Eliane Gerrits

I draw in the broadest sense of the word. No drawing medium is foreign to me, pencil, ink, pen, watercolour, etc. I like to switch them up. That can seem inconsistent, but I need the variation. I like to work in series, within which there is of course consistency. Also doing commercial work may also seem inconsistent, but it forces me to draw things I would never have come up with myself, and that helps enormously at improving my drawing skills. To hell with consistency, Thank God drawing is a marketable skill, so I can make a living from it. My walls are covered in art, not only my own drawings, but also works by friends and collegues. I buy work, and I also like to artswap. I enjoy having a lot of art around me, for inspiration as well as the eye. My collection shows up in my work. In my self portraits and interiors my covered walls are there for everybody to see. I enjoy exhibiting my personal drawings frequently. These drawings are often self portraits, always with a healthy dose of self-depricating humor. I use humor to contextualise the themes that are nearest to my heart; feminism and child abuse. Child abuse is the theme of a graphic novel I am working on, loosely inspired by Grayson Perry's drawings. To avoid pity I am keeping a humerous approach to my graphic novel. I resent pity. You don't have to come out of a complicated childhood enfeebled to speak up. I trained half as a graphic designer and half as a fine artist. Although that was a long time ago, I still benefit from both these educations to this day, and that's why I don't really care about the applied - fine art gap. I move in all kinds of bubbles: the comics bubble, the artists bubble, and so on. I've really only been going public seriously with my autonimous work since 2011 because that is when I moved back to The Netherlands after my divorce. As an illustrator I worked for NRC for 20 years, and about the same for EW magazine (partly as political cartoonist). I do commissioned work through my agent. Thanks to them I am able to pay for my livelihood, and since recently even a mortgage for my newly bought appartment here in The Hague. I am still looking for a studio though, as my appartment is very small. Because I moved around all over the world with husband and children for years, I'm only getting a reduced state pension in two years when I turn 67. So don't be alarmed by my age, I'll work until I drop, and I don't plan on dropping anytime soon.