A tanned, blond, well-tailored guy in a faded pink polo shirt glides on a surfboard along the Greek coast in 1986. The local sailor sitting next to me whispers one word in my ear: SWELL.
That one phrase beautifully describes my first encounter with the art I still do today and my most potent instant energy recipe to date.
SWELL – the Google translator for the upward current that surfers expect. And for me, the motivation when I start creating an image.
After 86 a few years on the school bench have passed. As soon as I turned 18, with my A-levels in my pocket, I went up and took a summer job in Greece. I spent the warm months there for years, only coming home for the university semesters from autumn to spring. And in the process, the meaning of positive energy became one with me:
The wrinkled, sun-dried, soft beach T-shirt
The smell of salt on my skin
The tickle of seaweed between my toes
The touch of tangled, sun-oiled hairs on my face
The white limestone traces on my beach towel
The taste of an icy cocktail in the sunset
The rubbing of the fabric on my sunburned neckline
The goose bumps under my wet bathing suit
The smell of leander, cigarette smoke, machine oil and fish in the harbour
Just recalling these sensual wonders, I get the upward current to make it through another day of joyful living in the concrete jungle of my studio, thinking that energy is not lost, only transformed. It transforms into movements, into gestures, colours and forms on my canvases.
Musical inspiration: The Beach Boys: Kokomo (1988)