Hi all, my name is Chris Steinz. I live in, or at least very close to, Amsterdam. I'm a visual artist, although I also love to build stuff and write poetry. I was part of this year’s Artist Residency where we connected with a few artist from around the globe for a few months. It was truly a blessing to be part of this group, learning from each other by sharing who we are and what we do as an artist. It turned out to be a very challenging time for me personally because of health issues. This got me completely on a sidetrack, but the Residency meetings were some 'light in the darkness' moments every time. 

However, creating wise, the Residency was not as productive as I hoped. Instead of painting, I went through surgery and a recovery process. But the Residency did challenge me to think about who I am as an artist and why I create. And it made me think about why I do what I do. One of the things I took out of it was using different mediums or different types of paint. My background was street art/spray paint and I needed to do that outdoors. If you know Amsterdam, you know it rains A LOT over here. The Residency made me realise I needed something else, a new way of painting, so I can create more often. I got myself some new brushes and some 'normal' acrylics and started a new journey, with a new type of painting. This here is the first painting I did. I learned a lot of new things about how it works. I think the Residency pushed me into a new direction as an artist, by reflecting on who I am, questioning why I do what I do and the desire to grow as an artist.

To see a past article about Chris' grafitti art, click here.