Ton Ten Donkelaar My name is Ton Ten Donkelaar, I live in Rijnsburg, a small village in the Netherlands, near Leiden (the city where Rembrandt was born). I am 55 years of age. I followed a course in The Hague, the Academie of Arts (Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten) and finished this study approximately in 1990 with a stipend. (I took exam in the courses Designing, Drawing and Painting). A stipend is an incentive price encouraging young artists. I was invited for two expositions at that time and with one of these two, some of my artworks were refused to exhibit. (too offensive). Therefore I made for myself a radical decision not to make anything at all for a very long time, because of my frustration about the refusal. At the age of 42 I got very sick as a result of cancer. At that time I was a married man with two beautiful daughters. I realized that I had to change and to do the things I had to do. Participating art. Art was always in my mind and I created many things in my mind, but it came never to a result. In december last year (2018) I spoke to a friend at the 31st of december and he told me a story about his son, who is travelling around the world and when his son is broke, he comes home to work, to earn some savings. So the father asked to his son: ‘Can you show some pictures of the places you’ve been?’ He took his laptop, opened it, keyed in ‘Google’ and showed his father the most beautiful pictures of places he visited. (The clue was he did not shoot any of these pictures by himself). That is how the present generation thinks. Everything has already made. The most beautiful pictures, you can find them on the internet. That was for me the inspiration to make art again, after about 25 years…. My mind exploded. Since then, untill now, I created about 500 pieces of artwork. I had to catch up appearently! My artworks : My studio is my mobile phone 5 inches by 3 inches. I take it everywhere, I can use it everywhere and above all, I can make art wherever and whenever. I’m seeking for pictures of portaits or common people, super models, famous people or strange people and unusual subjects. I blend the pictures and personalize them. Personalizing for me means that I am searching for subjects of my youth, not literally, but elements of my parental house (baroque style). My protestant faith (Not catholic). My work even shows erotic elements. I choose carefully the colors I use in my artworks. Everything seems to have a meaning, a destination. What I can show at the exposition is just a fragment of course. My work is conceptional, innovative and figurative and it is still developing…