Artist's Statement

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The premise for this project came from an understanding of my faults and weaknesses as an artist and choosing to address them head-on. I know that my art suffers most when I over-control, overthink and try to impart deep narrative or meaning to each piece, so I dove into a process of trial and error, trying different ways to systematically remove those elements of weakness from my creation process. This process resulted in, quite possibly, my best work to date.

          

Although frustrating at times, this process was one of the most enjoyable art-making experiences of my life. Acknowledging my “weaknesses” as an artist was difficult and not something any creative wants to do, but once I chose to see these not as “mistakes” but simply as “restraints,” removing them felt easier. I needed to acknowledge that I had these habits in place not because I was a failure as an artist, but because I was searching for who I was as an artist-or worse yet, I thought I already knew. Now that I have discovered this side of my creativity, those elements-my need to control, overthink and impart meaning-can now be used appropriately as preciseness (control), message (narrative or meaning) and careful consideration (overthinking).

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The title "Windmill Project" comes from the way I made these pieces. Being of Dutch heritage, I decided to bring one more Dutch element into the work with the titles of each piece. The titles are simply Dutch numbers. Een is One, twee is Two, and so forth.