What I'm Up to Now
Welcome to my Now page! Think of it as a snapshot of what’s happening in my world right now—what I’m working on, what’s catching my interest, and what’s shifting in my world.
On the About Me page you can dive deeper into my back story.
The idea for this page comes from Derek Sivers, who encourages people to share a snapshot of their life at this moment. Curious about starting your own? Visit nownownow.com for inspiration.
CURRENT
I sleep, breathe, and dream Vergie. My skills can’t keep up with my ideas for Vergie’s World. There’s so much I want to express that sometimes it even keeps me up at night.
I’m finding my artistic home in urban sketching. Even though I’m still mostly homebound, I feel like I have the mind of an urban sketcher. It’s a whole new world of beautifully creative people. I’m also discovering amazing podcasts. My favorite so far is Nishant Jain’s The Sneaky Artist.
As always, I’m doing Duolingo daily. After my son’s girlfriend mentioned learning French, I checked how far I’d gotten, and now I’m hooked. I’ll probably return to Esperanto… or German… or Hindi… when the mood strikes.
ARCHIVE
2026 - Vergie's World
It began with storytelling. While making images with AI, ideas started bubbling up. I wanted to make visual what neurodiversity looks like for me — the awkward moments, the inner experience. While creating those images, Vergie was born.
From there, the ideas kept multiplying until it no longer felt like a few drawings but an entire world: Vergie’s World. It slowly turned into a passion project.
I first developed Vergie with AI, and then moved into Procreate so I could draw her myself.
I’m still refining the character now: her shape, her posture, her expressions, her style.
When I draw Vergie, I notice how it calms me. It regulates my nervous system. That’s still happening now, and it keeps pulling me back to the drawing, the stories, and the world that’s continuing to take shape. Curious? See Vergie's World.
2025 - Art art art
Writing brought me to making visuals. This started out as generating images for a course I was building. But when I kept tweaking them, and tweaking them, and forgot all about the course itself, it struck me like a bolt of lightning. This is all I wanted to do: make art. It was so simple. Everything clicked into place.
Writing got temporarily placed on the back burner as I gave myself, initially, a year — and then as long as I needed — to build the skills for visual storytelling. Telling the story of my life, my flavor of neurodivergence, my memoir.
It’s what I breathe, think, and dream about now. It feels like home.
2024 - Writing, again
I have a new love: writing. Or actually, an old one. I was already doing it as a child. At nine, I wrote my first “book,” about 70 pages long.
I’m not exactly sure why it started itching again. Being settled in a good relationship probably plays a role. Discovering Zen & Pen by Saskia de Bruijn too. And maybe age. Different phase of life.
Right now I mostly feel drawn to memoir. Even with a poor memory, a lot comes up while writing. I do have to hold myself back sometimes, because the amount of ideas creates chaos in my head.
I’ve also returned to a daily writing practice, in the spirit of Natalie Goldberg. Just showing up and writing.
August 2024 - Wedding Bells
In August this year, I married the love of my life in the little church in our town of Nuenen. The same quiet place where Vincent van Gogh once sketched and painted its humble silhouette, and where his father stood in the pulpit many Sundays. It wasn’t a formal church blessing, yet our guests kept calling it a “beautiful service”: an intimate, connecting moment held between old brick walls, summer light, and the people who know us best. I sang a song I wrote especially for my beloved; he shared the story of our winding road toward each other. Surrounded by history, art, and the echo of all those lives before ours, we promised to keep choosing this ordinary, extraordinary love.
2019-2023 - The Long Recovery
I’m in the thick of recovery. My days revolve around headaches, vertigo, and a nervous system that reacts to almost everything, especially sound. Life has become smaller and more deliberate. I move carefully, rest a lot, and keep figuring out, through trial and error, what helps and what makes things worse.
Rehabilitation is part of it, but not the whole story. I start trying things on my own too: gentle movement, a bit of music here and there, art, Faster EFT. Anything that gives even a little relief or space. Progress is slow and uneven. Some days are okay, many are not.
And then the Harmonic Egg enters my life. And honestly, it feels like a miracle. Not subtle or gradual, but something is shifting in a way I hadn’t experienced before. My system calms down. I can suddenly tolerate more. I start leaving the house again, seeing people in small doses, feeling part of life instead of cut off from it.
It changes the direction of my recovery completely. From just surviving the days to slowly finding my way back into the world.
Summer of 2019 - The Fall
It’s only been a couple of months since I fell headfirst down a pitch-black staircase in Brittany, France.
I’m in recovery now. Headaches, vertigo, and constant overstimulation, especially from sound, shape my days. I don’t know yet if I’ll ever perform again, or if I’ll be able to have a social life. For now, the focus is simple: getting through the day, and learning what my brain can and cannot handle.
Spring 2019 - My Album Is Out!
It’s there, finally: my album Op eigenwijze benen. It’s been years in the making. Many of the songs grew during the years I was invited by Wibe Veenbaas to sing at his masterclasses at Phoenix Opleidingen, and from poems he invited me to put to music. This album feels like a testimony of my growth — as a musician, and as a person.
What I'm Up To Now
Welcome to my Now page! Think of it as a snapshot of what’s happening in my world right now—what I’m working on, what’s catching my interest, and what’s shifting in my world.
On the About Me page you can dive deeper into my back story.
The idea for this page comes from Derek Sivers, who encourages people to share a snapshot of their life at this moment. Curious about starting your own? Visit nownownow.com for inspiration.
2026 - Vergie's World
It began with storytelling. While making images with AI, ideas started bubbling up. I wanted to make visual what neurodiversity looks like for me: the awkward moments, the inner experience. While creating those images, Vergie was born.
From there, the ideas kept multiplying until it no longer felt like a few drawings but an entire world: Vergie’s World. It slowly turned into a passion project.
I first developed Vergie with AI, and then moved into Procreate so I could draw her myself.
It's been months now, and I’m still refining the character now — her shape, her posture, her expressions.
When I draw Vergie, I notice how it calms me. It regulates my nervous system. That’s still happening now, and it keeps pulling me back to the drawing, the stories, and the world that’s continuing to take shape. Curious? See Vergie's World.
2025 - Art art art
Writing brought me to making visuals. This started out as generating images for a course I was building. But when I kept tweaking them, and tweaking them, and forgot all about the course itself, it struck me like a bolt of lightning. This is all I wanted to do: make art. It was so simple. Everything clicked into place.
Writing got temporarily placed on the back burner as I gave myself, initially, a year — and then as long as I needed — to build the skills for visual storytelling. Telling the story of my life, my flavor of neurodivergence, my memoir.
It’s what I breathe, think, and dream about now. It feels like home.
2024 - Writing, again
I have a new love: writing. Or actually, an old one. I was already doing it as a child. At nine, I wrote my first “book,” about 70 pages long.
I’m not exactly sure why it started itching again. Being settled in a good relationship probably plays a role. Discovering Zen & Pen by Saskia de Bruijn too. And maybe age. Different phase of life.
Right now I mostly feel drawn to memoir. Even with a poor memory, a lot comes up while writing. I do have to hold myself back sometimes, because the amount of ideas creates chaos in my head.
I’ve also returned to a daily writing practice, in the spirit of Natalie Goldberg. Just showing up and writing.
August 2024 - Wedding Bells
In August this year, I married the love of my life in the little church in our town of Nuenen — the same quiet place where Vincent van Gogh once sketched and painted its humble silhouette, and where his father stood in the pulpit many Sundays. It wasn’t a formal church blessing, yet our guests kept calling it a “beautiful service”: an intimate, connecting moment held between old brick walls, summer light, and the people who know us best. I sang a song I wrote especially for my beloved; he shared the story of our winding road toward each other. Surrounded by history, art, and the echo of all those lives before ours, we promised to keep choosing this ordinary, extraordinary love.
2019-2023 - The Long Recovery
I’m in the thick of recovery. My days revolve around headaches, vertigo, and a nervous system that reacts to almost everything — especially sound. Life has become smaller and more deliberate. I move carefully, rest a lot, and keep figuring out, through trial and error, what helps and what makes things worse.
Rehabilitation is part of it, but not the whole story. I start trying things on my own too: gentle movement, a bit of music here and there, art, Faster EFT — anything that gives even a little relief or space. Progress is slow and uneven. Some days are okay, many are not.
And then the Harmonic Egg enters my life. And honestly, it feels like a miracle. Not subtle, not gradual — something shifts in a way I hadn’t experienced before. My system calms down. I can suddenly tolerate more. I start leaving the house again, seeing people in small doses, feeling part of life instead of cut off from it.
It changes the direction of my recovery completely. From just surviving the days to slowly finding my way back into the world.
Summer of 2019 - The Fall
It’s only been a couple of months since I fell headfirst down a pitch-black staircase in Brittany, France.
I’m in recovery now. Headaches, vertigo, and constant overstimulation — especially from sound — shape my days. I don’t know yet if I’ll ever perform again, or if I’ll be able to have a social life. For now, the focus is simple: getting through the day, and learning what my brain can and cannot handle.
Spring 2019 - My Album Is Out!
It’s there, finally: my album Op eigenwijze benen. It’s been years in the making. Many of the songs grew during the years I was invited by Wibe Veenbaas to sing at his masterclasses at Phoenix Opleidingen, and from poems he invited me to put to music. This album feels like a testimony of my growth — as a musician, and as a person.