Madelon Verbeek
Dutch Artist
Madelon has been a very good friend of ours for a few years now.
If it's probably why this is the first person we write about in this section, it's definitely NOT the reason why we write about her.
As a matter of fact, if we had the chance to just met her randomly during our travels, we probably would have written about her, given how an amazing person she is.
Madelon is a young visual artist from the South of the Netherlands - a place called Tilburg, which we had the opportunity to visit briefly this fall but it's beside the point. Etienne met her a few years ago on one of her trips visiting Copenhagen, when he was new to the city. She's been living on and off between Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway since then, always very busy but always finding time for meetings with her friends ! And beers !
We had the privilege of visiting her in Oslo at the start of our Journey, where she has been living for a few years, studying at the National Academy of Arts & producing quite a lot of wonderful things.
Pardon us if we are using the wrong terminology, "wonderful things" doesn't sound like we are art connoisseurs, does it ? Let's try something, then.
One of the most striking specificities of her Art has to do with her storytelling.
Her Art, through diverse mediums - paintings, frescos, drawings, tapestries - often tells intertwined stories happening in different moments but visually represented on the same plane. The mood it creates can hardly be described in words, yet it can be felt. She creates a window for an outside observer into a Scene, would it be personal stories or events happening in the wider World - most of the time mixing both at the same time, as life & stories tend to be, again, intertwined.
It feels strange to play the Art critic. There is surely way many more things to say about Madelon's Art, but we are maybe not the best fitted persons to do so.
We can only recommend to whoever is reading this to look up what Madelon is making, and come with their own thoughts & feelings.
She has been exhibiting in Oslo & in the Netherlands already, and no doubt some more exciting expositions are on the way. Actually quite recently she was invited to participate and create large paintings to accompany a symphonic representation of Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade by the Amsterdam Orchestra. Cool stuff !
Thank you Madelon for all the inspiration.
It is a pleasure and a privilege to call you a friend.
We will continue to put your stickers in funny places, everywhere we go.
https://www.instagram.com/madelon_verbeek/
https://www.instagram.com/verbeekmadelon/
