This is an Ode to Meester Ruud
Meester Ruud was my teacher in the first year of primary school. He called me ‘Zonnetje’, meaning ‘Little Sun’. On the last school day of that year I cried. I would miss Meester Ruud so much, since he was not going to be our teacher anymore in the years after. Time passed and when we got the news that year 5 would bring us Meester Ruud again, I remember thinking : “He will see that little Sun has disappeared”. Year 5 came and every day for the whole year he gave me the privilege to get and bring him his daily cup of coffee, which I sensed was an honour and an encouragement. Therefor I will never forget that on the last day of the year I spilled the coffee all over his desk and papers. I felt terrible. Anyway, in the last year of primary school, the event we all had been looking forward to arrived: final year’s school camp! So exciting! At the end, the final night; ‘Disco Night…yeah!’, the team of teachers handed out ‘certificates’ to every student. A personal certificate that held a short character sketch and also good luck wishes for the future. Meester Ruud handed me mine and said: “You were ‘Little Sun’, but you have grown bigger and that is why now we give you the name ‘Sunbeam’.
Shortly after that moment life became hard and for many years I believed I had lost my Sun, I thought I didn’t have that light in me anymore.
But now, approximately 25 years after Meester Ruud named me ‘Sunbeam’, I found my Sun back. My joy is bigger than my body can hold and I can not help but shining.
I wonder…what name he would give me now..
Thank you for seeing me Meester Ruud.
– Diana –
Diana van der Harst is a multidisciplinary artist whose journey has resulted in the creation of an ever evolving Leftover Universe where Tender Time Sighs. While she has a focus on textile art, she also uses painting, drawing, ceramics, sculpture, photography and writing to seek and tell her story. Her creations originate from a meeting between inner and outer travels, from studying things up-close to things far away, from observing the small to observing the vast; a process of constantly shifting focus, a movement much like breathing. Tender Time Sighs; breathing life into a Leftover Universe, showing us traces of transformation and encounters with animate and inanimate beings. Drawing from her own experiences, inspired by life itself, characters have developed who share their meetings and findings along the way. Diana’s work is poetic, contemporary, intuitive, contemplative, intimate, emotional, whimsical, spiritual, narrative and embodies a magical realism.
Diana was born and raised in The Netherlands before she moved to Australia. It is in The Netherlands where Diana had her main art education and where she started exhibiting her works back in 2004. During a masterclass in textile design in The Netherlands in 2007 she was invited to exhibit her art in Tokyo, Japan. Since that exhibition she had 4 solo exhibitions and several work periods in Kyoto, Japan. Exhibiting for nearly 20 years now she showed her works in The Netherlands, Antwerp/Belgium, Melbourne, Perth, Tokyo and Kyoto/Japan. Diana is now focusing on her upcoming solo exhibition, during which she will be giving workshops as well as undertake an artist-in-residency. She is one of the participating artists in her community that opens up her home studio for the public to come and visit, an initiative that is held two weekends a year as part of an Art Trail. Several other projects are in development and she is open for commissions.
Email: leftoveruniverse@gmail.com | Website: http://www.leftoveruniverse.com | Instagram: dhyana_in_a_leftover_universe
Leftover Universe 