This work is inspired by the table artpiece made by silversmith Wenzel Jamnitzer Germany in 1549. This art piece is in the art room of the Rijksmuseum. I was struck by the true-to-life and precision in the work as well as his love for animals. In this table piece he shows a paean to the Earth and all its forth-coming.
Beside that there are many similarities, there are also significant differences in material, technique and forms of expression. Jamnitzer portrays mother earth in the form of a lady. I always prefer to shape the animal instead of human beings, from where all the good sproots. For me the owl stands for knowledge and wisdom, he is appointed by the goddess Athene, the goddess of art. The owl, with his piercing eyes, seems to be looking right through the soul. He knows the whole truth, that ability makes him at many unloved and feared. For me is that truth and purity the essence of life and that’s why the owl appears regularly in my work. An animal both known for its positive properties as well as his love for the darkness.
In almost all my works plays dualism a major role, also in this work. Life, exemplified in animals and plants and the death, also imagined by means of the animal symbolism (the mouse is a soul animal) and the skulls.
Jamnitzer uses text plates with a poem. I express myself preferably from in mere image and related strong thinking in pictures and the associate. Different animals have to let life because she needed to make casts of Jamnitzer, through the so-called lost wax method. I use molds that I make of Schleich animals. I don’t want to sacrifice animals for my work, only the dead animals that I occasionally find in my work are processed, and a feather, cats whiskers and so forth. I also make use of plants and flowers but I don’t use them using the lost wax method but use them by dipping into the porcelain.
One of the largest agreements between the works is that both don’t have a particular use in mind. Its pure aim is that the object would like to enter into a direct relationship with the observer, which brings the meaning and the design of the object slowly to be deciphed.
