I love working with my hands. After arriving in New Mexico, I quickly learned to love tin. This unpretentious, honest material offers endless design opportunities. With so many outstanding New Mexico craftspeople presenting the worthy, traditional styles, I decided that I’d better not try to outdo them in their own field, and find a different approach. I guess that my Dutch upbringing pushed my creativity in the direction of contemporary, sometimes quite minimal designs. Nonetheless, some of my designs show a Southwestern touch, yet I bet even then most people notice my contemporary eye.
TIN DESIGNS BY ANS ZOUTENBIER
As a native of the Netherlands I lived and worked in The Hague until 1994. For ten years I organized exhibitions of contemporary art, the The Hague Salon, and poetry festivals.
In 1994, my husband Ton Haak and I left the Netherlands to travel throughout the American West. Four years later we found Abiquiu, New Mexico, and knew we had arrived at our new home.
In 1998, I started studying traditional New Mexico tin design with J.D. Martinez of Española. I found the creativity of tin work to be immensely satisfying and started to explore different and foremost contemporary design directions. In my Abiquiu studio/gallery The Tin Moon one may find even Mondrian-inspired and postmodern tin mirrors; a very successful line are the goddess mirrors, and recently the series of large tin and copper mirrors with quilt-like designs attract a lot of attention. I also create smaller pieces, including ornaments and other great (Christmas) gifts. My (jewelry) boxes are elegant examples of the many possibilities the material and the technique offer.
Ans Zoutenbier