About

Welcome to my website 🌷

Story and links:
My name is Edith Pijpers, and i go by Edie or EdieArt. I am a self-taught artist. Born in 77, I was raised in the Netherlands and after a short time in both Paris and Sydney at age 20, I settled in Los Angeles for 5 years. This is where i started writing and making music. Singing, writing, performing and recording were a life line of sorts and the start (continuation?) of a deep self-inquiry that i continue to this day in several ways. I wrote and recorded 5 albums and created videos for many of the songs.
I spent time writing and performing in Amsterdam, then Nashville, where i started to pick up painting in my late twenties. I started paiting as something expressive and pleasant to do and soon became more and more involved. I had two art shows in Nashville, and developed my skills. At age 30, i moved to NYC where i found myself inspired by some artists i saw on the streets selling their work. I joined them soon after and people responded well. I continue to sell my art in local fairs and festivals. I participated for 7 years in the Union Square Holiday market. I published many children’s books and my work appears on greeting cards. I have also created many mural projects over the years. In 2022 I paired up with Nina Mongendre to create our oracle deck Healing the Inner Child. Our deck is now published by and available through Hay House. I live in the Hudson Valley with my husband and daughter.

Ideas and philosophy on art and what i do:
..The process of painting as with music is about flow. Of not believing that mistakes exist. Any move is part of the whole and the creation. It requires a great amount of trust. And diligent work/practice. Art in whichever form is a daily practice for me most of the time..

When i’ve been out presenting and selling my work to people the question i am most often asked is; what is your inspiration? I usually say something like ‘everything!’ or ‘anything.. could be a dream, could be a tree..’ but i am going to take the time to answer this question here in more depth, because i think it’s a good question. The word ‘inspiration’ comes from latin meaning breath and breathing and it feels to me that inspiration like breath is completely enmeshed with life itself.
Sometimes you hear artists say they always knew they wanted to be an artist. I don’t think i exactly knew that my whole life, but i always knew for sure that i didn’t want a 9 to 5, so maybe this whole journey started on a bit of a negative- a ‘going-against’. I wanted to make ‘my own time’ and schedule. And really wanted to ‘make my own way’ which over time i’ve come to see as ‘i follow the muse’. I believe this is the artist’s way but now i also see it as a way to live that goes beyond the profession of ‘artist’. It’s living in creativity, living in accordance with some greater thing. Which for now i will call ‘the muse’
What is the muse..? For me, it’s a little spark, a whisper, a type of invitation, opening, something..spirited. A type of life force. It feels like it’s both outside of myself in the world and part of myself.

Before i can follow the muse, i have to notice the muse. This is just as important, and in order to notice the muse i practice ‘presencing’, present-moment-awareness, active listening (which is in relation to people but also to the non-human realms). Once noticed, i can interact with it, respond, collaborate, converse, paint. This can also be taken outside of the act of art and it can mean that the muse points or guides me ‘to pay that bill’ or make that call. It’s not about doing only the things that feel good and blissful. It’s not entirely romantic. It is about following what something in me knows needs to be done, not what my ‘smaller pleasure and ease-seeking i’ wants to do. I get off track all the time. And i get back on track all the time too. The actual act of painting might be itself the most beautiful analogy for living following the muse. Within the act of painting a painting, i almost always go through some version of these states.
It entails starting, excitement, fear, reluctance, insecurity, the unknown, libido or life force, joy.
It entails continuing, perseverance, risk, doubt, discipline, pleasure, surprise, craft, despair.
It entails finishing, trusting, coasting, enjoying, patience, accepting, letting go.
Somewhere between starting, continuing and finishing lies the overwhelming beauty of welcoming life breathing itself into the work. By this i mean, there most often comes a moment where i feel and watch the painting take on a new layer of aliveness and spirit (the muse?), which seems to magically happen both in and outside of my control.

All this is a dance, it’s leading and being led, it’s allowing and acting, and really carefully tuning into where one turns into the other. It’s going through all this again and again and giving it one’s all, while knowing that it could all be over in a second.