I love nature. I love food. I love art. I love making things.
As a nature enthusiast, I regret the over-conservation of the last bits of remaining wild nature in many Westernized countries. As humans, we are a part of nature and it is our right to interact with it and enjoy its presence. Growing up in the Netherlands however, enjoying wild nature was hardly an option. Luckily enough, my mother is Slovak, and I have been able to spend a lot of time growing up in Slovakias mountains and forests. Ever since I was little I was used to the presence of nature as an integral part of our surroundings. With my family we often went deep into the woods looking for edible mushrooms, we had goulash-parties in the forest, and I often went for long solitery walks. Wild nature fascinates me, and has always overwhelmed me with its inherent beauty.
Besides nature, my main passion is Art: all forms of creative expression. I studied art at the Royal Art Academy in the Hague, and I have a Bachelor degree from the University of Utrecht in Modern Art Theory and History. Both approaches to art these institutions offered me left me deeply unsatisfied however. I long for a more direct, meaningful and useful art-form.
From the institutional perspective, Art was always seen as a representation of something else, it hardly ever touches any essence. As an artist, I want to create an interaction with reality itself, instead of creating mirrors of reality. My aims are directed at creating things that interact with or include the natural environment or otherwise incorporate a biological essence.
Fab Academy means to me literally what the course promises: acquiring the ability to learn how to make (almost) anything. About 10 years ago I told my art teacher in high school that all I wanted was simply to be able to make the things I had in my mind. Thanks to Fab Academy I am getting a chance to reach out for that goal.