Directions of Life
Series of 3 silk screens in Iris print.
For the Directions of Life I did research on 18th century prints of family crests. Crests have certain meanings and description of the social position of the represented family or institution. In the Directions of Life I let myself be inspired by all these shapes, forms and traditions, creating my own story. I have rewritten the story from the crests and gave them new meaning in our nowadays complex lives. These series represent the way we are living our lives by searching, choosing and balancing. The base of the graphics is the tree of life and is shaped as either ewer, bawl or amphora to show how life presents us with choices.
1.’Directions of life’ with a compass in its base - a play-ball for dogs and cats. Is it really so easy to decide what will you become in life: a mermaid, bird, dragon or monster?
2.’Directions of life – Lions’. We are all humans (lions). Balancing between Yin and Yang in order to choose either to be a pussy-cat, a wildcat or the lion king.
3.’Directions of life – Birds’. The base of the scale is made of a bow and an arrow. You can get hurt from good deeds and you can be protected by bad ones. Thus, sometimes it is difficult to distinguish good from bad
The original drawings I made are black ink on paper, later I had them reproduced in limited edition silk screen iris print in two colors. Each print is different from the other because of the use colors. Eventhough it was an edition in this way I made each piece in a way an original. These series were exhibited in Raamsdonksveer and awarded with the BAS Grafiek prijs 2014, it has also been exhibited at Affordable Art Fair Amsterdam 2018 by BAS (Business Art Service)

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