Netherlands
Mieke van Grinsven
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From 2022 she lives part of the year in the Netherlands.
Mieke Van Grinsven is Dutch and she has been living in Arusha, Tanzania with her husband, since 1994. After art studies in the Netherlands, she spent many years working with leather. She then decided she needed to explore other forms of expression, “something more organic, less structured”. In xxxx she flew to Zimbabwe to learn how to carve stones.
Since that time she has been creating stone sculptures in her garden, by the shade of the fever trees. The two kinds of stones she works with, Opale and Serpentine, both come from Zimbabwe.
“I work with stones and I connect with the energy compressed in it. There is something very ancient in Africa, and when I am here, in the middle of these acacia trees, I have the feeling this medium allows me to connect with this ancient energy. First, I created faces, then I focused on bodies and finally I went to abstraction. Now I am focusing on hanging sculptures. I have added a new dimension: the wind. My sculptures flow from the Earth to the universe. It’s like yoga, when you feel that it’s flowing from the Earth into your spine”.
Mieke sees in her work a form of resistance. “No matter how loud the environment can become, nothing can disturb this energy”.
“The sculptures catch that moment between Heaven and Earth, which we have been given to live our lives”.
The installation 'Tears from the Sky' (a combination of Serpentine stone and leather) she made in 2019, an unexpected foresight to the Pandemy. The tears of Stone are cried for the destruction of the Earth by Humanity. The net points at the power of our creativity to make the right change.
From 2022 she lives part of the year in the Netherlands.
Mieke Van Grinsven is Dutch and she has been living in Arusha, Tanzania with her husband, since 1994. After art studies in the Netherlands, she spent many years working with leather. She then decided she needed to explore other forms of expression, “something more organic, less structured”. In xxxx she flew to Zimbabwe to learn how to carve stones.
Since that time she has been creating stone sculptures in her garden, by the shade of the fever trees. The two kinds of stones she works with, Opale and Serpentine, both come from Zimbabwe.
“I work with stones and I connect with the energy compressed in it. There is something very ancient in Africa, and when I am here, in the middle of these acacia trees, I have the feeling this medium allows me to connect with this ancient energy. First, I created faces, then I focused on bodies and finally I went to abstraction. Now I am focusing on hanging sculptures. I have added a new dimension: the wind. My sculptures flow from the Earth to the universe. It’s like yoga, when you feel that it’s flowing from the Earth into your spine”.
Mieke sees in her work a form of resistance. “No matter how loud the environment can become, nothing can disturb this energy”.
“The sculptures catch that moment between Heaven and Earth, which we have been given to live our lives”.
The installation 'Tears from the Sky' (a combination of Serpentine stone and leather) she made in 2019, an unexpected foresight to the Pandemy. The tears of Stone are cried for the destruction of the Earth by Humanity. The net points at the power of our creativity to make the right change.
