In my last competency assessment, I described I like to make personal work. The teachers told me it was good that despite the fact I made work for myself, I still kept in mind that my work could be meaningful to others too.
I was very focussed on telling my stories in the first 2 years. Now however, I realized I have told what I wanted to tell and want to focus on different topics. I stopped using myself as the main character for all my projects. I have tried to take different approaches by creating stories told from a different perspective than mine. I have discovered new techniques, like animation. Through making work about myself all the time, I came to discover which topics I find important. Topics such as feminism and spreading awareness about contraceptives. Now I want to advocate for these opinions and ideas through my art.



In the work 'Would you take this pill?' I have done this for the Conversation Piece assignment.
In the past year I had discovered I had a great passion for changing society regarding female topics and spreading awareness about the hormonal contraceptive pill. With this work I wanted to take the first step in bringing this passion into the world. I made boxes based on designs of the real pill. I put the most common side-effects on the boxes, as if you were to take the pill for these effects. Within the boxes I put a leaflet that I had reconstructed to give a different message, but with all the information left untouched. I invited girls from my class to have a conversation about this topic. For 3 hours we shared experiences and information. After the months of doing research and reading about this topic, I was happy to finally spread some awareness about different contraceptive methods and the drastic effects of the pill, even when my audience was so small.

I would like to gain more knowledge around feminism so I can include this in work that I have yet to make. I want to reach a bigger audience with these works. I am thinking about doing my graduation project on this topic.



In the last 2 years I've come to realize that illustration was never enough for me. Drawings would turn into installations and performances. One medium I really wanted to explore was video. I wanted to learn more about telling stories through moving images.

I started by making the video 'Analog Love' for the 2039 project. I made a storyboard based on the story of how my Dutch father met my Polish mother in 1989 and had to travel a huge distance to meet her.  I didn't know how to animate, so I decided to take an analog approach. I made all the figures in Illustrator, cut them with a lasercutter and start building sets by putting all the parts together. I was working on this project alone and was restricted by time, so I decided to only portray the distance by showing a car traveling from the Netherlands to Poland.

After this work I collaborated with my friend to make the animation 'Zon in de nacht' (Sun in the night) for a music video that was commissioned by a musician. In this video we used the same approach as I used in real life: by layering the objects and moving them behind one another. My friend animated and I made the scene.

I'm happy I got to work on two bigger projects that were videos. I like thinking of the setting and mood the video needs to give off. This is also a field I would like to find an internship in. I would like to explore audiovisual, but I'd also like to do set design, because I love crafting.

Would you take this pill?

Changing my artistic vision

Exploring a new medium

Analog Love, video

Still from Analog Love

Fragment of Zon in de nacht (without audio because the musician doesn't want to release the full video yet)

Would you take this pill?

Would you take this pill?

Gif of Zon in de Nacht