About Me

My name is Minka Holtrop.

I was born in Dover, New Hampshire, but my parents were both born across the ocean, in different continents.

I have a sister who is currently studying law in the netherlands.

At home we alternate between dutch and portuguese, I speak dutch with my father and portuguese with my mother.

I would like to become an illustrator for books, childrens or otherwise.

I see myself in five years yet a masters in illustration, and starting to build my own career.

My grandmother went to college for art, and is currently an abstract expressionist in amsterdam.

I am most proud of winning a gold medal for scholastics for a peice with lots of little animals on it. 

I enjoy playing violin, and hope to start up Aikido again soon, which I took a break from because of a knee injury.

I wanted to learn more about composition, and gain some more appreciation for photos.

I am pretty interested by Jimmy Nelson, I have his book Before They Pass Away, and I really like all the portraits there.

My ideal job would be illustrating books and possibly making my own graphic novels.

3 adjectives that people would use to describe me are creative, fierce, and compassionate.

Judith Beheading Holofernes - Artemisia Gentileschi

I really like this painting because it shows a very gruesome but interesting scene, and I also like the history behind it, and that the women look very powerful. I like that it shows their sleeves rolled up, like they are prepared to do this horrible task, and are calm and collected while they do it.

Frida Kahlo - the two fridas

I really like this because it shows duality very well, and I like the deep symbolism in this. I also how these are sisters and not twins, and how it shows her own development showing her washed out on the left, and full of color on the right.

Church at Auvers - Vincent Van Gogh

I like this piece because the church completly dominates the image, but there is still this lady it it that draws your eyes to smaller things. I also like how dark the sky is, since it gives a really nice stormy feel.

Woman with a parasol - Claude Monet

I really like the airy quality that this picture has, with the quality of being on the top of a hill, with a breeze blowing. I really like how the two figures are in shadow, since it gives them an almost mysterious quality.

The Banquet - René Magritte

I really like this painting since it would look like a normal scene, if not for that intense bright sun that pops out of the trees. I think that it really captures that look that the sun gets when its low, when it's shining through the trees, but still manages to make it abstract.