Artist statement 

I’m a nature person. I like to roam in nature, and I make art with and in nature. I hope to touch people with that, to make them connect with nature. But I mainly do it because it makes me happy.

I work organically, I work with a piece of wood and make a sculpture without a preconceived plan. Or I build an installation, often in a tree, where I respond to the local situation, with my feeling of that moment. Sometimes that is completely without concept, no idea that I want to depict, sometimes I start with a concept. But even then the artwork igets its form while working.

I make my wood sculptures from wood with imperfections, “as long as it is crooked, rotten or moldy.” I often make light and open sculptures or play with the tension between open and robust. A human figure is often visible, explicitly or more abstract. The sculptures invite you to touch them. And that is also possible, there is always a sign on my exhibitions ‘You are allowed to touch the wooden sculptures. Do it carefully’. Often that alone produces a smile. I also make commissioned sculptures. For example for an award ceremony, or as a commemoration of a deceased person. I don’t work according to a drawing, but try to capture the client’s wish or story. And prove to succeed again and again.

I often make installations with strings, in trees. I connect the branches with the ground from which the tree has grown. There is an exciting contrast between the tight rhythm of the threads and the natural shape of the tree. With branches on threads I create a calming, meditative experience. In all cases I respond to the local situation, the work is created on the spot. Always different, but always soothing, a way to look at trees, nature, differently. On a conscious level I often do not give deeper meaning to the work. But it often turns out that there is one for many viewers. I make relationships in nature, the invisible, visible.

I make these kinds of installations at festivals and land art events at home and abroad. I have added light to this since three years. The strings of my installations light up, creating a fairylike effect. An installation where people can walk in, which they can undergo. No advanced technology, no flashing lights, but a meditative experience. These light installations prove to function very well as a background or stage for live music or dance performances. I consider such collaboration as a great challenge and addition to my art.

Sometimes I also bring nature inside. Three large root pieces, high in a church, with a multitude of threads hanging from the roots, representing communication between trees, confront people between walls with the richness of nature. Recently I have also translated these works into smaller, poetic installations, ‘Reflections’, with which I bring nature inside.

As a nature person, sustainability is important to me. I don’t cut trees for my sculptures. I work with natural materials, and if I don’t (most strings for example), I reuse it multiple times and look for new uses of the material.

I hope to make people watch, feel and wonder.