Mixed media artist db Waterman’s formative years as an artist were spent studying at the Art Academy in Den Bosch, NL. Today, she regards herself as self-taught, having developed her own distinct style out of the untraditional medium of collage. Waterman’s work unites a variety of materials in careful compositions that she prides for their storytelling ability.

Waterman assembles original photography, assorted papers, acrylics, oil, charcoal, ink and pencil in her works. The variety of resources she is able to use has proved indispensable to Waterman, who says the biggest challenge the collage medium posed was its unforgiving lack of transparency. Finding a way to replicate the effects of transparency afforded by paint, especially watercolours, was “a large victory” for the artist. The labour shows through in Waterman’s collages; layers upon layers of material remain visible in the finished pieces.

Waterman’s body of work is characterised by her skill for reinvention. Having always loved the appearance of weathered walls plastered with peeling paint and old posters, Waterman revives this aesthetic with a keen eye. The creative objective of her work is to “make something beautiful out of dilapidation.” Her tableaus explore the dissonance between old and new materials, beautifully intertwined in dreamlike and melancholy images.

Waterman resides in the province of North Brabant in the South of the Netherlands.