Dim Rooker, Mixed Media Art
If you're walking around the beaches of Scheveningen in the early mornings, there's a good chance you'll see Dim Rooker wander around, looking for washed up items. "These worn out pieces of unidentified nature, or origin, somehow trigger my imagination", he says. "Looking closer at these materials I start to wonder what it's use used to be. Where it's from, and how long it's been drifting in the North sea. I collect the items that intrigue me. The stuff that doesn't, goes in the bin." In his studio in a red house in the middle of the harbor, there are four large boxes lined up neatly, containing these gathered items.
The space at the coast, and traveling to natural places have been and still have a strong attraction to Dim. In his art, he strives to express fragments of his experiences. Each work starts with a horizon and from there compositions and the notion of depth are created with different materials, such as paint, fragments of photographs, prints and found items.
Contrary to the creation proces in his applied graphic design work, each artwork is the result of a string of impulsive choices after the other. In this proces, there's no preconceived idea or visual outcome in his imagination. "I like to just set myself free and let it flow. This makes it exciting for me to work on. This way I never know how it will turn out". Rooker describes that it's a bit like surfing waves: "You take off, and impulsively draw a line on what sections the wave offers you. Completely active, just fleeting in the moment."