“The job of the artist is to always deepen the mystery”.
Francis Bacon
Erik van Tuijn (1977) is an artist and illustrator based in De Bilt, The Netherlands.
For years Erik worked in museums. He wrote art criticism, put up exhibitions and museum websites, but discovered he was a draughtsman at heart. In 2019 he started Blijstift (which loosely translates as 'the merry marker'), where he’s active as a business illustrator, visual facilitator and creativity trainer. Here, he helps companies, institutions and governments to understand their own stories and processes better.
As illustrator and artist he’s steadily exploring the world as a cabinet of curiosities and the cabinet of curiosities as a world. “In my drawings I’m an explorer. I focus my attention to the cosmos of what is unseen and often carelessly trodden on and to all those wondrous and mysterious artifacts that - even after centuries - never really, totally reveal their secrets. "
In these digital days, Perfection is easier to attain than ever. Making things with my own hands, with craft and attention, leave blemishes and mistakes, it’s a drawing’s life’s breath. Doing things by hand means allowing yourself the space to let your humanity shine through the imperfection. It also does something no AI can ever take over: By paying special attention through drawing I really get to see and experience. Drawing is seeing with eyes and hands in concert. It’s consciously taking the long way, to experience and explore.