Hi! I’m Pip, born in 1991 in Mississauga, ON, Canada. I left Canada permanently in 2012, spent 3 years living all over Germany and eventually ended up in the Netherlands (by accident!), where I have been living for the last 8 years. 

My (academic/professional) background can be best described as a “patchwork quilt”, with emphasis on nutritional studies, languages and cultures, developmental psychology, and social entrepreneurship. Creativity has always been in my blood; but due to growing up in an unsafe home environment, I only recently began sharing my inner world with others through visual art. In 2023, after participating in All You Can Art, a collaboration between the IBB and the Kunsthal in Rotterdam, it was clear that I had to continue making things. Shortly after AYCA, I quit my job and founded 9Lives Atelier with some other AYCA alumni, where we’re building a non-profit organisation with the goal of providing a safe space and resources for everyone – from corporate employees to underprivileged youth – to express their creative freedom. 

For me, the process is much more interesting than the end product. My work is largely autobiographical and focuses on using the process of making art as a medium to support and enhance self-development – from processing traumas, to communicating complex concepts to others, to learning new languages. 

In life, I generally take on 2 roles: “facilitator of dreams” and “everybody’s child”. Either way, the ‘what’ of how I spend my time has always been less important to me than the ‘with whom’. I enjoy learning about other people’s dreams and helping them take steps towards making their dreams a reality, in whatever capacity the situation calls for. In doing so, I get to dive into other people’s worlds, confront my own assumptions, and ‘grow up’ over and over and over again. 

My short residency at the IBB is a continuation of my 5th childhood, the one I began as an art kid at All You Can Art. I’m here to learn, play, and share my knowledge on the way to figuring out who I am and what kind of artist I want to be. 

Portfolio and blog: https://linktr.ee/eekhoorns_acorns
Instagram: @eekhoornsandacorns
Soundtrack of Pip’s childhoods on Music to Make Art to (radio show): https://www.mixcloud.com/MusictoMakeArtto/pip/