My fenices represent symbols of change. In every human lifetime, specific events can have a strong impact, causing a change in view on the value of life. So why women? I chose this theme because I feel compassion with women, who live in these patriarchal cultures in which their rights or privileges are considered not equal to those of men. However some women are able to change the direction of their life totally and then may feel like reborn, like phenixes...
IN MY LIFETIME several modest changes have taken place. if I look back I get the feeling of having started several times into another kind if life, into childhood; into life as an art student in Amsterdam; into motherhood, into life as an immigrant in the USA; and into becoming an art teacher, later in The Netherlands. And then, when I was over fifty, even after several art shows, I stored my pastels and paint and became a studio potter.
THE ADVENTURE OF HANDBUILDING came from the discovery of an inner feeling of contact with prehistoric pottery and folk art. Days of study in museums of ancient art (Grosseto and Volterra, Dresden, Jerez de la Frontera, Leiden, Paris, X'ian), African art (Paris, Washington) and the art of the American Indian (Phoenix) have had a great influence on my way of working.
ART EXHIBITIONS: Works on paper in Minnesota and in The Netherlands until 1980. From 1990 hand built pottery in The Netherlands: Bilthoven, where I live, Amersfoort, Amsterdam, Utrecht, and in Italy: Varese.