Despite the fact that I studied to become a cinematographer, for me, painting still remains the most important technique. I would like to add here that I do not create paintings as they should be, rather I create by means of form and colour based on the narratives or ideas I want to investigate. So not surprisingly for me, my most influential artists have always been masters of painting as a form of representation.
Matisse, Rembrand, Rothko, Bonnard, Van Gogh, van Eyck, Holbein, Caravaggio, Giotto, Auerbach, Freud, Rego, Lupertz, Serra, Rauch, Borremans, Rosa Loy, and Alice Neel all have a place in my references. In addition to the outsider artists, I would also include three-dimensional masters as being very influential, especially Louise Bourgeois, Nick Cave, and Sarah Lucas. I was an adult when I first saw works of ‘great’ art in person, and it was a big cultural shock for me. The first work that stands out to me is the temple of the queen Hatshepsut and the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. For me, most things start with the inner, sacral aspects radiating outward.
Art was never a rational decision for me. Drawing and paintings were my obsessions since I was a small girl, and I could not imagine myself doing anything else.