Barbara de Ligt (Part 1) - AstroArtist of the Month, December 2014

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Dec 01

2014

by Andrew Fazekas

Introduction

Published: Monday, December 01 2014 22:30

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Always fascinated by the universe and miracles of life, Barbara (1984) plunged into astronomy, reading books written by Stephen Hawking and other scientists, and learning some extra physics when she was in high school. Maybe she would to be an astronomer some day… This did not happen! For Barbara’s interests where all over the place and she couldn’t focus enough on only scientific studies… 

After deciding that she didn’t want to spend her young life on hours of math and other mental constructions in her apartment, she decided to put all the books aside and started exploring the world in her own way, hunger for life experience and deeper meanings. Barbara changed her focus on visiting other countries (especially Japan), learning other languages and about other people’s life view, beliefs and realities. How do people experience the cosmos? What is it that we live in? Who are we? It felt too boring to only rely on empirical science... She was sure there were way more dimensions about life than she was used to! 

Barbara wanted to feel it, see it, and draw conclusions for herself. In the meanwhile, she has always loved drawing and did some sketches now and then, trying to translate and express her impressions and insights in all sorts of ways. Trusting her senses, given by nature and without knowing it at the time, she started her own life experiment by integrating everything into one: science, experience, spirituality, arts, philosophy, social interaction, body movement and more... She felt that everything was connected to one another and that the different parts of herself could also be connected in a better way, as if it was one music instrument that needed to be healed…

After years of various studies, activities, work and living environments, Barbara started oil painting in 2012, out of the blue. She wanted to use oil paint as a way of communicating to the world and to simply creating nice art pieces for the wall or other means. Without having any money for courses or studies, she just tried everything by herself, trusting the experience that she learned better by self-experimenting than attending any school and that she would meet all the people she could learn from. 

Nowadays, when Barbara looks upon the world, she sees one in which we are constantly being challenged to live a more authentic life. Over hundreds of years with religions ruling our societies in order to control the people, and industrial development taking over nature and health, people and environments have become quite unauthentic and confusing. Chaos and sicknesses are the result. The one who opposes authenticity, creates difficulties and a burning longing from deep within to break free from it. In the current age of information, transparency and social media, we are more often set for the choice to take off our ‘veils of illusion’ in order to live free and vulnerable from the heart.

In the endless and mysterious giant universe, Barbara finds the metaphors to tell her story with. If you take a basic look at human relationships, for example, you will see that everything is about attraction and repulsion, just like the gravity and beaming power of stars and basic elements in the universe. With oil on canvas, Barbara likes to translate this dance with a dynamic and magical touch, which also refers to the lust for life and endless wonderment that she feels.

Barbara sees herself experimenting on these themes during the coming years. She also creates paintings commissioned by others, which are not always connected to these themes, but mainly space-related.

In 2011 Barbara followed a 1-year study course in the Language of Forms and Drawings at the Institute for Sound and Form (Instituut voor Klank en Vorm) in Zutphen, Netherlands. Besides this, she has a bachelor-background in Languages and Communication and works as a communication worker in an art gallery-café (Galerie Café Leidse Lente) in her hometown Leiden, Netherlands.