Why I Make

I Make To Be Moved

In this statement, I will elaborate 3 elements I found to be important in my work: unpredictability, autonomy, expression. I will short emphasize the importance of having people stirring up your emotions. Finally, I will conclude that my main reason for making is that I want to move people. Even more, I want to be moved myself.

First a little introduction about who I am and what I make. I study illustration. Many people (such as illustrator C.F.Payne) see this as a story-telling form of art. I'm not sure I fully agree with that. I think illustration nowadays is a very broad field of work, that can make a statement or just be a pretty image, as well as tell a story. I like how illustrator Chriss Gall puts it: “The role of an illustrator is unique within the arts, for an illustrator must be equal parts craftsman, engineer, and visionary.”

My work varies from painting to video editing to performances. I strongly agree with illustrator Jeremy Traum, who says that “content should always dictate style.” I work in an intuitive manner, adapting my medium to what best suits the message I want to send. Like illustrator Brian Cairns puts it: “I adopt an intuitive approach that explores a variety of ways to communicate an idea.”

Now the key elements I find important in my work. The first one is unpredictability. “I love to experiment with contrasts and textures and strive for the unexpected when I work.” says Cecilia Carlstedt about her work. I agree with her. Working with different materials and seeing what is characteristic for this material excites me. Especially when it has a surprising outcome. I like the tension between what a material wants to do and how I can control it without losing the natural ‘behaviour’ of the material. Not being able to fully control what you make implies a sort of coincidence. This coincidence is what I want to catch, and preserve. It also implies risk. Your stubborn material could enhance the atmosphere of your image, but it could just as easily overthrow al the figurativeness in your image and make it unreadable. Not being able to fully control what you make also leads me to my second key element: autonomy.

With autonomy I mean autonomy of the work itself. When I don’t fully control the work I make, part of the work is not mine. Part of the work is its own author. This is where it gets interesting, in my opinion, because this is the moment where the work can start detaching itself from me, and start being something on its own. Then It can also start interacting with me in ways I didn’t expect. Earlier this year I made a little character. It was a tube of a thin cotton with two tubes as arms, inspired on the airdancers you sometimes see at the entrance of an event or as advertisement. I taped the tube onto a fohn and when you turned on the fohn, the character would start ‘dancing’. He would react in such human ways on things you did with him. You could press him down and he would resist until he was pushed down so far he cracked. You could squeeze the tube like you would squeeze a neck and he would struggle and then hang lifelessly in your hand. But also, you could tickle him and he would start cringing and shaking and you could almost hear him laugh. Or you could stroke him softly and he would shiver and calmly rest in your hand.

Making something that feels human is making something that feels like it has its own personality. Part of having a personality is having a story to tell. In this way I relate to what Brad Holland says about his work: “My pictures are like book jackets for stories I haven’t written and couldn’t write because they’re not stories that can be told in words.” I don’t fully agree with the fact that not all stories can be told in words, but I agree with wanting to create something that makes people wonder. Wonder about who the character is that you see, what has happened in the picture, where it comes from. The feeling of wanting to know the creature.

Now my last key element: expression. “Emotion is an universal language” Stéphane Goddard says and I agree with her. This is why I want all my work to be expressive of emotion. I want it to make you laugh, or cry. To make you shy or make you want to shout. To make you feel. If something doesn’t move you, you just forget it. It passes you by.

But why moving people? Why is stirring one’s emotions important? I think emotion is key to involvement. It is the thing that makes people compassionate. It makes people connect. So in that case making is connecting, which would be a surprisingly suiting conclusion for my statement relating to this practise. But I will not conclude just yet. I want to add that I would not be making if I had full control over what I make, because then it would not move me anymore. If my work has unpredictability, autonomy and expression, then I too start to wonder about the story behind my creation. Then my creation makes me feel. Then I connect with it. So, and this I will conclude with: I make to be moved.