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Translated by Google translate

About 10 years ago, somewhere around 2012, I think, I received a large envelope from my oldest brother. The envelope contained drawings, some pasted work and a few workbooks with assignments. Coming from the years 1972 and 1973 when I was at kindergarten in Oirschot. Glad that it all was preserved. I thanked my brother and the envelope ended up in a box in the attic.

Somewhere in the middle of the year 2020 my girlfriend was cleaning out the attic. She came down with a box in her hands and asked me if all that should be kept. The box contained a few books, folders and some other stuff including a large envelope. I opened it and was amazed. I saw drawings from long ago with many similarities to my current work, the shapes I make now. A circle, an oval, but also a somewhat more complex shape that came remarkably close to works I had made earlier that year.

What struck me in those drawings was the freedom, the uncontrollability of a child’s hand, the simplicity and directness. The hatching that just doesn’t stay within the lines, the cutting and pasting that gets its charm precisely because of the imperfect. The use of color. The abstraction and tendency towards abstraction where realism is intended. It inspired me. I gave myself the task of investigating whether I could bring these aforementioned qualities into my forms, in my forms that until then were often more geometric, monochrome and still.

Kees van de Wal, June 16, 2021.

Below is a selection of the drawings and pastings.