Yes, that’s what I painted. We are with more than 7 billion people, so I had to restrict myself to a limited number of lives. But in restricting myself, immediately questions arose like: Which themes do I choose? Since I cannot paint lives from every culture, which do I choose? And how do I tell a lifetime story in one painting? What you eventually see are the solutions I found on these questions. Because the works would be quite large -I just couldn’t get whole life-stories on a canvas of 1 by 1 meter- I faced a storage problem. So, for practical reasons, the paintings are made of different panels. The wall of my studio was just high enough to see them in their entirety. In the end these panels appear to work quite well to tell the story of a life. All life stories end in the middle of the painting. I am very glad I have completed them. It was quite an endeavor, but satisfying, absolutely satisfying.
Well, this work has developed in several stages and it took more than 6 months to complete it. Frankly, I had no idea what this work was about at first. Going on, I noticed that it had something to do with willingness. The work became bigger and bigger. It needed space. After I finished it, I took a few weeks to look at it, to find out what exactly the painting was about. It's an abstract painting, so what was it connected to? I felt it had to do with the 10 life story paintings that I had made earlier. Gradually, by looking at it, its meaning became clear to me and this work found its place within the collection as a whole. With all these colors and shapes you can create the remaining 7 billion lives and even more. Despite the similarities, no two lives are the same. Sometimes there is no choice, and we call it fate. For example, in case of a disease or winning the lottery. Sometimes it's less about fate and more about choosing: for example, the choice of a profession or the right partner to start a joint life. Sometimes the choice for what we want is easy, sometimes we must make difficult choices. Life is a great creative adventure.
It's about dreaming and creativity. As you walk through the gate into the second room, you can walk into a mental state, into a world 'Somewhere over the rainbow' like Judy Garland sang. She's still on You Tube, you know. In this room the first painting you see is my version of paradise. To me, paradise is not something for the afterlife, but something I feel here and now: feeling at home with myself. Playing is a way to be totally at ease with my own company. When I play, I do not think, I'm just there. When I paint, when I create, I play. I follow that which draws my attention, which makes me smile and gives me a sense of fulfilment. I can only be really creative if my thinking is turned low. Creating is an experience for me. It involves a lot more than just a thinking brain, it involves my feelings, my senses, my intuition, my memories. It’s about color and shape and atmosphere. It's about a longing to make something visible, that I can only feel in myself. When I paint, I do not think, I just do.