bio

born in uganda in 1975, the child of dutch aid workers with the leprosy mission, my early years moved between ethiopia, the united states, and the netherlands. the faith environments i grew up in were intense, and the repeated uprooting compounded that. painting entered my life at twelve and became the red line through everything that followed.

a brief enrollment at the royal academy in the hague in 2000 confirmed that the technical training and structure i was looking for were not there. i continued independently, working across subjects and materials but returning consistently to the figure.

between 2008 and 2018 i worked in social services and youth advocacy in the netherlands, and trained in sports massage and integrative massage during the same period. social work showed me how defended people are; massage gave me a way past those defences through the body rather than language.

sculpture entered the practice through ceramics and porcelain, and gave me what oil painting at the time could not: the whole body in the making, the hands in the material. i returned to the figure, and to the same questions: what the body withholds, and what it can no longer contain.

after a five-year pause, the return to oil painting is deliberate. sculpture gave me a freedom i intend to bring back with me: the willingness to let the process show, to work toward what matters rather than what resolves.

eight years ago i moved from the netherlands to guernsey to be with my husband shaun. when his work became remote, we lived across cyprus and portugal. the constant movement, however freeing in some respects, made sustained practice difficult. we are preparing to move to canada: a permanent studio, work without interruption.

exhibitions

2025 · london art biennale, london, uk

2025 · the maker's space, tala, cyprus

press

2024 · interview, de kleine k, independent ceramics magazine, nl

awards

2021 · finalist, 15th international arc salon, art renewal center