José is an independent artist from the Netherlands, currently living in Pretoria East. In 2005, after studying interior design, José realised there were many more art techniques she wished to try out, especially those that enabled her to exploit working with the thin line between 2D and 3D, art and design. She then undertook a 3-year art degree in printmaking at Academie voor Schone Kunsten Arendonk, Belgium and got hooked. On moving to South Africa, she found a printing studio to work from, although continues to take art classes in different mediums.
Her love for photography and working in layers defines most of her recent print work, and she uses mixed media to combine the techniques ‘gathered’ over the years with print. In particular, she finds that collographs allow her to manipulate their 2D/3D relief quality. Recently she discovered a way to integrate her photography into her print work using “the South African sun to make cyanotypes”. José often works around themes connected to homes or houses, saying “When you move house regularly as I do, you are more aware of the importance of a home.”