Background

I used to be a shy girl from a large family, and I was fascinated by fairy tales and other exciting stories. With friends I acted out all these narratives. We built huts in trees and bushes and sailed on leaky boats. We were dreaming in a fantasized world.

The fascination for soft mud clay probably stems from my childhood. My dad worked in civil engineering and sometimes I was allowed to go along. It was wonderful to dig in big mounds of earth and watch the wet goo that the sand dredgers vomited up.

When I became 11 years old, my family went regularly mudflat hiking from the sea dyke at Pieterburen. The first kilometers of the trip we swamped up to the ankles in the stinking wet clay. A great experience.

Kneading soft clay still gives me sensory pleasure and you can make almost anything from it. I’m truly addicted. Every time when I made a piece I realise there is something else that needs to be tried out or tested. It’s like a wheel that keeps turning and turning around.  I sincerely hope my work will last as long as the Chinese porcelain temple in Nanjing – Edmund de Waal mentioned in The white road – that stayed for six hundred years. My objects are meant as monuments of history about the transience of nature and the transience of life.

Education
Doctoraal history, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
Ceramics, Daniel Levi en Bastienne Kramer
Coaching  by Artless Amsterdam