I was born on August 25th, 1969, at 14:37, in the small village of Leek in Groningen, The Netherlands. Shortly after, my family moved to Oudeschild, on the island of Texel, where I spent my early years. One of my earliest memories is telling my mother that I wanted to make the world more beautiful. From a young age, I’ve been deeply connected to the idea of beauty, especially in the human form, and to creating art that inspires and uplifts. At the same time, I loved leafing through the technical (from my father) and medical (from my mother) books we had at home. This early desire to create beauty and understand the world has guided my life, shaping my interests and career choices.

Education

After a tumultuous ride through the public educational system in the Netherlands and being expelled from the art academy in Rotterdam, I arrived at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie (GRA) in 1992, which was quite different from the current one. At the GRA, I studied Industrial Design, and halfway through my studies, via a two-week workshop at the Royal College of Art where I met my wife, I landed in Helsinki, Finland. There I started as an exchange student in the Industrial Design department but soon felt disillusioned, and got invited to become part of a Master’s degree program called ‘Design Leadership’. Thusly, my life took one of its many unexpected turns.

Designer

From 2005 until around 2015, I owned a software startup. It took me a decade to realize that I should focus on what I can do myself and reduce dependencies on others. Before that, I spent many years as a design consultant, design teacher, UX designer, service designer, and whatever else was the ‘Soup-du-Jour’ in the ever-changing design world, which was enjoyable while it lasted. All those years I wanted to paint, nothing else. I did not dare to make the switch, nor did I know how. One day, I asked myself: if you think you’re such a smart designer, why can’t you design your own life better?

Teacher

I’ve been teaching and inspiring creativity since 1985, starting with an art class in high school. After moving to Finland in 1995, I expanded my teaching to cover topics like painting, imagination, creativity, Consciousness, and even the physics behind it. I’ve run many workshops and courses at various schools, focusing on practical ways to boost creativity and leadership. My main goal is to help people understand and use creativity, consciousness, and authenticity in their daily lives. Find here an overview of my teaching history.

These days

After about 30 years of doing fascinating things, I came to the conclusion that my very early interests are probably those that will give me enough stimulus, energy, and passion until it is my time to passover. My life is divided into two major areas of interest and activities:

• Understanding in what kind of world we live, I put this under Consciousness
• Expressing myself, my interests and passions, which is for now mostly painting

Read more about how this currently manifest as a creative output in my Artist Statement.