Dear Art Lover,

This being the first time I'm writing to you, I would like to update you on what 2021 has meant to me, as 2021 has been a rollercoaster. Guided by my coach, Jet Manrho, I started towards the end of 2019 with the layout for a book as a tribute to my late father; In itself a very emotional process.

After completing a few sketches, in different styles and techniques, Jet asked me if I could make a few portrait paintings that could eventually support the book's introduction.

I tried to link Suriname, my father's homeland, through colours combined with the technique. Finally, it resulted in 15 portraits, which I  finalized in 2021.

While digging into my father's past, I learned more and more about his roots and the atrocities of slavery. My late great-grandmother was a child when slavery was abolished in Suriname, yet the whip's strokes on her back were a visible reminder of what she must have gone through.

Every child should have had the right to happiness, and I couldn't let go of the thought of how much pain and suffering enslaved children must have encountered. The Golden Age all depends on how you look at it: for one, it might mean oppression and pain for others.

This has resulted in my first series, I Saw You, You See Me

While participating in two Art competitions, although I didn't win, they chose my painting Curiosity is King for the cover of an Art Magazine: Kunst Vitamine, very proud of it.