For documentation purposes – details of the large-scale drawing I did in fabric called ‘Hof van Eden’. More info about the making-of here. 

I was challenged by a friend to contribute to an exhibition where the slots for painting and drawing were pretty much filled. Being inspired by  Mounira Al Solh  who works with embroidery, also by the magnificent church where my work will be shown, I decided to go out on a limb and make a big tapestry showing Paradise, targeted size three by two metres – never done a solo work that big before. To be seen at all in such a big church it needed to have size – of course the squares we’ve drawn games on with big crayons were huge, and the spider web in Vlieland and the Galaxy carpet in the Hague were big, but those were made with groups of people. Which was out of the question in corona times.  So because it was to be big I took an unprecedented step – I did design drawings beforehand.

This I hardly ever do – I prefer to find out about the work while making it. Which means that I usually have a lot of re-work, workaround, things to bemoan and start over on. Not so – or almost not so- this time: I did drawings, by hand and later on the computer, and made decisions about the work based on these drawings. Unprecedented …. Must admit that I did a fair amount of rework, but that was courtesy of the material, not the design. Fabric had a life of its own ….