Central to my work is human with his emotions, his connections with himself and nature. I’m fascinated by the interconnectedness of form and contents, of out and inside. How do we view from the outside what lives inside… How does vulnerability and strength become visible? This is what I am trying to research, find and represent in my work.

With simple materials (yarn, paper, pencil and wool) I try to come to a clear rendition, which still contains an emotional layering. Outside becomes inside and vice-versa. Sometimes the pleasant is united with the unpleasant and it is up to the viewer which side they want to see.

Recurring themes are growth, fertility, cycles of life. During work there also arises a subtile cooperation between that what moves me and that what becomes visible on paper and during felting. Using thread, wool and pencil arose from a natural impulse and the need to use simple materials.

The labor-intensive and meditative aspect of embroidery and kneading wool (felting) makes it possible for me to stay in my work and ensoul It more and more.

More symbolic, embroidery stands for stringing together of the thread of life, and connecting one work to the other…

In my felt work I usually start from an organic form. Kneading and pricking in wool the image receives, usually after an intensive process, its final form. In its appearance recognizable, but usually not unambiguously nameable.

Drawing is to me: going inside, reflecting on, poetry.

Felting is the more earthly counterpart. With both I reveal the vulnerability and strength and protect these, particulary in felting, at the same time also by the warm appearance of the material.

Astrid Polman