Ondine de Kroon
figurative
'Art is a way for me to make contact with the world around me'
I hear the thumping of a class above me and I smell Fatma's exotic neighborhood kitchen downstairs. Through the large window I literally look into my own neighborhood from two floors up. My studio is located in the Wijkpaleis, a collective building in the middle of the Middelland district. It is a community center, workplace for artists and entrepreneurs and an alternative place for the primary school around the corner. I create my art in this lively and diverse environment.
My work can be called classical figurative, but it also rubs against the Art Brut. It's about the world around us, the colorful society. Sometimes I make an animal portrait or a flower. I look for poetry in the things I make, I associate and thus arrive at meaning. In my head I combine things that catch my eye on the street or on the internet with photos and pictures of artworks. I look at works from art history, especially by Manet and Marisol. Recently I also use the work of others.