“My artworks depict places which are at the same time real and unreal: places that you can’t find in ordinary reality, but that are made with real materials like pieces of wood, sand, glue, and painted canvas. I create my art as a way to visualize inner and outer human landscapes. Working mainly from imagination, I want to create an archetypal language.

My studio floor functions as a stage upon which I build, capture and deconstruct my landscapes. With my scenes, I sometimes refer to global developments, like the pandemic, the climate crisis and environmental issues. The scenes are emptied of the hustle and bustle of everyday life: no traffic or crowded cityscapes to be seen. Contrasting characteristics and elements can be linked to my work, for example: utopian/dystopian, playfulness/seriousness, society/nature, beauty/drabness.

Pictures keep appearing in my head, scenes without any clear relationship to mundane reality, landscapes inhabited by strange figures and filled with peculiar buildings. These images appear when in a relaxed state of mind, also known as the Alpha State. The inner worlds are free from the stresses and strains of everyday life. Neither busy traffic and urban architecture nor people to be seen.

After I deconstruct the scenes I have created, the resulting pictures show deserted places which reveal faint traces of (earlier) human activity. There could be a billboard, a playground, or an empty swimming pool. Almost nothing happens, yet these dreamlike scenes suggest that something has happened or is going to happen still. I consider art an important means to deepen connections within ourselves. The deeper layers of our minds are filled with unknown images and messages. I want to focus on the inner ‘pictures’ and visualize them for you to see, too. When creating my artworks I feel like an explorer. Akin to the early voyagers who made drawings and paintings of newly discovered lands, I create pictures of the shadowy dream worlds that I am discovering inside my mind.”

——Lisanne Hoogerwerf