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About this activity.

Sometimes a difficult event can also lead to something good. For Josje Hamel (Rotterdam, 1965), that was a cancer diagnosis in 2010. She was a teacher trainer at the University of Groningen; although she survived the cancer after a grueling treatment, she continued to live with the consequences of the treatments. To her great sorrow, she had to stop working, and to support her in this, she received therapy at Het Behouden Huys in Haren, which specializes in psychological support for cancer. Josje did not really believe in talking about what was bothering her and therefore started art therapy. That turned out to be exactly what she needed and the beginning of a new life as an artist.

Josje had always been particularly creative in her youth. She was very good at needlework, but was told at school that she could not draw, and her parents did not allow her to attend art school, even though she had desperately wanted to. Her parents did not even approve of fashion school. Becoming a journalist was allowed, so Josje enrolled in all three programs available at the time, but she was rejected by all three. She then started a teacher training program with little enthusiasm, where she struggled to endure a year. After that, she put her studies on hold for the time being and went to work as a secretary. She married and had four children, but remained creative, as she made all her children's clothes herself. In between, she also studied Dutch at the University of Groningen, became a Dutch teacher, and taught cultural and artistic education alongside her. After all, her old love for art history and architecture didn't just disappear.

So then she became seriously ill, and as part of the rehabilitation process, she began art therapy. The wonderful thing was that it turned out she could indeed draw and that she loved making art. She completed the preparatory course for the Minerva Art Academy and the Classical Academy. She was accepted at the Photo Academy in Amsterdam, but it turned out that such programs were too demanding for a former cancer patient. After all, she hadn't been declared unfit for work for no reason. Fortunately, she was able to complete her training as an art coach. And she feels that is enough now, alongside her work for the Hamelhuys center for living with and after cancer.

Josje works associatively in her art. She wants to convey a feeling, to express her own nuanced inner world. Although she also published a poetry collection years ago, she is much more successful in expressing herself through images and colors. For her, especially strong emotions are much easier to translate into paintings or collages than into words. What she does do, however, is incorporate words into her collages. She also sometimes starts with a poem on canvas, only to then paint over it. The poem is then no longer visible, but the energy of the poem has become part of the final artwork.

Lately, she has also sometimes used music as a source of inspiration. *Once you were gold* by Enya, for example, led to more abstract works. And the famous *Raindrop Prelude* by Frédéric Chopin helped her create the work *Tears of dreams*, on display at the exhibition in Zuidhorn. Her old fondness for textiles remains, which is why she regularly incorporates fabrics into her collages.

Exhibition in Zuidhorn
The paintings, collages, and photographs by Josje Hamel can be admired at the Cultural Center Zuidhorn from September 13 to November 14.

Address: Jellemaweg 3, 9801 CG Zuidhorn.

Opening hours: Monday to Thursday from 10:00 to 17:30, Friday from 10:00 to 19:00, and Saturday from 10:00 to 14:00.

Cultureel Centrum Zuidhorn.

Location.

Cultureel Centrum Zuidhorn
Jellemaweg 3
9801CG Zuidhorn
www.cczuidhorn.nl/exposities/