Photos Sjaak Tool

Youth

My roots are in Wadway, which means: meadow besides the watercrossing.,It is a small village in the middle of the Dutch West Frisian polder. The people in that community are very independent - in the 18th century they even declared independency and Wadway, for a few years or maybe decades, became an independent republic. Something I can relate to as I am also an very independent soul.
I have good memories of life in the countryside. When my brother and I where with my father in the fields, he often asked: How many church towers do you see? We turned slowly around our axis and looked around, counting all the church towers. We usually got to 8, sometimes even to about 11, but even then we often missed one.

Delft

After high school, I went to study information technology in the Dutch town Delft, and like many technology students In high school I played with technical toys such as Meccano or an electronics construction kit. I had to get used to the big city, but gradually I found my way. During my studies I did a lot of theater, how could it be otherwise? At that time, Delft was a flourishing theater city with a lot of amateur theater. I was also a member of the student association "De Delftse Zwervers".

Vrije Academie

To give my creative side space, I decided to continue in the visual arts and attended the Vrije Academie, Psychopolis, in The Hague in the late 1980s. This academy was founded in 1947 by Livinus van de Bundt following the example of the Bauhaus Academy in Weimar. Van de Bundt assumes a different way of achieving artistic maturation than the then, and still, usual one way. Artistic development does not take place through education, culminating in a final exam, but through... dialogue, self-reflection, individuality, independence and a constructive attitude towards society.

I express my gratitude to Lex Wegchelaar my conceptual arts teacher and I also mention Rudie Rooijakkers and Philip Peters.

Education

Over time it became clear to me that I would not be able to earn a living with the visual arts so easily. Then I looked for a part-time job and soon found myself working part-time as a teacher in adult education. I have made teaching my profession and have had a successful career of almost 35 years. I enjoyed working as a lecturer information science at the economic studies at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. Before that I worked at The Hague University of Applied Sciences, the Technical University Delft and the Institute of Social Studies.

Photography

I laid the foundation for my photography at the Vrije Academie and I took many photos of little ponds and streams which I edited on the computer. So art was always on my mind but I only recently came forward with it. My love for nature comes from my youth. In the countryside of North Holland I could enjoy endlessly wide, almost empty landscapes. Another influence on my photography is abstract art from the beginning of the last century. For example, Klee, Kandinsky, Chagal and Mondriaan. I am also fascinated by chaos theory. This innovative theory of nature from the early 1990s has produced beautiful and exciting images. I have exhibited my photos at the Technical University, the Institute of Social Studies and the Ministry of Economic Affairs in The Hague

Retirement

Now that I am retired, I have taken up my love for art and photography with vigour and have become a member of the Capelse Art Circle