodies or other physical characteristics normally attributed to humanity, but exclusively its character, its eternal and unchanging inner world. This inner world I situate in a hostile and ever changing environment. I work from an inner conviction that every human being is perfectly unique and that each and everyone should approach his fellow human being based on the same premise. But in relating to others we are terribly hampered by preconceptions and convictions based on appearance. One could think of characteristics like race, gender and attractiveness.

The central question I pose is as follows: How will any person relate to his or her environment if this person is being minimalised to a mere character devoid of bodily form? And how will this character change itself through a learning proces of constantly becoming more aware of his or her essence, making it possible to transform his or her surroundings by just being there.

I am searching for an opportunity to further elaborate on this idea and to root my conviction that everyone can be involved in this ever changing world and that everyone can be of in uence. In this day and age it is simply too easy to point at others and expect them to nd an explanation for our own misfortunes or inconveniences. What has to grow is a collective awareness and a freedom that is inherent to it, to grapple with these issues and to change them for the better.

The way I want to meet these challenges is by painting.

My paintings show landscapes (industrial or not). In my painting individuals are being depicted. It is impossible to see who they are, what they are, how they are and for what reason. Because of this, there is no room for preconceptions. What will happen now is something that takes place in the viewers own mind. Is this the truth? Can it be your personal truth? And is this acceptable?