My work is minimal, formal and also represents my passion for materials. When I was about six years old I was enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Sint-Niklaas, Belgium. I remember once in class we were taught how to make a treasure map by soaking paper in coffee. The chemical reactions of the ‘coffee-paint’ yielded many great discoveries. Now at Ringling, many years later, the alchemical nature of that process has brought me to paint with coffee, tea, sand and powdered pigments. I choose to paint with those media for their powder-like consistency, their color and their earthiness.