Artist's statement:

This self portrait was inspired by Marie-Denise Villers' painting “Young Woman Drawing”.

This image embodies all the sadness and yearning I was feeling during a long lonely winter.

I longed to escape all the emptiness that surrounded me, in search for passion and validation.

My heart was so heavy I felt it might collapse, but I had no choice but to quietly face each day with a projection of strength.

2007 - Calgary, AB.

20" X 30" Ink-Jet print on archival paper from a signed, limited edition of twenty.

Director's comments:

Intentionally or not, this beautiful image recalls Vermeer's early masterpiece "Girl with a Pearl Earring".

And once again, we are drawn into a hypnotic study of women as hallucinatory creatures, timeless and bathed in a cool sensuality.

Hoogveld, as her own subject, has a forlorn expression, her hair undone and cascading, the curve of her body accented against a sparse and simple bedroom, giving no indication of era or place.

Recalling the power of photographer Cindy Sherman, Hoogveld is proving at the age of twenty-four that she knows not only how to take a picture, but also how to explore the psyche of her deepest fantasies.