More about me

In 2010 I had a job at a town hall doing all kinds of projects involving urban planning and law. It was a difficult time in my life, what resulted in my first burn-out. Quite rapidly I was pushed back to work. Back then I didn't take the time to look at alternative ways of doing things. I just didn't see a way out. Four years later I finally found the courage to leave that job.

That was the moment that my journey of discovering who I am, without all the conditioning, started. It has been a bumpy road, with a lot of highs and definitely a lot of lows. The highlight of this journey was a three month backpack trip to South America. This trip really forced me to get up from underneath the rock. Maybe a little bit more about this in a future blog.

After this trip I got a job at a different town hall. That was a very good experience. I did the same kind of work but inside a lot had shifted. Nevertheless in 2018 I got another warning that I was still on a dead end road. For the outside world my job made sense, but for me it lacked deeper meaning. This second burn-out forced me to review my life and make a radical change.

When I thought the rabbit hole for sure couldn't get any deeper, I always discovered that there were still deeper layers. Now I know that this journey never ends. It only becomes a bit easier through experience and developing the right tools. Luckily I had a great mentor, otherwise I wouldn't have gotten this far. That is for sure. I can proudly call him my husband now and my best friend.

Also my family supported me a lot in all kinds of ways. Therefore I was able to take the step of leaving the Netherlands and going to live in Portugal.

It's easier to know what you don't want in your life than knowing what you do want. Thinking back on my childhood I remembered that as a kid I liked to make drawings. After a few years in high school I just stopped doing it. Later in life I finally could figure out why. When I got a task to perform at school it somehow gave boundaries to my creative expression. Drawing and painting outside of the box gave me way more joy, but not always good grades. This made me believe that I wasn't creative at all.

About three years ago my husband gave me the gentle push to start painting again.

Wow, what a revelation: I noticed that I enjoyed it a lot and came to the conclusion that I actually was pretty good at it.

One day I was driving back from an appointment and by mistake I took the wrong turn. I stumbled upon a shop that sold creative stuff. This shop had at that moment a major sale on encaustic wax materials, so I decided to give it a go.

The last two years I am more drawn to creating with wax crayons and a hot iron, even though I still like to paint. The process of using molten wax makes it even easier for me to become an energy channel, because my head is totally not in control when making my creations. It feels like I am making the invisible visible. It has the possibility to be used as a tool to make the subconscious conscious.

The colours that are being used in my art, show what can be important to internally investigate. Every colour has a different impact. 

When the end result reveals itself, you can turn it in all four directions and it shows you a different perspective. Also different people see different things when they look at the same artwork. I came to the conclusion that it even differs from day to day, while your ideas about yourself and the world around you change.

My art can be useful for myself or others to gain more insight and to be used as a tool that can support a journey of becoming more free of all kinds of conditioning. This is why I love to make molten wax creations for all kinds of people. To capture what they subconsciously need right at that moment. The message differs for everyone. It can be in the form of an artwork that gives positive energy, it could inspire to make positive changes or it can be an artwork that shows the hidden things that are holding you back.

I strongly believe that all of our lives are connected in one way or another. In my opinion this gives creating art deeper connections and therefore a deeper meaning to life. Different dimensions of life can come to the surface.

It kind of feels like a process that uses the principles of experimentation and observation for inner exploration, development and healing. For me it is a magic tool and helped me through many challenging times in my life.

If you are a person that chooses my art just for the visual appearance then it still could inspire you and bring about positive changes in your life. Maybe you even discover that you are stuck in a certain area of your life and it will bring up new ideas for the direction that you could take. Everything is possible.

About two years ago I was finally prepared to make the move to search for a 'monte' in the countryside of Portugal.

In Portugal it is still affordable to be surrounded by nature, having a relaxed lifestyle and being as self-sufficient as possible.

This environment gives me the chance to focus, without any distraction from the busy outside world, onto the art that craves to being manifested.