ANTHROPOCENE

januari 27 2025

Dazzled & Deluded

Anthropocene statement

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Anthropocene is a body of work of handmade collages about the paradox that we love nature and show that love, but at the same time exploit and destroy it. We don’t mean to, but we tend to look away and procrastinate doing what we know is necessary. We do worry about it all and try to do our best, but not if we have to sacrifice our immediate happiness and carefree feelings. We understand change is important, but it’s difficult to change, isn’t it? We live in scary times and feel the need to hold on to our old ways because they make us feel safe. Even though we know we’ll have to start living a new, sustainable life that’s so much better for all we love.

The name Anthropocene, from the ancient Greek anthropo- meaning ‘human’ and -cene from (kainos) meaning ‘new’ or ‘recent’, is the period of time during which human activities have had an environmental impact on the Earth. Even though this is not officially accepted, it’s regarded as constituting a distinct geological age.

My inspiration for this collection is a quote by Dutch writer A. Den Doolaard: “We lived among miracles, but we never understood them”

Dazzled & Deluded, series 6

Paper on vintage book covers, several sizes

This is the sixth series in Anthropocene. Before influencers and their marketing became huge on social media we looked at movie stars for inspiration. Wanting to look like them, dress like them, be like them. We hardly knew anything about their personal life, so often it remained a distant dream.
Influencers on social media share their private life with their audience. This makes us feel they’re just like us and this also makes it easier to influence us to buy a specific product, use special supplements or follow a line of thinking or a way of life.

We can become blinded by the products, the lifestyle and the opinions they sell, we hardly see what the consequences can be. We all want happiness and health, it’s understandable to fall for the idea of a solution for life problems. But we don’t see (or want to see) that what we ‘really need’ can have a huge impact on the environment, on people. We don’t really think how waste from our products is polluting our planet or about people, children even, who delve cobalt for our phones and sew our clothes for hardly any wage under horrible conditions just so we can buy this dream. Because we’re worth it.

I used vintage photos of moviestars and icons on a background of old book covers, weathered both organically and intentionally, inspired by the walls of so many gorgeous timeworn buildings of Venice, a city with a long history of wealth and trade.

‘Dazzled and deluded by appearances’ comes from a quote by Epictetus

Liz, Sophia and Grace were shortlisted for the Women United Art Prize 2024

This series was made in 2024

juli 17 2023

Mined! Postcards from the Edge

admin ANTHROPOCENE

Anthropocene statement

– Click title to hide –

Anthropocene is a body of work of handmade collages about the paradox that we love nature and show that love, but at the same time exploit and destroy it. We don’t mean to, but we tend to look away and procrastinate doing what we know is necessary. We do worry about it all and try to do our best, but not if we have to sacrifice our immediate happiness and carefree feelings. We understand change is important, but it’s difficult to change, isn’t it? We live in scary times and feel the need to hold on to our old ways because they make us feel safe. Even though we know we’ll have to start living a new, sustainable life that’s so much better for all we love.

The name Anthropocene, from the ancient Greek anthropo- meaning ‘human’ and -cene from (kainos) meaning ‘new’ or ‘recent’, is the period of time during which human activities have had an environmental impact on the Earth. Even though this is not officially accepted, it’s regarded as constituting a distinct geological age.

My inspiration for this collection is a quote by Dutch writer A. Den Doolaard: “We lived among miracles, but we never understood them”

Mined! Postcards from the Edge, series 6

Collage on vintage postcards, 16 collages

The 6th series is about how what we want right now can actually be stronger than what we want in the future. Not because we think so, but because it’s just to hard to say no to what we’re used to getting. Will our collective behaviour push us towards the edge before we do something about it? Let’s hope we won’t have to show generations to come the postcards from way back when, when what we loved was actually still around.

July 2023

juli 17 2023

What Paris Actually Said

admin ANTHROPOCENE

Anthropocene statement

– Click title to hide –

Anthropocene is a body of work of handmade collages about the paradox that we love nature and show that love, but at the same time exploit and destroy it. We don’t mean to, but we tend to look away and procrastinate doing what we know is necessary. We do worry about it all and try to do our best, but not if we have to sacrifice our immediate happiness and carefree feelings. We understand change is important, but it’s difficult to change, isn’t it? We live in scary times and feel the need to hold on to our old ways because they make us feel safe. Even though we know we’ll have to start living a new, sustainable life that’s so much better for all we love.

The name Anthropocene, from the ancient Greek anthropo- meaning ‘human’ and -cene from (kainos) meaning ‘new’ or ‘recent’, is the period of time during which human activities have had an environmental impact on the Earth. Even though this is not officially accepted, it’s regarded as constituting a distinct geological age.

My inspiration for this collection is a quote by Dutch writer A. Den Doolaard: “We lived among miracles, but we never understood them”

What Paris Actually Said, series 5

Collaged board book with transfer lettering,
15 x 15 cm
5.9′ x 5.9′
11 spreads, 24 collages (covers included)

This book is about The Paris Agreement and the need to limit the increase of global temperature well below 1,5°C or 2.7°F compared with pre-industrial levels. Often we are told if we don’t, it will be the point of no return, the end. Is that really so? Are we certain? We sure don’t want to believe it, even when evidence it could be true is in the news almost daily. But we have lives to live, places to go, people to meet, things to buy. We’d rather look at something beautiful and wear gorgeous clothes. And íf we’re going, we’re at least going out in style, right?
The title was inspired by something Paris Hilton – supposedly – said: ‘This is Earth. Isn’t it hot?’

June/July 2023

mei 18 2023

Coming Out Of My Shell

admin ANTHROPOCENE

Anthropocene statement

– Click title to hide –

Anthropocene is a body of work of handmade collages about the paradox that we love nature and show that love, but at the same time exploit and destroy it. We don’t mean to, but we tend to look away and procrastinate doing what we know is necessary. We do worry about it all and try to do our best, but not if we have to sacrifice our immediate happiness and carefree feelings. We understand change is important, but it’s difficult to change, isn’t it? We live in scary times and feel the need to hold on to our old ways because they make us feel safe. Even though we know we’ll have to start living a new, sustainable life that’s so much better for all we love.

The name Anthropocene, from the ancient Greek anthropo- meaning ‘human’ and -cene from (kainos) meaning ‘new’ or ‘recent’, is the period of time during which human activities have had an environmental impact on the Earth. Even though this is not officially accepted, it’s regarded as constituting a distinct geological age.

My inspiration for this collection is a quote by Dutch writer A. Den Doolaard: “We lived among miracles, but we never understood them”

Coming out of my shell, series 4

Paper and transfer lettering on matting board, 16 x 22 cm / 6.3′ x 8.6 ‘, framed in a sustainable wooden frame of fast growing wood, 24 x 30 cm / 9.4′ x 11.8’

The fourth series is about the seas and the oceans. We love to swim and dive in it, surf the waves, travel by boat, eat from it. We love to collect shells, driftwood and sea glass. The eb and flow has a mysterious attraction to us. The sound of the waves breaking calms us. We love watching a movie about the beautiful creatures that live where we can’t see them.

We’re also scared of the sea and the ocean, sometimes the waves are so high and dangerous creatures might lurk beneath sea level. What’s even more dangerous but can’t be seen immediately is man made: the incredible amount of microplastics and pesticides in the water. It’s eaten by the fish, eaten by us. Also because of the huge amount of CO2 we emit, temperatures are rising, also those of our seas and oceans, at unprecedented highs. This is causing coral to die, species to extinct, sea levels to rise, countries to flood, people to flight.

Those who live in well protected – rich – countries, don’t feel the immediate urgency. We often don’t really see how connected our behaviour is with the state of our seas and oceans. We don’t really understand how much people who have so much less on the other side of the world suffer the consequences of our actions long before we will.

More than 70% of our world is covered in seawater. Every drop in the ocean is part of the water cycle. The water cycle is essential for the maintenance of most life and ecosystems on the planet. I’m thinking about a quote from Loesje, translated from the Dutch: ‘The sea still hopes for a wave of environmental awareness’.

mei 18 2023

One Bird On My Hat Is Worth Ten In The Bush

admin ANTHROPOCENE

Anthropocene statement

– Click title to close –

Anthropocene is a body of work of handmade collages about the paradox that we love nature and show that love, but at the same time exploit and destroy it. We don’t mean to, but we tend to look away and procrastinate doing what we know is necessary. We do worry about it all and try to do our best, but not if we have to sacrifice our immediate happiness and carefree feelings. We understand change is important, but it’s difficult to change, isn’t it? We live in scary times and feel the need to hold on to our old ways because they make us feel safe. Even though we know we’ll have to start living a new, sustainable life that’s so much better for all we love.

The name Anthropocene, from the ancient Greek anthropo- meaning ‘human’ and -cene from (kainos) meaning ‘new’ or ‘recent’, is the period of time during which human activities have had an environmental impact on the Earth. Even though this is not officially accepted, it’s regarded as constituting a distinct geological age.

My inspiration for this collection is a quote by Dutch writer A. Den Doolaard: “We lived among miracles, but we never understood them”

One Bird on My Hat Is Worth Ten in The Bush, series 3

Paper and transfer lettering on matting board, 16 x 22 cm / 6.3′ x 8.6′, framed in a sustainable wooden frame of fast growing wood, 24 x 30 cm / 9.4′ x 11.8′

My third series is about our love for birds. We love so much about them: their song, the freedom of their flight, their feathers, their colours, their behaviour. We also love the taste of birds: we eat poultry, we eat fowl.

This series is also about the dangers of Avian Influenza, or bird flu, and how we treat animals, especially in bio industry. Birds packed together in huge buildings created outbreaks since many years. Every fall we’ve had outbreaks and the last outbreak has been going on for a year now! It’s escalating rapidly. Millions of infected poultry are killed while wild fowl is infected and dies, sometimes even mid-flight

Are we brewing a new pandemic for ourselves? The specialist on Avian Influenza, virologist professor Thijs Kuiken of Erasmus University in Rotterdam, NL, says about this: ‘right now the chances of that are not that high, but the risks are getting bigger by the day’.

mei 18 2023

Me Wants. Me Needs. Must Have The Precious

admin ANTHROPOCENE

Anthropocene statement

– Click title to close –

Anthropocene is a body of work of handmade collages about the paradox that we love nature and show that love, but at the same time exploit and destroy it. We don’t mean to, but we tend to look away and procrastinate doing what we know is necessary. We do worry about it all and try to do our best, but not if we have to sacrifice our immediate happiness and carefree feelings. We understand change is important, but it’s difficult to change, isn’t it? We live in scary times and feel the need to hold on to our old ways because they make us feel safe. Even though we know we’ll have to start living a new, sustainable life that’s so much better for all we love.

The name Anthropocene, from the ancient Greek anthropo- meaning ‘human’ and -cene from (kainos) meaning ‘new’ or ‘recent’, is the period of time during which human activities have had an environmental impact on the Earth. Even though this is not officially accepted, it’s regarded as constituting a distinct geological age.

My inspiration for this collection is a quote by Dutch writer A. Den Doolaard: “We lived among miracles, but we never understood them”

Me Wants. Me Needs. Must Have The Precious, series 2

Paper and transfer lettering on matting board, 16 x 22 cm / 6.3′ x 8.6′, framed in a sustainable wooden frame of fast growing wood, 24 x 30 cm / 9.4′ x 11.8′

This series is about our love and need for precious metals , (semi)precious stones, crystals and minerals. I was inspired by an article about our growing need for scarce metals. We use them for our smartphones and laptops and for solar panels and batteries to store the energy generated by sun and wind. This results in exhausted mines and exhausted workers.

I combined this with how much we love minerals, crystals and gems. They’re beautiful and we think they can have healing powers. And, like with scarce metals, we can’t get enough of them.

Anthropocene series 1 - I Love Butterflies But I Can Never Finish A Whole One #1

mei 18 2023

I Love Butterflies But Can Never Finish A Whole One

admin ANTHROPOCENE

Anthropocene statement

– Click title to close –

Anthropocene is a body of work of handmade collages about the paradox that we love nature and show that love, but at the same time exploit and destroy it. We don’t mean to, but we tend to look away and procrastinate doing what we know is necessary. We do worry about it all and try to do our best, but not if we have to sacrifice our immediate happiness and carefree feelings. We understand change is important, but it’s difficult to change, isn’t it? We live in scary times and feel the need to hold on to our old ways because they make us feel safe. Even though we know we’ll have to start living a new, sustainable life that’s so much better for all we love.

The name Anthropocene, from the ancient Greek anthropo- meaning ‘human’ and -cene from (kainos) meaning ‘new’ or ‘recent’, is the period of time during which human activities have had an environmental impact on the Earth. Even though this is not officially accepted, it’s regarded as constituting a distinct geological age.

My inspiration for this collection is a quote by Dutch writer A. Den Doolaard: “We lived among miracles, but we never understood them”

I Love Butterflies But Can Never Finish A Whole One, series 1

Paper and transfer lettering on matting board, 16 x 22 cm / 6.3′ x 8.6′, framed in a sustainable wooden frame of fast growing wood, 24 x 30 cm / 9.4′ x 11.8′

The first series of Anthropocene is about how we feel there’s not a lot we as individuals can do regarding climate change. We’re actually aware of how much change is important to save the planet but it’s so difficult! Not only because we are great at looking away or telling ourselves our behaviour is not the big problem. There’s no imminent danger, yet.

Small actions can have big impact though, like the butterfly effect: the flapping of butterfly wings could cause a tornado at the other end of the world. Hopefully this works for the climate too: small actions by individuals like sorting waste, buying 2nd hand, eating less or no meat and so much more, might create a huge momentum for change. Especially if more people do this!

Let’s hope that together we can convince big companies that care more about money and politicians who care more about being re-elected than about the environment to see the quality of life for every living organism as a priority