In 1997 I created Koppen (Dutch for Heads). It is a large oil painting of 120 x 148 cm (47.2 x 58.3 in). Originally painted on a self-prepared stretched canvas.
I painted my mother and father, three friends, and my dog Kay. It is about looking for connections. And it is a painting that signaled a transition in my painting style.
I had hung it over the weekend in the entrance hall of the Art Academy. That weekend, during a school party, someone stuck a sharp object in the middle of the painting and sliced it open. The aggressive act changed the look of the painting.
It took me some while. And then I thought, I am going to stitch the painting. Little did I know that this was not going to be the only painting that would get stitched.
