The Embrace Project
Express your emotions
Emotional expression is my breath of life. I have known times in which I was burdened by the effects of trauma. At that time, I had few strategies for expressing myself. Depicting my emotions in portraiture gives me the opportunity to give voice to my feelings. I do believe that finding healthy ways of to Express what is living inside you is a necessity of life.
To Express my inner process has brought me closer to life. In my artistic expressions over the years, the transition from surviving life to living life becomes vividly visible. It has transformed my work from a need for expression to a desire to capture life in a creative image.
Expressing inner pain in the embrace project
In 2019 I started ‘The Embrace Project‘. This is not an easy or the obvious path. For me it was a way of entering into a search process with an attitude of curiosity.
I was in search for relief and finding ways to allow this inner division to be. It is a journey of integration and healing, in which I want to meet the inner struggle and embrace the pain.
Each portrait represents the relationship to a painful feeling and the search process with this emotion. As if it were a dance, the emotion and the tortured, where do we move and how do we relate to each other?
I like to share them and hope that these portraits can inspire you to heal your old pain and make beautiful expressions of life.
Embrace your powerlessness [2019]
In the process of healing old pain I ran into the feeling of powerlessness. I start portraying this powerless feeling in relation to myself. How is the relationship between me and my feeling of powerlessness? How do we move relative to each other? What is it like to fully embrace this feeling of powerlessness?
Embrace your loneliness [2020]
In the process of healing old pain I run into feeling powerlessness. I start by portraying this powerless feeling in relation to myself. How is the relationship between me and my feeling of powerlessness? How do we move relative to each other? What is it like to fully embrace powerlessness?
Embrace your Grief [2020]
In the process of painting ‘Embracing your grief’, I have experienced time and time again how grief reaches out to you. With my human mix of emotions I make a dancing movement, towards this feeling and then distance myself from it again.
I experience mourning as a painful process in which sadness, anger, fear and pain alternate. At the same time there is softness, reverence, awe and a feeling of deep connection with myself and my surroundings.
Embracing and surrendering to the process of grief has been very helpful to me.
That’s why this portrait is dear to me. It reminds me of the valuable process of grieving ang growth.
This painting is for sale as an art print on Artmajeur
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Embrace your Utter Sadness [2020]
At the same time that I’m exploring my relationship to grief, I’m portraying the relationship to utter sadness. A pain that is unbearable and at the same time I wish to give it a place near my heart. A pain that is allowed to be here.
How can you be so vulnerable and still feel a solid ground? Where in honesty can I bear this sorrow?
This painting is for sale as an art print on Artmajeur
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Embrace your Fears [2021]
Embrace your fear, is a triptych about embracing fear. I will start creating portraits expressing the fears of my life in 2021. Anxiety has played a defining role in my life from an early age.
It has protected me from intense pain that I couldn’t bear at that time. (Frozen).
Anxiety helped me to go out into the world. (coping)
Anxiety helped me lay low in an environment where this was the safest option. (Worthlessness)
In this series of portraits I depict the role of these fears in my life. It is healing to give space to the drastic role of this emotional state in this way.
You can read more about this triptych in the blog Embrace your fear.
This painting is for sale as an art print on Artmajeur
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Embrace your Anger [2021]
Anger! Are you able to epress your anger? I find anger to be a difficult emotion to express.
I wish to embrace her, but how..? That is the question or maybe the quest.
In expressing the embracement of my anger, I notice an urge to leave my bodily experience and safely reside in my thinking mind.
I think I am allowed to be angry. I should be able to express this rage. I do believe anger deserves space to be. It was a struggle during the process of painting this portrait and it somewhat still is.
I choose working title: “Anger to the light.”
This title does fit the process. Perceiving the anger with a compassionate attitude. Wishing it air and lightness. Give it room to breathe and move. Getting rid of shame and contraction. Feeling the freedom to hear and embrace that powerful anger message that says: ’this is not right for me’.
It is an ongoing process. At times I feel a glimpse of a primal scream that wants to sound.
Thinking is overated
Past - Presence [2022]
Past – Presence is an artistic expression of how past events can become entangled in present life. These important life events get entwined in the fabric of existence. It is a given. Sometimes fragile, sometimes beautiful.
It has been a profound emotional journey to capture this entanglement in a painting. A process of mourning, processing and healing.
Looking back, I find it striking how vulnerability, beauty and strength are connected. Life is Beautiful.
Watch the creation process of Past – Presence || Artwork creation video
This painting is for sale as an art print on Artmajeur
More sales information >
