Some contemplations

If someone after having looked at my work would ask me: "Why are you doing what you do" I’m tempted to ask a counter question: “Why do you live? Do you know the meaning of life?"   
Is it not somewhat pathetic to suggest that I do my work out of gratitude to life, or for the love of people? Truth is, that, when I receive sincere sighs of astonishment, joy and surprise from people who see my work, it answers my inner most aspirations that we are meant to surprise one another with sparkles of truth, direction and humor. It satisfies to see people happy! Art is not meant to please people in a cheap way, neither should art be seen as a means to shock or hurt people.
If I try to analyze my work as a whole, it would be as complex as to analyze my character. One thing is sure, my work is a lay-out of a 'rail track'. Every new creation can be seen as a 'railway station', which points into the direction of the following stop.
Why am I doing what I do? Basically I do what I like, with an attitude of joy. With a love of form, the search for beauty and surprise, with a keenness of adventure in the process of designing and making.
The art of silversmithing is a craftbound métier. It is accomplished thanks to the tripot of the three capital H’s : HEAD, HEART, HANDS. (With the HEART in the middle !)
If someone would ask me 'What brought you to this particular design?' it is easy to take him back to the roots of it, to the sequence in the process and to the deliberate decisions made ahead of time and underway and why.

Some clarifications

My work can be divided into two categories :

1) rational designs by which every detail is worked out on paper. I call that a 'paper design'. It can be caught into a two-dimensional drawing. The execution of the design in silver is a straight forward process, the outcome predictable. Such a design is transversal to someone else. Another silversmith could do the execution of the piece. When I worked in India to train the silversmiths there, such designs were of good use.
2) the second category of designs is more or less based on intuition, whereby although the broad outline is put on paper (or made in carton), the starting proportion of material is (if possible) calculated or based on experience and a bit of good luck.
While executing such designs, I draw on (lean on) the phenomena which I would describe as : 'the manual intellect' : the mind observes while the hands go. In these designs I’m confronted with the material, there is an interaction, a dialogue : me-material-tools / tools-material-me. Though the choices are made, the question is whether the end result will be reached according to my goal; in some way, the circumstances and the silver itself get a say in the process, and that fascinates me while working.
It involves a study of form interlinked with material and the knowing of oneself. You put into such a design more than an intellectual concept. It is more than just an idea. It is me all out, my misconceptions and blunders included. I like certain limitations in life or work. It challenges you to overcome them or to make use of them. I like uncertainties in life or work, they can be seen and experienced as empty holes. They invite you to come with an imaginative answer.

Mr. Fred Weegenaar, who does the photography of my work, often complains about the unpredictable aspects in my work. Apart from the reflecting aspects of the silver, most of the designs do not allow to be caught into one projection.