This winter I stayed in my country of origin (the Netherlands) for 3 months to care for my mother, who had recently been diagnosed with dementia. As my sister and I were cleaning out the rooms of her house, in preparation of a future move to a care home, I happened upon a somewhat eerie find: a drawer full of hair! MY hair, to be more precise!
I have always known that my mom was especially fond of my hair, from a young age onwards. I am the only one in my family with a ginger tinge to my hair and it also tends to be wavey and sometimes curly. My mother takes the copyright for that. She has always told me that, even as a toddler, she wanted me to have wavey hair and that is why she would roll it around her finger and press the thus created curl onto my head. And it worked, she says, because my hair has always been naturally curly!
My first big haircut that brought me from hair reaching my backside to shoulder length was done in the last year of elementary school. My mom decided to keep the cut-off tresses and I do remember her doing that. But in the drawer I found many more pony tails and braids. So I must have grown my hair for a bit and then have it cut again. My instinct told me to take everthing home, back to Canada. I was not sure what I was going to do with it, but it would have to be something creative.
This resulted in two ‘selfies’. One self portrait the way I look now, and one of me like a toddler. These pieces are very personal and they are not for sale. But I want to share the backstory with you so that you understand what you are looking at when you see the two paintings. And for those who wonder what the actual colour of my hair is: as a child, it became honey blonde and quite light. As a 65-year old it is much darker and in fact very close to the out of the tube colour of raw sienna. Just so you know!
Click in the list below to select and view more backstories of my artworks.