The search for meaning: A struggle for life.

RELEVANT EDUCATION

2005-2010 • Bachelor (BA) in Fine Arts at ROYAL ACADEMY OF THE ARTS, THE HAGUE.
2000-2004 • Bachelor (BA) in Digital Media Design at UTRECHT SCHOOL OF THE ARTS (With Honours).

OTHER LEARNING

2004
Shortly after the 2004 Madrid trainbombings I visited a friend studying near Madrid. We made a roadtrip through the Northern part of Spain. I was suffering from insomnia and anxiety attacks at that time. At the Guggenheim Bilbao I watched Pippilotti Rist’s beautiful installation “Sip My Ocean”. The next day I gazed down upon the beautiful bay of San Sebastian from a terrace up the hillside. The sight of such a beautiful bayside paradise in contrast to recent current events moved me so deeply I felt vertigo arise from within my bones.

2006
I was in London, visiting a friend. We were having coffee and cigarettes in his garden on a surprisingly sunny, slightly hungover afternoon in December. A stray fox was sleeping in a sunlit spot in the back of the garden. The sun glowing in its red fur coat as it laid curled up in the green grass. Grasped by its mythical beauty I felt a longing to be one with the creature. And then realized I was: The grass beneath both of our feet, the sun shining warm on our backs. It was as if we were one creature, one being. Sharing the sun, the ground and the air between us.
By realizing that I am part of everything, just like everything else is too, I also realized  that everything that we perceive is connected by the very limits of our perception.
This concept resolved a lot of the painful regards I held towards life, in fact I started to change my perspective on life. Life is not a part of me: I am a part of Life.