To whom it may concern:

My name is Erik-Jan van der Schuur. I graduated In 2012 and received
my bachelor Fine Art from the art academy ArtEZ institute of the Arts
in Zwolle which is now located at Arnhem.

Artistic expression

My artistic expression relates to this World, origin of humankind, religion,
death, injustice and my thoughts about these subjects. How does mankind comprehend it,
what’s my part in this and how do I think about it? This subject matter Religion,
human nature and societal events are going to be combined, criticized, approached and tackled.

The combination of these themes is logic. Everything has a connection;
religion is often linked to death and as such has an impact on mankind,
our society and history. That it also can be placed into societal events
or to wider societal emotions like: aggression or hate.
We are confronted with aggression and hate every day and it has taken place from the origins
of mankind and continues until this day. Questions are made to consider: Why does this take place,
why is it in the system of humans/why is it in our nature,
where does evil come from and where is its origin in the Bible?


What I want to achieve is to be placed as someone who does versatile 2d disciplines like:
drawing, painting, etching and stop motion. Bringing all the disciplines together
in a room or in combination in an image is something I want to achieve, want to learn from and try to explore.

Image: composition, subject matter, approach

The images are a search for drama combined with my expression and thoughts
about my subject matter: Religion, human nature and societal events.
In these images I experiment and watch how the compositions take shape,
the compositions can be different from each other because my thoughts and experimental approach might differ,
because of the moment and my influences of what I want to try.
The images that I made can be divided in categories of compositions such as:
complicated, full with figures and objects / strict a more minimal based
of approach where I give more room for emptiness / expressive a more wild approach of working and thinking.
There also can be a combination of these categories in one image.
However though I think I always search for a large and wide composition that stretches the image.

Image: content

The image consists most of the time of figures or objects, these may be recognisable but
can also have a abstract identity. When the figure/figures have an abstract identity
then the figure or object comes out of my mind and is more a fantasy based character that becomes
a metaphor that might expose to another figure, the world or might be a way to expose a mind of state.
When the object or figure/figures are recognisable then this comes most of the time
out of media photo’s or video’s but can also be made unrecognisable and then the identity
also becomes abstract. When I make something I always search for images and save these to my collection.
Those I can use or change to my liking then it will take part of the composition and becomes
part of the title of the image, my subject matter and my identity.
In the end I always try to search for things that are new to me and to try and keep as if everything is possible.