22 July 2024

MILESTONES TO BE GRATEFUL FOR

…and that didn’t come cheap.

• At my NGO WeesWijzer, the Dutch platform for and about orphans in the Netherlands, we’ve contributed to a more just legislation for housing rights for the young bereaved. I advised four Members of Parliament about the new Tenancy Protection Orphans Act, which will be included and definitive in our Dutch Civil Code. It’s been a huge honour and privilege to have worked with these amazing people. I’ve worked on getting legislation in place for fourteen years. And I couldn’t be happier with this outcome. Since 1 January 2024 onwards, housing corporations are not allowed evict orphans age 16 - 27 from their social housing home. That’s now officially illegal.

Selfie with three equally thrilled politicians:

• THE BRAVE CHANGEMAKER PROGRAM, which was custom designed for protagonists who want to instigate social change, has been updated. This program is a good fit for (aspiring or experienced) social changemakers who want to make impact with innovative, creative approaches, and who are willing to engage, learn and experiment. If you’re interested in working towards achieving societal impact - like we have at WeesWijzer for more just orphans’ housing rights - I can help you navigate this. In the next edition of my newsletter I’ll share more about this. Please take into account:
  Summertime 2024 is booked out. First openings for bespoke 1 on 1 mentoring are available from October 2024. If you’d rather like to reserve a spot in a group participation, reach out to me via email, and I’ll get back to you.

• The new STUDIO WORKSHOP is available to book locally (in Rotterdam, Netherlands). You can start learning about and experimenting with creating entangled art. This goes WAY beyond just ‘goofing about with generative images with AI’. It’s about a partnership and a co-production with multiple media and/or materials. This also means you ca actually work towards designing and creating a signature style, instead of creating the same generic imagery the web is currently nearly drowning in. We’ve seen the aliens, the fairies and the cute doggos. What about creating something that actually supports your work and strategy?

• My RESEARCH ON THE POWER AND THEORY RESILIENCE is progressing, and this led to a diagnostic tool for mental health carers. Some of you might know I’ve been researching and integrating all kinds of data insights on the topic of RESILIENCE. Mostly for innovation purposes, and to assist my clients. This research also feeds my inspiration for writing blog articles. For instance this one, focused on the pandemic we’ve all experienced: ’Being Resilient Is Not About Gritting It Out’.
  My motivation for conducting this research and applying it in my own professional practice, is that I had my own decades-long journey in building resilience in my life. I found a way to transform these learnings into professional approaches that support me, my business and my clients.
  Read it on LinkedIn
  Read it here on the website.

• This research also led to an INFORMAL DISPLAY OF MY RESILIENCE ART PROJECT, which investigates the benefits of applying and co-creating entangled art during treatment trajectories for bereaved people. This project was on display at TU DELFT University of Technology in Delft, Netherlands.

• My project at IZB proved itself to be positively challenging and fulfilling. I’m grateful to have worked with such passionate and wise colleagues.

• I recently started a funding project for a local NGO in Rotterdam.

• I contributed my art to another art show. Which was loads of fun!

2022 - 2023

• EXPO ZOHO: GROUP EXHIBITION IN THE NECK OF THE WOODS GALLERY IN ROTTERDAM, NETHERLANDS. A lovely milestone: I’m sharing 6 pieces of my LANDSCAPES collection. This is a group exhibition: five other talented and accomplished artists have gorgeous, impactful works on display. Curator Johannes Steendam did a brilliant job in combining the works to make it a, inspiring, coherent exhibition with works that correlate very well. Exhibition runs until 22 JANUARY 2023.
  

• CREATING MY OWN ARTWORK ENTANGLED WITH FEEDBACK FROM ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IS WHAT, QUITE LITERALLY, GOT ME THROUGH THE SUMMER SEASON. I mean this in the most visceral sense. I’ve been struggling with physical illness for months, which caused me to cancel my Summer and AUtumn holidays that I had planned. I felt trapped in my skin (I have severe allergies), and it was as suffocating as a Kafka novel. HOWEVER, AI came to the rescue. I worked with algorithms that made me visualise the way I was feeling, which helped me enormously in terms of creating instant validating in a visual way. Also, I created collections of IMAGINARY CATHEDRALS, and ANCIENT LANDSCAPES of biblical representations of stories from millennia ago. FUTURISTIC LANDSCAPES became their futuristic couterpart. My research on RESILIENCE also integrated PORTRAITS OF RESILIENT WOMEN, because I was incredibly curious how resilience as a subject could (or could not) accurately be visualised. Plus, my Tudor history hobby got a new angle: REVISION OF HISTORY, and creating alternative destinies. For instance: what would Anne Boleyn look like if she hadn’t met King Henry VIII in the first place (hint: happier)?

  Long story short: jumped into the rabbit hole of AI and art. As a Willem de Kooning Academy graduate, I never stopped creating art. Now I’m creating it with my buddy called Artificial Intelligence. Let’s call him Al. ‘Al’ and I have been creating (and quarreling about) imaginary cathedrals, NAiture (see what I did there?), the history of the Bible, rethinking existing art, and more. BROWSE MY COLLECTIONS HERE. And there is more to come. Subscribe to my newsletter to stay in the loop.
  
  

• THE BRAVE CHANGEMAKER PROGRAM was custom designed for NGOs and protagonists who want to instigate social change. This program is a good fit for (aspiring or experienced) social changemakers who want to make impact with innovative, creative approaches, and who welcome accountability.
  

• THE CREATIVE ACHIEVER METHOD is available in bespoke mentoring service.
  

• I’ve been preparing an update on LIVE YOUR TALKS, my book (and method) to prepare for TEDx (and similar) speaking performances. The Live Your Talks eBook edition on Amazon, will be completed with an audiobook early 2023.
  

• For Noorderlicht Rotterdam, I’ve been hosting their (Dutch) podcast with rev. Niels de Jong. We’ve recently released our 85th episode.
  

• During the Utrecht University PhD Day ‘When Creativity meets Science’ for PhD candidates, I facilitated a masterclass on Creative Thinking. I designed a workshop that lets participants experience creative concepting under time pressure.
  

• I completed my work at TU Delft, Faculty of Industrial Design and Engineering. I was involved in online communications, digital strategy, artificial intelligence and helping moving Delft Design forwards.