I Want My Monsters Back sprouted from the creative friendship between Hildert Raaijmakers and Simon Douw.

 

SIMON DOUW (left) is psychologist, storyteller and father of four. Simon carries a neurological condition that is called ‘synesthesia’. Synesthesia is when your brain routes sensory information through multiple unrelated senses, causing you to experience more than one sense simultaneously. Some examples include tasting words or linking colors to numbers and letters. In Simon’s case, instead of merely ‘feeling’ monsters or ‘imaging’ them as a child, he literally saw them. That inspired him to write and create this project.

 

​HILDERT RAAIJMAKERS (right) is a painter and postmodern visual alchemist, and creates mesmerizing artwork featuring mythological portraits, bearded seafarers and mythical creatures enriched with medieval color symbolism. He is a cultural omnivore: most of his work starts with a concept borrowed from rich cultural traditions from the past or the present. Hildert brought the world of monsters to life with acrylic ink, Indian ink and black and white gesso on sheets of 250 gram Clairefontaine Paint On paper.