Zonder titel

The portrait was painted in tribute to the remarkable artist Philip Vandenberg. His approach and worldview towards art is an opportunity to explore, express and convey human pain through medium and material, sometimes so innocently and sensually that as a viewer, as a person whose essence lies in suffering, you find a kind of consolation. Comfort through the acceptance of pain and trauma is what I see when I look at Philip's work. This portrait is the quintessence of all my experiences and emotions associated with this artist, who influenced me and my painting practice, and with reading the book Kamikaze, which talks about the principle of 'self-destruction'. This principle, which the artist himself followed, states that a person must 'destroy' themselves in order to be reborn into something new. Both in life and in art, this principle became fundamental for him.  The portrait should show the very mobility of this idea. I think it is important for a person to come to this realisation, which can have a vital impact on our worldview as a whole. It can be seen as the killing of the old for the birth of the new; if we do the same thing our whole lives, then at some point life will simply end. In this sense, I also see a connection with stoicism, with the idea of the present or today as a conduit to true life, to something new. This whole story is closely related to my personal practice. At the moment, I am exploring the human being, their essence, the tragedy of their existence. In the story of this artist, you can see this very tragedy, which is transformed into something personal and close to your heart.