In my little zine you can discover who I am and read about some of points that I would like to tackle in the Playgrounds Next program. But there are more and in this development plan I would like to tell you more about them.

 

I would love to join this program because I am currently work at Sint Lucas Eindhoven for 4 days a week. I love working with students and I really enjoy helping them with their projects. I like to teach them how to think in possibilities and not in problems. How can they make their projects just a little bit better while using different techniques or materials? I talked about this at work and my team fully supports me in this opportunity. They also see this as a change for me to grow and be a better artist so I can help or support students more with their projects.

But what I miss is a better balance between my work at Sint Lucas and my personal work. I sometimes wish there was more time during the week to make more of my own, but sadly there isn’t always. How can I combine my daily job best with my personal work? I always thought that I couldn’t take jobs from clients because I didn’t have enough time. But I’m convinced think that I can find the perfect balance with your help.

I also would love to get better in networking. Especially because I would like to be more active in the creatieve field as a freelancer and webshop owner. I think expanding my network is super important to reach more potential clients.
Next to that I think it’s important to stay in contact with people around you. Because they can form a creative network that can gain you cool assignments and/or clients as well. People need to know you and know what you can do. But how can you reach them?

I also want to develop my webshop and my marketing skills. How can I make my webshop more interesting? Which parts do I need to improve? How can I get more customers? Are there other platforms to use than just Instagram? How can I find more clients? Do I have to post every day to get noticed? Is it enough to just advertise online? A couple of months ago I decided to send Lize Korpershoek a goodiebag of my products. I gained a lot of followers from that but what comes next? I want to get out there more, so I have to pay more attention to how to get my work out there. How can I get my work, for example, on exhibitions? How can I get my work to receive more attention?

As an artist I’m always experimenting with a big variety materials and techniques but I’m also an artist that wants to try as many different things possible! I have a ton of different materials at home and I used or tried them all. But who am I as an artist? Am I an illustrator? I don’t know. I want to profile myself more. Who am I and how does the outside world see me? Do I have to get focused on just one thing, for example Screen Printing, or can I do more things alongside each other?

Recently I did a project in the interactive minor called ‘Huis’, which was an interactive installation with a beamer. I absolutely loved building the house and create something that was physically there. Something that I’ve build from scratch myself. That’s why I keep trying new materials! I would love to do more research on different kinds of illustration.

I always feel like exploring and doing new things in life. It brings me so much joy to learn about new techniques and materials. I want other people to feel that too. I want to help them explore and learn new things by following a workshop that I teach or I want them to get inspired by my work, like I was inspired by other artists to explore new techniques. I hope I can motivate other people to do or try new things by giving them a space to do so. 

I have this dream to create a workshop space where there are lots and lots of materials for everyone to use for just material costs. In this way it would also get accessible for students. At my work there are a lot of students asking for screen printing workshops but it’s very expensive to follow a workshop like that. Maybe there can be a way that I teach them these techniques? These ‘old school’ techniques are getting more popular now so I think it’s really cool for students to get an opportunity to use these different techniques in a workshop like that. It can be a space to explore, learn and create. A space for workshops for everyone because I also strongly believe in a lifelong learning and creating process. It can also be a space to meet other artists, a space to rent a studio, a space to sell your products, a space to drink some coffee and build your network. That’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot. Just a space to create and do what YOU want and not what the world wants you to do.

But where do I want to go? I want to develop myself and be more relaxed about my own work. Like I said, I want the perfect balance between working but also grow as an artist. I want to be more confident. I really think I can get better with the right focus. I need this because I want to improve myself, I know I can do it but I just have to find that little sparkle which you hopefully can help me to find!