My name is Sophia Anastasia; I earn my income as a painter and illustrator (met wisselend succes).
During art academy in Arnhem, Holland, 1980-1984, I started traveling and cycled from Gouda to Damascus.
In 1984 I hitchhiked to Nepal, cycled from Bangkok to Singapore, then stayed for some time in Singapore and eventually settled in Bali.
I surfed, painted, printed t-shirts, regularly travelled to Australia, made friends and had a relationship with film maker Lorne Blair
with whom I built a house, co-produced a film and had a daughter. Sadly Lorne passed away shortly after our daughter's second birthday.
I was confronted with numerous difficulties regarding single parenthood and finances. Although I lived a fairly glamorous life in Bali I decided to go back to Holland to live in the real world.
In 2000 I moved to my birth city Utrecht with a new boyfriend, was left pregnant and had a son.
Two kids as a single mother and a new life to build in Holland was not always easy, especially since I was determined to persue my quest to earn my income with art.
Also my daughter was homesick for Bali.
We lived modestly and my children insisted I'd find a 'normal job'.
I showed my paintings to many galleries but they were not interested.
At some point my income got so low that I had to apply for welfare. I am grateful it was possible for the few years I needed it.
I had lived many years in countries where no such thing exists.
Trying to make a living as a painter despite the rejection of the art world I explored the social media and started building my website.
In order to commercialise my talents I followed an interior-design course for selling property, but however talented as an interior designer, I am not commercially talented.
At the Red Cross I worked for 15 years in a thrift-store as a volunteer.
Painting the Dom Tower at the city of Utrecht was my way out of social security.
In 2022 I was granted an solo exhibition at the Utrecht town hall.
This year some of my Dom tower paintings are on display at the Stadskantoor.
Meanwhile my children are 23 and 31 years old and I divide my time between caring for my 95 year old father, gardening and and building my greenhouse.
My studio terminated due to politics and I miss painting but cannot afford commercial rent.
The greenhouse at my garden is a zero euro project that I constructed from scratch with found building materials.
This is the greenhouse. Not yet finished.
