Artist Statement

Passionate about the Pacific and its vibrant colours, smells, foods, flowers and music, my work celebrates women and children at play and rest in vibrant tropical landscapes. My subjects encompass and join two cultures – my own Dutch culture and the Samoan culture of my husband.

The notion of women nurturing each other and their children - creating warmth and harmony within families and between cultures underpins my work. And like individuals within a family, they share some but not all characteristics and each has a unique personality and physical reality. Their solid physical presence evokes the Pacific and also recalls Fernand Léger’s monumental female figures.

My work depicts figures in a variety of activities that emphasise a relaxed and gentle intimacy, where time is both suspended and taken to share and celebrate the love and closeness of kinship and relationship. And while the overall mood is one of tranquillity, subtle tensions arise from the ½ hidden stylised faces, unexpected eye colours and an immaculate orderliness. With lipstick-red mouths, the smooth tubular figures appear doll-like, contained and carefully poised to share a perfect moment.

My work has a dreamlike quality, where some of what we experience is familiar and some is not. And there is an underlying fragility and perhaps remoteness about what we see. The vibrant and brilliant tropical flowers and fabrics capture the eye and evoke the idea of paradise and simplicity. But some more ambiguous elements lie just below the surface. Blue and green eyes prompt questions about what we see and expect to see. Faces with one eye hidden by thick dark hair contradict the apparent openness and directness of the women’s gazes. This asymmetry suggests another perspective which contains something deeper and perhaps sadder but which remains for now literally ‘out of sight’. The object of their gaze is also ambiguous, as without the other eye with which to focus, they seem to look through and beyond the viewer.

My husband’s ½ Samoan heritage and my children’s ¼ Samoan heritages are partly symbolized by the plaits, varying skin tones and eye colours. This imagery extends beyond the purely personal and also refers to other mixed Pacific Island and European relationships, expressing the richness and joy I feel of embracing a combined heritage and the legacy it creates for succeeding generations.