Iris Melissa

My name is Iris, as in the Greek rainbow goddess, what a suitable name my parents gave me, little did they know..... Of all the colours in the rainbow,I think I must have used them all.
Iris as in apple of your eye, eyes are indispensible for a painter. Strangely enough, my creatures are often lacking eyes or irisses. Sometimes I imagine what it would be like to go blind. That fear is obviously present in the faces of the beings I paint. The same goes for my fascination with disfigurements and deformities. And disasters, both great and small, of which I've had my share through the years.
Staring heads, hollow eyes.... Solitary beings in desolate landscapes.... I see beauty in ugliness...
Born in 1976, in the town of Apeldoorn, the Netherlands, from a very young age I enjoyed drawing the most, I was destined to paint from the day I got my first pencil.So it wasn't a surprise that I went to study at the Artacademie in Enschede(AKI) in 1998, later specializing in painting. All went well until the year 2000, when hell broke loose in the bordertown I now lived in. I had some existential moments during the explosion of a fireworks warehouse which destroyed both my house and my sense of security, the surreal images were etched in my brain forever. After recouvering from this ordeal I had to regain the will to paint again...the futility... if all can be lost in a few minutes is a demoralizing thought. Finally in 2003 I gratuated and I have been painting ever since.
My Art is somewhat a reaction against the average modern day ugliness which dominates everthing, superficial and artificial people lacking any imagination, conceptual blabla and false pretensions. So-called innovation doesn't always mean improvement....