We were lucky to catch up with DOES recently and have shared our conversation below.

DOES, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Was there an experience or lesson you learned at a previous job that’s benefited your career afterwards?

As long as you keep on creating, you will develop yourself. It might sound cliché but success is not going to happen overnight. I learned in my football days that you have to keep repeating and keep training yourself. No action is the same. In football you can kick a ball five times and each time the ball moves differently. By continuing to practice, you will get better and better at understanding technique and the game. I still apply this routine of repetition in my work today. It has become very clear to me that the strength of my work lies in its slow development; step by step, deliberate constant progress. So take your time, practice, grow and follow your passion.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Today I am a multidisciplinary artist with my roots in graffiti, traveling allover the world to participate in international projects and shows. But that’s not the whole story. My story started when I was 8 years old and got scouted by Fortuna Sittard, a football team in the highest Division of the Netherlands, my home country. I enrolled in their prominent academy for professional football that came with strict rules and discipline. At the age of 14, I came into contact with graffiti. I desperately needed an outlet from the restraints that came with my soccer career and started to tag in the streets. For more than a decade I lived a double life that no one knew about. Releasing tension through graffiti helped me to gain focus and stay positive when for example I played a bad game or suffered from an injury.
In 2000 I got arrested with Sanne, who is now my wife, for painting an illegal piece. This arrest could have harmed my career since I played in the First Division at the time, so I decided to stop with graffiti for a while. However, I couldn’t live without this other part of me. Graffiti was a kind of liberation, a certain relief from all the routine and discipline. For me, DOES is like a fairy tale, a second person in my life. So I took up my artistic activities on a more professional level this time. At the age of 28, after another bad knee injury, I decided to quit football and focus solely on my art.
All in all, it took me over 10 years to find my style that is best described as a mix of influences from old-school writers and my own research. This evolution is displayed in my book ‘First 20 years’ that I released in 2017. In my work you can still discover the roots of 3D lettering. It is bright, dynamic, and full of energy, no matter the medium. Throughout the years my art diversified into illustrative drawings, prints and canvasses, sculptures and more recently collages and NFT´s and is featured in collections across the globe. I am keen on leaving something tangible behind in this world. This is the drive that forces me to keep pushing my limits and keep searching for new ways to express art. I don’t want to set boundaries. I like to switch styles and explore different art forms and use various media.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I am keen on leaving something tangible behind in this world. This is the drive that forces me to keep pushing my limits and keep searching for new ways to express art. I don’t want to set boundaries. I like to switch styles and explore different art forms and use various media.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I would say that the biggest challenge I faced was the struggle of combining my football career with painting and drawing. I used to believe that I was destined to play professional football. I signed my first contract when I was 15. After continuous knee injuries and several surgeries I had to stop when I was 27. By then I had been focusing more and more on painting and drawing, so luckily the switch went quite well.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.digitaldoes.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/digitaldoes
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/digitaldoes
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/digitaldoes
• Youtube: youtube.com/digitaldoes

Image Credits
Pictures by ScottRayGeorge