Life & Art

Once arrived in Belgium, Ana Maria Asan is interested in different art media, so she starts by taking regular drawing and engraving classes with artists having different (even antagonistic) approaches. For sure, the encounter with painter Dominique Rappez - who knew how to preserve her subtle drawing line and uniqueness - is a major one.

She also attends for several years the ceramic course of Belgian ceramist Jean-Claude Legrand who generously introduces her to the main ceramic techniques, especially throwing and mould making as well as technology. In parallel, she creates her first objects in metal and mixed media under the dedicated teaching of Belgian jewelry designer Michel Mousset.

During the 10^e Rencontre La Borne s’enflamme, she has the opportunity to visit different studios of international artists working with clay in the well known French potters village La Borne and to take part in a wood firing in the studio of ceramist and painter Martin Hamond - a strong experience that will convince her to follow as soon as possible her interior call by pursuing higher art studies.

From the years spent in La Cambre, she recalls the precious contribution of Anne Desobry and Dominique Van den Bergh, both painters, teaching drawing in a challenging interdisciplinary way that Asan uses today while teaching art to her students. And last but not least, Brigitte Thelen, painter and silk-screen printer, who initiates her in the silk-screening techniques. With this knowledge, Ana Maria Asan quits after the bachelor graduation the demotivating corrosive atmosphere of the Ceramic department and pursues a Master degree at the Académie Royale de Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles, the school where once studied René Magritte and Nicolas de Staël. As a student of the Silk-screening department, she is involved in the printing of the posters spread on the territory of the nineteen Brussels’ communes, on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the school. During her studies, the school’s Textile department team generously gives her the opportunity to attend different classes and workshops. She discovers, among others techniques, the basics of using a loom and how to dye natural fibres.

Interested from the very beginning in hot glass techniques, she works with renowned glass artists in France, Belgium, and Switzerland. Among them: Udo Zembok, Ana Thiel, Bavo Tiebos, Koen Vanderstukken. As she likes to assert, nothing compares to the sensations one can experience in front of a glass furnace.