I was born on September 12th, 1964, in Naarden, The Netherlands and grew up in Bussum, a suburb of Amsterdam. I moved to Amsterdam in 1983, to study economics at the University of Amsterdam.
My interest in art started when I was 17, when I became seriously interested in music and wanted to become a composer. Because of the tacit opposition of my parents, and possibly my own doubts, I did not pursue a career in music, but went to study economics in 1983, which I managed to keep up for no less than two and a half years. Later on I developed an interest in physics and mathematics, which I studied on my own account.
In 1990 I started to paint in a casual and decidedly amateurish way, until in 1997 "something clicked" and I became far more motivated, producing a series of
figurative works.
In 1989 my father died during heart surgery and in 1990 my only sister died of cancer. When I quit my economics studies it became clear to me that becoming an artist was my destiny, taking into account the economic insecurity that goes along with that. In 1993 I moved back to Bussum, to live with my mother, who died in 2015. I now live in Germany.
I've had
transgender feelings since the age of four, which, by necessity, I suppressed until 2016. So now I'm Marta to new friends, and aiming to move to my feminine self as an artist too.
In 1998 I made a series of semi-abstract female portraits (inspired by Picasso and Corot), then in 2003 I began to paint in a
social realism style, which only now I'm beginning to feel comfortable with. The social realism is inspired by photo journalism, the painter Daumier and also by Munch, to an extent, and by Rembrandt and Rubens (for the way they brought "drama" to painting). In a general artistic sense Mahler and Bach (the composers) have also been of influence.
Mid-2009 I resumed making music, which has resulted in recordings that can be found on the main streaming sites under my old name Marten Jansen.
By popular demand this autobiography was created, following requests from highschool and college students, for their projects and presentations. I would certainly miss their requests by email, but hope this autobio will fill their need.
