I would have loved to be a full-time artist. I’ve loved to draw since I was a child. My parents encouraged me. My mother, who was very creative, had a teaching certificate in drawing and my father, a perfectionist to the core, taught me perspective drawing. I’m still grateful to them for that. After art school, in my youthful enthusiasm, I thought I would conquer the world. But I overworked myself. If left alone in an art studio, I never know when to stop. Seeing that job advert a few years later – “Maastricht University looking for receptionist” – saved me. Creating art is hard work. At the reception desk, I can take a break and just focus on helping others. It’s my way of unwinding. Besides, to be a full-time artist, you have to make compromises. If you’re successful with a certain style, people want you to keep repeating it. But I want to do things my way. I’m headstrong and don’t always follow popular opinion – not to provoke, but because I genuinely think differently. For instance, I believe Vincent van Gogh was a bad painter.
When was the last time you cried? This week, watching a documentary about a man who had been sentenced to prison but maintained his innocence. Years later, he was found to be innocent of the crime. It struck me that we humans find it very hard to live with not knowing. I struggle with this, too. I graduated around the time of the disappearance of UM student Tanja Groen. The case has remained unsolved for more than thirty years. She was last seen on Herbenusstraat, and I still can’t walk down that street without thinking about it.
"The world is complex, people are complex, and it bothers me when others refuse to see that"
My friends are annoyed by… my perfectionism. I have a strong opinion on how things should be done. While pitching a tent with someone else, I might think the guy ropes are all wrong and decide to fix them myself. It can cause friction. I can lose my temper when I don’t get my way, although I find it easier to let go these days.
I hate it when people come up to the reception desk and ask me… “Hate” is too strong a word, but it irks me when people don’t take me seriously and treat me like I’m “just” a receptionist, a simpleton. I’ve been doing this job since 1998 and if it’s taught me anything, it’s that pigeonholes are never accurate. I have colleagues who are artists like me, and we have cleaners who were doctors in their home countries. The world is complex, people are complex, and it bothers me when others refuse to see that.
What work of art would you travel for? Piet Mondrian’s Lozenge Composition with Two Lines, a white canvas with two perpendicular black lines. Abstraction is peeling reality down to its essence, and in this work, Mondrian achieved perfect abstraction, pure balance, harmony. It’s stunning in its simplicity. If there is a God, I feel it’s captured in that.
I pray sometimes. I’m agnostic; I don’t know if God exists. But I’m grateful to my parents for my Catholic upbringing. It instilled essential values in me – the importance of simplicity, being of service, and the willingness to help others when you can. [Laughs] Yes, like a good receptionist.
I believe life is ultimately meaningless, but that’s one of the wonderful things about it. It’s why we try to give it meaning ourselves. All those churches, paintings and sculptures are fascinating – us humans go to such lengths to express our inner beliefs. And in such beautiful ways! Who could look at the Basilica of Saint Servatius in Maastricht and not think it would be a great loss to see it go? I don’t often go to church on Sundays anymore, but when I’m in France, I love nothing more than to wander into a little village church and inhale the incense-laden air. I’m deeply Catholic in that sense.
"I fear the destructive side of humanity. At the same time, its violent tendencies fascinate me"
I fear… the destructive side of humanity. The lack of understanding of others that I increasingly see in society – just look at [far-right party] PVV’s recent electoral success. I fear that, as so often in history, we will begin to destroy each other based on nothing at all. At the same time, humanity’s violent tendencies fascinate me. Why? [Laughs] I work at the Faculty of Psychology, so I have to be careful what I say. But I was badly bullied as a child, to the point of being ambushed and beaten up after school. I never understood why they singled me out. People sometimes find my art grim; perhaps it’s my way of coming to terms with the irrational aspect of what happened to me.
Art is my true love. No, Loes is my great love. We’ve been together for 34 years and married for 25. We went to art school together. We clicked from day one and became close friends, but she was in a relationship with someone else. When they broke up, it turned out that my feelings for her were mutual. We had so much fun together, made the tough things in life more bearable for each other, were best friends… why wouldn’t we go for it? It was that simple. And it still is.