I have been an artist for most of my life and in my younger
years did very well as a commercial designer. My art did not start to
blossom until I was 26 years of age and for me much out of
necessity. The year was 1959 and I had just arrived in Sydney
,Australia. My knowledge of English was not sufficient. to apply
for a position I was accustomed to while in service of the KNSM
(the Royal Netherlands Steamship Company). It seemed logical to
try my knowledge I had in textile designing and was surprised
with the success I had with the first design studio I visited.
Those were my young and ambitious years when much I had
experienced , had served me extremely well. Now, that I stand at
the final leg of my creative years , ambition no longer is
important. I now find that expressing my inner sensitivity of
those early years were as a necessity in the development of my
creative abilities , mainly in the visual art.
As a young man I was not always permitted to express emotions
, especially when they tended to be sensitive. Most of the time
and in particular during my adolescence and teen years these were
behaviours not becoming of young men. "You are a man and you
must be strong and defend yourself to the hard world that
surrounds you" I hear my father say.
Impressions are the nourishment of our senses and therefore
most important. We as humans cannot live without these. Imagine
if we could completely close off our senses of hearing or seeing
just to block out undesirable occurrences. But impression are not
often understood and for most of us become moments of discomfort.
We can react by becoming angry or frightened leading to all the
consequences thereof.
In the event we have answers to questions we had put to
ourselves about whatever subject , we might first of all relate
to these by a verbal expression. Others might write letters or
books to express themselves in detail by using an expedient
language. Then there are those who would express their feelings
about food by creating marvellous dinners. A few , would look
into how they would express glamorous women by creating
fashionable dresses . For the more masculine trend , there is the
expression for fast speeding cars or intricate working
machineries. etc,etc.
As for myself , a visual artist , I have very often
deliberately taken concern of whatever is happening around my
daily life. Much of it is by reading newspapers or listening to
news on the radio or watching television. But much of it is by
direct association with my own surroundings. As an example, there
was my curiosity of the plight of our indigenous residents who
were living near my newly chosen home in Kuranda , as small
community tucked away in the rainforest of North of Queensland.
In order to understand rather than to feel uncomfortable in an
atmosphere not familiar to me , I expressed my feelings by
creating images of whatever came to my mind energized by my
sensitive emotions. What I could not understand with ease I
researched of references about their culture , that at the time
was available. With this information together with my technical
experiences in the art of drawing and painting , I created the
series "Exaltation"; and the
following year ,"Dreaming the
dreamer".
The paintings of the first series got the attention of signora
Miriam Salinas a Mexican lady and resident of Miami, USA, who
suggested I go to Mexico and try my impressions of the ancient
culture of Meso America. The first series
"Ave Azteca" was unexpectedly successful when it
was on exhibition at the institute of anthropology in San Miguel
de Allede and which part of the series ended in New York at Agora
galleries.
The second series , that of my expressions of the Popol Vuh ,the sacred book of the Mayans ,
was created in conjunction with the year of the Indigenous people
of the world (1993), also found its inauguration in San Miguel de
Allende , this time at the Institute Allende , an art centre. It
was opened by Ms Helen O' Dwyer the art and culture
representative of the Australian Embassy to Mexico.
I will not go into too much detail about my experiences as I
plan to tell more about how and why I had created many images in other text you will find in the various series
folders of my web-site.
The method I used to create much of these images are my own
and as such are by little means connected to whatever intricate
existing technique available. For now my art is understood by a
few who have admired my style and choice of colour. Most of them
live in the USA , The Netherlands and Germany. and now also in
Australia.
Australia where I live is my adopted country after the
breakdown of my own ,the old Dutch Indies colonies. I have a
desire to offer my art to this nation as my gratitude for the
opportunities in life it has granted me.
The freeing of myself from a routine I had become so
accustomed to in my arts now , came about when doing
the series 'Heart and Headland' and
brought about a complete new trend of means of
expression. To my art it meant a change in style and medium
, a routine that had been so
coherent to the tradition of visual art I was
familiar with for most of my artistic life. It meant a
different approach to the manner I form images in my mind .
Gone was the slumber of eventuating manifestations that before
saw its formation to a tradition I had held myself to since my
extensive training in the past. In its place a freedom was born ,
not just in the way I executed my expressions but also in
having adopted an environment so different to what I
had been used to. It made me happy with what I was doing
even if I had moments of hesitation that what I might
be creating would not to be accepted as sincere by
the art public.
Please feel free to browse through my various series
and don't hesitate to E-mail me,George the artist
with your comments or questions.
B A C K
