Mary

Mary van de Klundert was born in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in 1952. She doesn’t have an artistic background. For about ten years she had her own practice as a remedial therapist, and that was where she discovered her interest in people. She was especially interested in their stories and the impact that these stories had on their bodies. How do emotions and experiences from the past come to light in body language? How do they cause disease and what influence do they have on body movement and posture? Biology is a biography in which each cell in the body has its own memory. Everything one experiences in life leaves traces in the body. And that can be traced again in the circle of life and death. This is the basis of life’s themes.

After giving up her practice, she lived in several European countries, returning time and again to the Netherlands. As time went on her interest in spirituality steadily grew. During this time, she lived in Bangkok, Thailand, for several years, and it became her home base for several trips to other places in Asia. Thanks to these, her interest in paper and traditional paper-making grew. Even as a ten year old child, she had bought paper and little note books from the change left over after running errands for her mum.

In Thailand she discovered hand-crafted paper made from different sorts of materials, such as that made from the bark of the mulberry tree, bamboo, pineapple and water hyacinths which block the rivers in Thailand. In Lamphang, paper is even made from elephant poo. In hand crafting paper, she used materials such as silk, bark, threads of textiles, flowers and leaves. During this period she collected many materials that she would use later in her art.

Photography is another of her passions. Not so much the technical side, but composition - the tension that arises through structure and the emotions evoked by it. Her Asian travels were for her a great source of inspiration.

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At the beginning of 2003, Mary made her first collages using acrylics, photos, paper and other materials such as incense sticks. As a self-taught artist she gradually developed her own techniques. Because of her strong sense of spirituality, her colourful work was in fact a logical consequence of her own personal development. She experiences the world around her as a mirror of herself: what radiates from you comes back to you. Things that bring about a strong reaction should be treated with loving attention. Life is the workplace for discovering your goals on earth. It is a contract signed before you were born. In fact it is one enormous jigsaw puzzle, with pieces scattered here and there. This is why jigsaw puzzle pieces can be seen repeatedly in her work.

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This universal message, designed to touch people’s hearts, can be seen in all her work. Her work connects the east and west; it is a drop in the ocean in a world where everything is linked together. A world of light and harmony, emanating from the heart, accepting full responsibility for ourselves and the planet. Where ‘heart’ and ‘water’ are key concepts. Where every colour is respected. Where everything ‘is’ and where everyone can ‘be’…

Mary is an artist who enjoys life in all shades of colour.

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