Mariaan Kotze: This is me, where I come from, how I think.
I was born on a farm cradled by mountains in the Aliwal North district of the Eastern Cape.
My father Kobus Kotze is a well-known landscape artist. The hours I spent painting with him in his art studio opened my mind to art.
My mother Joe Kotze only started painting later in her life. She coloured my life with stories and made me aware of all the beauty around me.
I am full-time artist since 2002, however it is only in recent years that I struck out in a fresh direction; moving beyond my usual boundaries.
Stories and elements of inspiration accumulated in me over years. These stories are impatiently waiting to be conveyed into art pieces; bit by bit, as they emerge into narratives covering canvases and even spilling over onto and into other functional objects.
I urge to explore and experiment; I delve deep inside while I create. I escape into a zone I only get to enter while working, unravelling stories, bursting out of my subconscious. I can relate to the theory that people have a collective memory, symbols emerging out of that memory, a memory going further back than my own conscious.
My approach keeps taking numerous detours. I am on a constant journey, experiencing a deep connection with the piece I am working on, with my burning passion for art, being behind my easel is the place I feel save. My art found its- way to boardrooms, waiting rooms and private and corporate collections across the world.
Although my work is packed with symbolism, most of it is not planned or thought through.
Birds, Wings and Feathers, however, are symbolic of freedom, hope, communication, new beginnings and a reminder to pay attention, and circles: Unity, completion, wholeness, timelessness.