Mariska Pool

If Mariska could have chosen how to live her life, she’d rather been a luscious, lazy cat, for she prefers animals above mankind. But since choosing wasn’t possible she took up art as a way of life. Her career as an artist could have started at an early age in primary school when she won a drawing contest of the National Traffic Safety Organisation with a meticulous doodle of a pirate ship full of drunken boatsmen, but she decided to first study art history at university, and then go to an art academy ‘to do textiles’. An education in the graphic design field also followed. After expressing herself in the ‘traditional’ art-techniques she finally found her medium in photomanipulation and collage which she combines with hand-drawing by digital means. By using photographical elements of the real world she shows that phantasy and reality are often intertwined. Her work is surreal highly-detailed and narrative. Mariska likes to create  sinister kingdoms where animals act as humans.  These dreamed and melancholic images often reflect the dark undercurrent of the world. After an initial smile, the beholder is left behind with a weary feeling of discomfort. 

If you want to see more of her work, go to: www.mariskapool-art.com