Esther Loopstra

I have always been interested in how we intimately connect to our bodies, environment, and the mystery of the infinite. When I was very young I watched a movie called The Fantastic Voyage. A Science fiction story about a group of scientists who were shrunk down to microscopic size and implanted into a human body. Along the journey, they encountered the biological ecosystem in a whole new way. Since then, I’ve been fascinated by these networks and how we are interconnected in ways we can’t conceive of.

Science is learning more and more about how interconnected we are and I am continually inspired by the living structures that support us on a biological and energetic level such as our nervous system, the ocean, mycelium, quantum field, dark matter, and even the internet. My work takes the viewer on a passage, revealing the abstract essences of these systems and viewing them from the vantage point of a landscape you could navigate and engage with. Weaving through pathways and portals that reveal the brilliance of life, and the beauty of its darkness. As someone who has experienced trauma, and struggled with chronic illness and mental health, I recognize how simply relating to our bodies, others, and our environment in a new and more profound way can restore us and bring regulation.

My mixed media paintings unfold like a journey, and I flow with my instincts, developing layers, and working back into them, allowing the paintings to change and grow. Most often I use acrylic and latex paint but add surprising materials like joint compound, collage, liquid latex, and acrylic mediums, along with markers, crayons, and pencils. I also create intuitive watercolor pieces to depict what look like living organs or organisms. Like a scientist, I do much experimenting with materials to create the constitution and form of small vignettes so that they will reflect internal systems and then collage these separate pieces into works.

I also create poems based on stream of consciousness writing in which I am connected to my unconscious as a resource. I feel that this is a way, as humans and artists, we are able to tap into the possibility of a nexus of inspiration that we cannot see. Most recently I am working with video to investigate how interconnected we are with the environments that surround us.