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Prolegomena

Carole Dekeijser was born of uncommon parents. Her father, André Dekeijser, geometer and cartographer in the Belgian Congo, married Huguette Siccart to make their adventurous dreams come true by becoming agricultural labourers in our colony, the otherwise Belgian Congo, then in the vast stretches of Brazilian land. Thus, they allowed their son and daughter to benefit from beginnings in life that many children could never dream of.
Back in Belgium, her mother occupied an important situation in a civil engineering company, and her father became a sculptor. An exceptional artist when it came to drawing, he gave this gift to his daughter, who expressed from childhood onwards a real talent lined with extreme care and attention to detail.
After having studied physiotherapy, which never became a job for her, she chose graphic art, writing, drama, text and classical singing (with a soprano-dramatic voice), all of which were hailed with personal and public success.
Carole Dekeijser began her professional career in scientific drawing in the medical research service of the University of Louvain-la-Neuve-en Woluwe, under the direction of Professor Haumont.
Interested in martial arts, she followed from 1980 onwards lessons in Aikido in a dojo belonging to Michel Evrard-Thøelen in Boitsfort. Michel's twins, aged five, decided to remarry their father and won the sympathy of Carole Dekeijser. After a year of plotting, they brought Michel to accept their choice with enthusiasm. From 1982 until the death of the artist on May 2nd, 2008, the couple Carole Dekeijser / Michel Evrard-Thøelen lived a love story made of complicity, creativity and humour.
In 1990, Carole Dekeijser worked for the biology service of the Open University of Brussels. She illustrated several scientific books, especially for the neuro-psychiatric wing of the military hospital, as well as for the pharmaceutic society Parke Davis.
Wishing to work at home with her family, she entered into a company named TTT-Styling-Design, created especially for her by her husband, as an advertising and scientific illustrator. She co-directed it until 1999. Within this company, she did artistic painting on car bodywork, books for children, and aerograph lessons for professional illustrators. It is worth noting that she always refused to use this technique herself.
Parallel to this, Mr Daniel Cahen, director of the Royal Institute of Natural Science, gave her an important exhibition on evolution to illustrate. The success of this exhibition exceeded by far her expectations, as its main originality was an exclusively feminine representation of the evolution of Man. This same success convinced the authorities to ask her to participate in all the main scientific doings in the Institute. In 1999, upon request of her husband, she left the Royal Institute of Natural Science to devote herself exclusively to her painting.
Her studies and her professional and personal acquaintances allowed her to meet several scientists, philosophers and others with whom she shared their passions and discoveries. Her practice of martial arts - Judo, Taekwondo, Aikido and Aïkiken - allowed her to discover the ancient oriental philosophical conceptions of the universe. She became extremely interested in archery and crossbow shooting, as well as heavy handarms.
Carole Dekeijser accumulated all sorts of documents which would serve as a reference for her work. Her insatiable analytic curiosity in all things helped her considerably in her daily work, where she tried to be as strict as possible with herself. Her artistic painting obeyed the same rules of precision. Her creative motives, permanent, serene and generally fairly joyful, came from her cultural and professional knowledge.
Metaphysics, as one of her passions, turned her paintings into a complete universe where all the themes she knew of or had heard about in her conversations or professional research could be found. Her acquaintance with researchers from different horizons made her approach to art and the content of her works specific to sources of inspiration which were internally different to those of many other artists.

This is to be heard without any judgment.
To be different from others, we must think differently about different things.

The title of philosopher was given to her without her consent - she insists that she has no such diploma - by the press and by the public.
Today, given the extent reached by this title, she humorously accepts to be known as such.

Everything can be subjected to research and creation. I would like to invite you into her inside world. Look at her paintings near to or from a distance, sometimes with a magnifying glass, but especially, always use your imagination.

Michel Evrard-Thøelen.