As a child growing up on a farm I often walked between the corn fields behind our property. Strolling over sandy paths with grain on both sides, I felt free and protected at the same time. The high yellow walls with the huge sky above me gave an enormous sense of space and also of boundaries. When I walked under the tall trees of the driveway I had the feeling that I was taller than I actually was. The memory of these spatial experiences has been foundational for my work.
After high school I went on to study monumental art at the Art school in Breda and later at the Art Academy in Utrecht. The Utrecht Art Academy only had a ceramics department at the time, and although I didn’t take to it immediately, it gave me the opportunity to get the degree and begin making work. When I graduated I continued to make sculptures in clay and was given a kiln large enough to fire the large scale sculptures I made at the time. I worked with this in my studio in Utrecht for years.
From my early days however I had always wanted to work in iron, but because of a serious accident I had been physically unable to. After years of recovery and inspired by the work of David Smith and Anthony Caro I decided to leave ceramics behind and focus completely on iron works (albeit against my doctor’s orders). Although it was something I had thought about for years, the actual change was almost overnight. The kiln was never used again (eventually to be moved to The Utrecht Art Academy).
The immediacy of working in iron, the freedom to add or remove elements gave me the perfect material to express myself with. I attended the Vocational school in Utrecht to learn welding and took practical lessons from a local blacksmith. The classes were aimed at young men going into the trades, so I was the odd one out, but I learned the skills I needed. At first I made small iron works in hard soldering and later as I grew more confident I started working with large scale salvage iron in MIG welding. As my work grew and changed I moved to larger and larger studios to accommodate it. Years later I returned to the Utrecht Art Academy as a professor, and introduced its first iron workshop within the sculpture department. 
I spent over 30 years working with iron but eventually it became too heavy for me, my body just couldn’t handle it anymore. It wasn’t easy to stop, but physically there was no choice. Now I work with much lighter materials such as wax and paper. Although the materials have adjusted, my method has essentially remained the same. Everything now is smaller and more intimate, but still comes from the same inspirations.
My sculptures are informed by the everyday objects around me, and by my memories of the intricacies of life. The transition of these memories into a visual form begins with a plan but is then guided intuitively as it is developing. Sometimes that happens quickly and everything falls into place like a puzzle. Other times it takes months before I find a solution that I like. During the period of time that I worked in iron the starting point was often prescribed by what materials I had at hand. For many years I had access to scrap metals and salvage materials from iron processing companies. I could go and select what I wanted. These industrial left overs dictated the form my work would take. The materials that I work with nowadays also provide natural directions and limitations, spatial relationships and boundaries, and these constraints continue to guide me.
Apart from sculpting I have always made works on paper.