Now, here I'm looking back in time at the last patchwork I made exactly 15 years ago. It was the preliminary work of a commission for someone who wanted a wall piece with orange and blue. At that time I was hesitant as I thought these were not my colours to work with. And he couldn't specify exactly what orange or what blue he wanted.
To get a feeling of the right combination of these colours, I started to dig in the clothes my brother Herman left, he always wore bright colours. I took all the blue and orange tones I could find. The piece above was meant as a 'sample' so that the commissioner could choose from this range of colours the blue and orange he had in his mind, so I could actually start the commissioned work. When the person saw this piece he bought it. I was taken by surprise as I always had the idea he only wanted two colours.
I've always regretted selling it because it was a very personal work. I never could make another one like this because of the sentimental value of it.
There was another very strange thing about this piece. When twilight set in, the center part of the patchwork -where the greyscale of the colours is almost similar - seemed to pulsate and vibrate. One colour would come forward in the light and when that light changed the other colour was taking over, it was a very weird experience.
I don't know the person who bought it, I never had the chance to buy it back.
This made me stop making patchworks, but on reflection it was an important piece for my future work. I started working with bright clashing colours.
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