Eelke Van Willegen is a surfer. Born in Schiedam, 1974, NL Lives and works in Brielle, he can often be found on the North Sea beach and especially in the seawater. Surfing is to get away from everyday worries. You let the waves do their work. You are carried along. Meanwhile, you 'read' the waves and react to them.
'I work with metal tubes,' says Eelke. 'I look for couples together and start thinking. Then an idea forms in my head and I get to work. So I start right away. Where and how it ends, I don't know. That's just the process. Just like surfing: you get on your board into the waves and you have no idea where it's going. At the end, before the work is finished, comes choosing the color. That's quite tricky and it listens very closely.' It may seem of great simplicity, but a closer look reveals Eelke's art to be complex and thoughtful.
