When i created this painting i made it for an exhibition, and i was interviewed for the Twentsche Courant Tubantia because of this. Here’s the English translation from the interview that was in the paper on May 4 2013
‘Different, never less’
Marjolein Lukas translates “Freedom” in a painting for the exhibit ’Vroomshoop for Freedom’
Vroomshoop- On that day, May 4 on Peace square in Vroomshoop, she suddenly realized something.
The then 18 year old Marjolein carefully dared to give her “being different” a name.
“At that moment I realized, that if I was born a few years earlier, I would have belonged to the group of “not wanted” people” Those two minutes of silence hit me like a bomb” she says.
The lesbian resident of Vroomshoop (43) never took those two minutes of silence for granted again.
When the organisation from the 25 year old May 4 committee asked her to make a painting for the exhibit ‘Vroomshoop for Freedom’ she immediately knew how it was going to look.
She drew the inspiration for the painting, which shows a woman floating on a rainbow from a dark hole to the forefront, from her own history. Because she wrestled with who she was on the road to self acceptance, but she was also inspired by Michael Jackson.
It was only after the passing of the world star she started her admiration for Jackson.
I recognized, he had the same ideals as I have. To me, he belongs to the ranks of the big world improvers. My paintings, for me, are a way to make this world a better place” says the artist.
She sends cards made from her paintings to people all over the world with inspiring quotes from Michael Jackson with the motto ‘Spread the love, my way’ and asks them to leave them behind wherever they want, to spread the message further.
“I keep hoping that one day, a child has to ask his mom, what war is. That’s my dream, and being the idealist that I am, I think we’re close”
But no matter how idealistic she is, Marjolein like many others, sees that the tolerance for being gay isn’t as big as she wished for.
“I’m concerned about that, but not only for the gays. In times of crisis one searches for a guilty party, in the form of a person, population group or particular branch. There’s not much needed to be labelled ‘unwanted’”.
However, the resident of Vroomshoop notices a difference from those years of the 1930’s, when certain groups of people were set aside.
“Eyes were closed back then, now it’s so important to keep talking about it”.
Just like her inspiration, Jackson, Marjolein realizes that it’s the younger generation that can make that change.
“Of course it’s a good thing for kids to learn, as we approach May 4, about the fact that besides Jews, gays, Gypsies, people with special needs and political opponents were being killed. But maybe it’s even more important to teach the children that in this society people are allowed to be different. Different, never less”
The painting was also made into a billboard that was in my town for about two weeks before it got stolen 🙂
And here’s the original story i wrote for the painting:
( Scroll down for the English version of this story)
Vrijheid.
Ik ben opgegroeid met 4 en 5 mei. Een van mijn oudste herinneringen is dat ik op het klimrek van de buurtspeelplaats zit en ik in de verte mijn moeder hoor roepen. Het is 4 mei, bijna 8 uur ‘s avonds, en ik moet binnenkomen. Elk jaar zaten we met ons vieren voor de tv: pa, ma, mijn zusje en ik, en waren we twee minuten stil om de doden van de oorlog te herdenken.
Ik heb altijd veel gelezen, ook als kind. De oorlog was een onderwerp wat me interesseerde dus ik las onder andere over Anne Frank, Oorlogswinter en wat later een aangrijpend verhaal over Moni.
Door de jaren heen ging ik steeds beter begrijpen waarom we twee minuten stil waren op 4 mei, dacht ik…
Jaren later stonden mijn moeder en ik op het Vredesplein in Vroomshoop om daar met plaatsgenoten twee minuten stil te zijn. Ik was, denk ik, een jaar of 18 en net het huis uit. Ik was even op visite en kon op deze manier kennismaken met ons nieuwe oorlogsmonument.
En opeens besefte ik dat, wanneer ik wat eerder was geboren, ik ook bij die heel grote groep ongewensten had behoord. Ik was op dat moment nog niet helemaal uit de kast, maar ik besefte al wel mijn anders zijn. Ik had het voor mezelf al voorzichtig een naam gegeven: “lesbisch”….
Die twee minuten stilte sloegen bij mij in als een bom. Wat als…?
Die twee minuten stilte zijn voor mij nooit meer vanzelfsprekend, er nu eenmaal bijhorend, geweest.
Nog een herinnering van rond die tijd. Ik woonde ondertussen in de buurt van Ede en werkte met verstandelijk beperkte mensen. Op 4 mei was ik aan het werk, een late dienst, op een groep met oudere bewoners en ik zat me voor te bereiden om daar, voor de tv, die twee minuten stilte te houden. Een van de bewoners zat naast me, een wat oudere, stille rustige man, die bijna nooit iets zei. Opeens draait die man zich naar me toe en vraagt angstig: “Hitler is dood hè?” Ik kon hem geruststellen en opeens besefte ik dat ik het voorrecht had om te werken met mensen die ook ongewenst waren in die tijd. Sterker nog: Deze man had de oorlog meegemaakt en overleeft, geen idee hoe…
Er is schijnbaar niet zo heel veel voor nodig om het etiketje: “ongewenst” te krijgen….
Ede ligt in de buurt van Wageningen, de bevrijdingsstad omdat daar in 1945 de capitulatie is ondertekend in Hotel de Wereld. Het defilé, afgenomen door prins Bernhard vanaf het bordes van dat hotel, trok later in een lange stoet door de stad en maakte me aan het huilen van dankbaarheid. Ze kwamen van over de hele wereld. Elk jaar wat ouder en elk jaar waren ze met minder, maar elk jaar stond ik tussen de toeschouwers met tranen in de ogen te juichen en te applaudisseren.
Ik woon sinds een paar jaar weer in Vroomshoop en ik sta elk jaar weer met mijn plaatsgenoten op 4 mei op het Vredesplein bij het oorlogsmonument om twee minuten stil te zijn. Mijn moeder is er niet meer bij, maar die twee minuten zijn belangrijk voor. Ik kan geen Vrijheid vieren als ik niet ook stil sta bij iedereen die van overal kwam om ons te bevrijden, om er voor te zorgen dat ik vrij ben.
Vrij…
om te zijn wie ik ben,
om lief te hebben,
om te durven hopen op een betere wereld.
Een wereld waar gezocht wordt naar antwoorden en oplossingen die geen mensenlevens eisen.
Waar het niet langer logisch is om naar wapens te grijpen en waar het begrip “Vredesleger” in onbruik is geraakt omdat men heeft beseft hoe vreemd het is om te vechten voor vrede.
Waar allerlei wapentuig een laatste rustplaats heeft gevonden in musea en waar, in dat museum, een kind verbaasd om zich heen kijkt en vraagt: “Mam, wat is oorlog?”
Ik ben vrij om met mijn verf en kwasten mijn dromen en mijn hoop op doek te zetten en zo te helpen bij de verspreiding van de Boodschap van Liefde.
Ik ben vrij om mijn kleine stukje te spelen in de symfonie van het leven.
En daar ben ik dankbaar voor….
Marjolein
Vroomshoop,17 maart 2013
Freedom.
I grew up with May 4 en 5.
One of my earliest memories is the one where I’m sitting on some kind of climbing frame at the playground from our neighbourhood and I hear my mom calling for me. It’s May 4, almost 20.00h, and I have to come in. Every year we sit in front of the television: dad, mom, my little sister and me, where we spend two minutes in silence to remember the people who got killed in the Second World War.
I always read a lot of books, even when I was a kid. I was interested in the war, so I read about Anne Frank, The winter of starvation, and some time later an upsetting story about Moni.
Through the years I got a better understanding about why we were silent for two minutes on May 4, I thought…
Years later, I stood, together with my mom on Peace Square in Vroomshoop (my home town) to be silent for two minutes with my fellow-villagers. I think I was about 18 years young and I just left home. I was visiting and this was a nice way to get acquainted with our new war monument.
All of a sudden I realized that, if I would have been born some years earlier, I would have belonged to that big group of unwanted people.
I didn’t make my way out of the closet yet, but I realized I was different. Carefully I had given it a name: “Lesbian”
The two minutes of silence hit me like a bomb would have hit me.
What if…?
So those two minutes of silence never got logical, and just belonging with the date, to me again.
Another memory from around that time. I lived close to Ede, and was working with people with special needs. I was working that May 4th, a late shift with a group of elderly residents, and I was preparing to spend the two minutes in silence right there in front of the television. One of the residents was sitting next to me. He was an elderly, quiet, man who rarely said a word. All of a sudden that man turns to me and asks with fear in his voice: “Hitler is dead, isn’t he? I could comfort him and I suddenly realized I had the privilege to work with people who also would have been unwanted in that war. This man lived through the war and survived it, and I had no idea how….
Apparently there’s no need for a lot to happen to get labelled: “unwanted”…
Ede is close to Wageningen, the city of liberty, because this is where the capitulation was signed in Hotel The World. The parade of soldiers which was attended by prince Bernhard from the border of that hotel, later found his way to the center of the city and made me cry because I was grateful. They came from all over the world. Every year they got a bit older and every year their number decreased, but every year I stood among the audience, clapping and cheering them on, with tears in my eyes.
I moved back to Vroomshoop a few years ago and every year on May 4, I stand together with my fellow-villagers on Peace Square for those two minutes of silence. My mom is no longer standing next to me, but those two minutes are important. I simply can’t celebrate Freedom when I don’t spend a few minutes remembering those people who came from everywhere to liberate us, to make sure I was free.
Free to…
be who I am…
love….
dare to hope for a better world.
A world where we try to find answers and solutions who don’t ask for the sacrifice of human life
Where it’s no longer logical to reach for weapons and where the term “Peace army” isn’t used anymore because we realized how strange it is to fight for peace.
Where all kinds of weaponry found a final resting place in museums and where, in that museum, a kid looks around in surprise and asks his mom: “Mom, what is war?”
I’m free to put my dreams and hope on canvas with my paint and brushes, to help spread the Message of Love.
I’m free to play my little part in the symphony of life.
And I’m grateful for that….
Marjolein,
Vroomshoop, March 17, 2013.
maart 17th, 2013 - 5:39 pm
Marjolein, what you have shared here, in art and in words, in perfection. It has been my joy to “know” you, through Michael, on Facebook but what you’ve written here makes me realize even more deeply that, though we feel we know each other, we know only so little about each other. We are missing such important pieces of each other in our friendship. What we do know, however, is how valuable to and for each other we are, even in our fragmented realities. L.O.V.E. you, Rosalynn
maart 17th, 2013 - 7:32 pm
Marjolein, I am speechless. I was drawn in from the very first moment, and it’s as if I am standing in the square right along with you. Thank you for this little piece of your history. I am so honored to know you. Your accompanying art piece is amazing and so full of life. I love it. LOVE to you, sweet Marjolein. Love you! <3
maart 18th, 2013 - 7:16 am
Thank you so very much for your love-filled comments. I must say i was a bit scared to send those words into the world of the big world wide web. It was like coming out of the closet all over again. If you keep quiet about the meaning of a painting you can’t get hurt, now there’s no hiding anymore… 🙂 I just received an email from the man who came to pick up the painting and the story last night. He’s gonna include the story in the exhibit somehow…
maart 20th, 2013 - 1:53 pm
Marjolein, living in The Netherlands I also grew up with May 4 and 5! And your story brought tears to my eyes, because I can relate to it and your awareness of how valuable it is to live in a free country.
Every year, at the end of April/beginning of May, our Dutch TV airs movies like Schindler’s List or The Pianist, movies that play in the Second World War.
Every year there are memorials to those who lost their lives in that war.
Often I hear people around me say: oh, that old stuff……the Second World War is so long ago! How can they be so ignorant! Yes, the Second World War is long ago, but our world is still filled with wars in many countries!
Besides that I believe it’s a good thing to remind us, at least once a year, of how it was, how many people suffered and died, and how it could happen again.
History already proved that in times of economic crisis many people seem to need a victim to blame for their misery. How else could Hitler gain so much power?
I hope and pray that history has learnt mankind a huge lesson. Although small in numbers, nazi parties still exist in Europe. And due to the economic crisis they grow again.
Thank you Marjolein, for your wonderful contribution to celebrate our freedom. May we all follow and stay on that colorful road you painted!
maart 20th, 2013 - 7:00 pm
Dear Christine
Thank you and Love to you! <3
maart 25th, 2013 - 11:47 pm
dear Marjolein
like you i was brought up with the vailuse of 4 and 5 may
and i am interestted in the 2 world war to
i listen to storys my mother and grandparents told me
and like you every year we where siting in front of the tv for the 2 min of silence and watching the qeeun bringing flowers and later the dutch citizen
some time i do think to when i was born 8 years sooner i was a war baby
terrible thins happenend to people in 1940 45
i also have being reading anne frank
in this time of crisis there are people who would blame it on other people
but its not right to think that way
its bad that there are recht extremisten and nazis again
but like christine said lets hope we learn our lesson
and lets pray we can live in freedom for ever
i like the words you wrote about freedom
yes its important that we here in this country can be who we are
doesnt matter what your color of you skin is or you gay or straight
we kunnen erg blij zijn dat we hier in vrijheid leven kunnen
en zeggen en schrijven , en schilderen wat je wilt
laten we hopen dat het zo blijft
bedankt voor de mooie woorden
jolande 25 03 2012
maart 26th, 2013 - 6:32 pm
Jolande, thank you so very much, and yes, let’s hope and pray we will continue to live our lives in freedom. <3