Between the Cross series and the labyrinths,t here was a quieter period of transition. No clear series emerged,only fragments: black-and-white studies,skeletal figures, reduced forms, lines searching for direction. Looking back now, I recognize these works as threshold paintings. The explicit religious imagery slowly disappeared, but the underlying structure remained. The cross dissolved into polarity: black and white,inside and outside,presence and absence, movement and stil

After the series Unio Mystica,another image entered the work. Not the circle,but the cross. Around 1991 I became fascinated by the Stations of the Cross found in churches and along old pilgrimage routes.I wanted to understand why this ancient sequence of images had survived for centuries,and what these stages of suffering might reveal beyond religion itself. My search eventually led me to the Kollenberg in the south of the Netherlands,where an old outdoor crossway climbs slow

Around 1990, my work began to change fundamentally. Until then, I had mainly been occupied with image, atmosphere, composition and space. But during travels through Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, another layer slowly opened. The paintings became less about representation and more about inner movement. During this journey I stayed for ten days at the Buddhist monastery Suan Mokh in southern Thailand, under the teachings of Buddhadasa Bhikkhu. For ten days we lived almost en

Chapter 5 — Falling Angels From within that space, angels entered the work. I did not choose them; they appeared. In the early years,1988 to 1990, the work moved through different themes: dreams, movement, the body in motion, fragments of text, and ideas drawn from mysticism. I was searching for a language without yet knowing what it was. The angel emerged from that search. Their origin also goes back to a visit to Venice where I saw the amazing ceiling paintings of Titian an

After the still lifes, the work shifted. In my second year at the monumental department, I was asked to paint the fourth dimension. Whatever that meant for me. I learned that it is not a physical space, but an awareness, a sense that reality exceeds what we can see at once. Mysticism entered almost simultaneously. Two simple notions: everything is one, and the one remains unknowable. The first paintings were large and blue. Dense. Overloaded. Everything happening at once: lin

The WORKS, a journey in seeing, chapter 3: 1988 Still Life After Giorgio Morandi My first paintings were still lifes, created as part of an assignment at the academy. Inspired by Morandi, we were asked to construct a composition and paint it. Bottles, bowls, simple objects. Yet I quickly felt that it was not only about the objects themselves. Morandi moved me because his work carried a silence that seemed larger than what was depicted. His bottles and jars were not merely thi

The works, a journey in seeing, chapter 2: First traces When I look back at my earliest work, I see no clear direction, no plan, no theme that I consciously followed. What I do see are traces. Small drawings, lines that repeat, forms that return without me knowing exactly why. As if something was already in motion, not yet ready to be named. At that time, I did not think in terms of meaning. I worked, I looked, and I moved on.Sometimes an image disappeared as quickly as it ha

This series of blogs is both a reflection and a continuation. In The Works, a journey in seeing, I follow my paintings from the earliest works to the present. Not to create a complete overview, but to trace what has repeated, shifted, and deepened over time. Much of what I recognize in my work now was already present from the beginning though still unnamed. What has gradually come into focus is not only what appears, but the space in which it appears. A painting does not aris

Two educational art books inspired by the Hero’s Journey. I’m thrilled to share the publication of my two new books WINGS: A Heroine’s Journey to Color and THE CALL: A Hero’s Journey to Explore now available worldwide. Both are educational coloring and reflection books that invite children (and the child within us) to explore courage, creativity, and self-awareness through art and storytelling. WINGS: A Heroine’s Journey to Color For girls, ages 8–14 WINGS is a poetic and

Why are we drawn to symbols and characters we cannot understand? In my work, I incorporate foreign scripts—letters and symbols from...

Art is more than an image—it is a journey. My work is inspired by life’s transitions, the unseen pathways we navigate, and the labyrinths...