About The Artist

The Originator Of Dance Calligraphy 

Meeke Mutter is an artist from The Netherlands. She started painting abstract works and watercolors in 1998 when the mother of a close friend passed away and she wanted to paint something to make her friend feel better. She picked up a random brush and has never stopped since.

While painting more and more she discovered a new way of capturing dance and movement while working with a fluid calligraphic brushstroke. She calls her style “Dance Calligraphy”. Unique. She never paints from an example or image. All her art is original , it flows out of her hand and in it you can find her heart. She works mostly in acrylic and has been exhibiting her art ongoingly since 2003 in different countries.

Meeke has her masters in Culture, Organization and Management (Social Sciences) from the Free University in Amsterdam (drs). She also completed studies at the HEAO in Enschede and studies in Senior Communication Consultancy (Van der Hilst). She has worked as communication consultant in The Hague for many years but decided to follow her heart when she discovered her love and gift for painting at age 30 and changed careers to become an artist and dancer. She did not wanted to die and think “What if I do not try this?”

Meeke loves dance, especially ballet. She began her ballet training at the age of eight and has often performed: see her dance photo’s. At age 20 she switched to competitive track and field in 100/200 meters for 10 years. She came to New York City to study dance technique at age 38 as she kept dreaming of dancing and wasn’t allowed to study in her own country because of her age.

She studied with great dedication at the Martha Graham Dance School, Dance New Amsterdam (on scholarship) and for 8 years at the prestigious Ballet Arts School (Ballet and Voice) in NYC. She still dances and sings free lance (watch her videos at ArtWorkDance on YouTube).

Meeke has blogged for the national Dutch Newspaper ‘De Telegraaf’ and for the national Dutch Dance Magazine ‘DANS’. She was interviewed by DANS about her choice to start dancing again at 38 after a break of 20 years and was interviewed by the Dutch ‘Smart&Sexy.nl’, lifestyle for women. She was interviewed by and on the cover of the Dutch magazine ‘De Dukenburger’.

Her artwork has been used many times for flyers and posters for shows in NYC, especially for shows of Ballet Arts. She has donated several art pieces to the Netherland-America Foundation for the Peter Stuyvesant Ball in NYC and Washington DC.

Meeke was on Dutch national TV  “VPRO” where she talks about her art, dance and elementary school. In 2015 she was on “TV Gelderland” in an interview about her art, dance and life in NYC.

She has designed dance postcards, t-shirts, scarves (at VIDA clothes) and dance bags. Meeke  created also a fashionable new look of the Pointe Shoes by designing stylish and artsy premium pointe stickers to enhance the elegance of the ballerina on stage. Watch how she made the designs: Dance Calligraphy onto the Pointe Shoes. Read here the interviews in DANS and DANCE Informa USA . The pointe stickers are called The Pointe Elegantia’s®, trademarked in 2019. See more at www.pointeelegantia.com.

Ballet company Danse En L’Air in NYC, directed by Yuka Kawazu, has used Meeke’s art as inspiration for several dance choreographies, including the costumes and has used her art for flyers and for backdrops of her shows in 2018 (Love&Memory) and in 2019 (Alfonsina). Read here the article in DANCE Informa USA.

Meeke: “I love colors, especially gold. Colors give good vibrations. I am inspired by dance, nature and calligraphy. Being an artist means being able to focus, having patience and the hunger to create and knowing this is your calling. I love to change the world of dance and hope to give beauty and positive energy to people through my art.

I never thought I would become a painter and I see myself more as someone who creates and pioneers in many ways. When I was 29 years I picked up a brush and started painting, liking it, loving it and surprised by what came out of my hand. I feel like a channel that gives through what I receive making pure original works. 

A friend described my art once as elegance in motion and I loved that. Over the years I have been adding more vibrant colors to my work and started to make bigger works for which I had to cut my own brushes as for my technique I could not find the right brushes anywhere. Talent is great but more important are hard work and discipline to master your skills. I have been doing that now for 20 years and am grateful for every day I can create and share my art to the world”.

wMeeke-48color

 

 

DONATE paypal