We had the good fortune of connecting with Marieken Cochius and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Marieken, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
I think risk taking is something that you can learn to get comfortable with. Leaving the known is the hardest part. Once you have left, a lot of times things will start falling into place. I emigrated to NYC from the Netherlands in my early 20s. I didn’t know many people, nor exactly what I wanted to do. I just knew NYC was where I needed to be. I worked many odd jobs, and kind of sideways found my ways, including into being an artist. I was very lucky to win a greencard in the greencard lottery.

At an Art Academy in the Netherlands I studied photography, but in NYC I moved on to sculpting, drawing, painting and now welding. I keep learning and exploring new things and techniques that interest me. It has been scary at times to follow this path, and I have wished I were the kind of artist who works in one medium exploting one thing. That certainly would have been much easier to market.

Now, after 25 years I can see my handwriting in all those different media, and it fills me with gratitude that I allowed myself to keep doing what I wanted to do.
As an artist there are a gazillion risks that you learn to take: To go back into a painting that is almost right, and by doing so risking to  kill it, applying for so many things and learning to deal with rejection, honing skills, and many more.

A friend told me the best story a long time ago; his professor in creative writing said: “There is only one assignment this year, at the end you need to hand over 50 letters of rejections. And they better be from good places.” That made a big impression on me. I now view applications as throwing pebbles in a lake. At one time or another a ripple will come back to the shore and your work will be sold or invited into a show.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?

Photography taught me how to see, but in NYC I felt the urge to create with my hands. I found ‘ingredients’ on the street which I brought back to the studio. Things as varied as early computer motherboards to pieces of broken car glass. I made sculptures inspired by the duality of being, where does the body end and the person begin?

Later, living through 9/11 was a big shock. For almost a year I couldn’t make anything.

I traveled solo in the US for the first time and found peace at Chinati Hot Springs, a small resort in Big Bend, Texas, south of Marfa in 2002.
I ended up managing the hotsprings for 3 months and during that time I fell in love with the desert, its sounds and smells, wild animals, fossils, cacti and geology.
There I started making art again, and from that time on I created sculptures and collages with found natural materials, no longer man-made ones.

I am fascinated by growth-forms, root systems of plants, movement of microscopic organisms, seedpods and animal architecture.

I have since travelled a lot, always drawn to remote areas, and camping along the way. I would drive my old Caddy with my rescued german shepherd in the back seat. When I arrived and lived somewhere for a summer I would make art. Every place has informed my work.
I try to relay the wildness and energy of those areas through my art to the viewer.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I’d take them kayaking, swimming, going to musea and galleries, and ending up at a restaurant or at a campfire for a great meal and long talk.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?

Artist Gudrun Mertes Frady has been one of my best friends and mentor for decades. Our talks about techniques, frustrations, inner dialogues we have with our works have given me so much insight, tenacity, courage, hope and discipline . How to promote yourself, how to always keep pushing forward. Dealing with rejections, encouraging me when there was no money. I would not be where I am now without her!

In highschool my art teacher Wil van de Wijngaard lit a fire with his enthousiasm, pointed questions during trips to museums, unforgettable art history lessons and drawing and printing assignments.

My mom who has always had my back, and believed in me, though it scared her what I did.
She once gave me one of my biggest compliments, she said “I would love to be your child. I would never be bored”. That really moved me.

And of course my husband Scott White. His belief in me, his understanding of me needing alone time in the studio, and his unvarying support ranging from helping to collect driftwood or bamboo to building a welding shed in the back yard has been astounding.


Website: mariekencochius.com

Instagram: @mariekencochius

Linkedin: Marieken Cochius

Other: artworkarchive.com/mariekencochius

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutMiami is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.