VOTING CLOSED. Congrats to @underthezee you are the winner of the most amazing prize package!! Zee we chose you as a finalist because you’ve been nothing but supportive of all of the woman of the water and engaging with the community through out the campaign.
“ I feel like a #womanofthewater, Because I have mama ocean to think for the direction my life has taken. My name is Zee and I am a self-taught artist.
In 2014 I left my familiar life in the Netherlands behind and moved to Australia to reconnect with my creative side. I then traveled to Lombok, Indonesia to make one of my dreams come true, learning to surf. On this island everything aligned, so in 2015 I fucked my life up once again. A tiny fishing village became my home, surfing a new passion, I meant the love of my life, made friends and found the job.
For three unforgettable years, I lived the simple life. In a little cabin on the hill surrounded by lush jungle, overlooking the bay where I surfed almost every day. It wasn’t a picture perfect though, the road in the village turned into a mud bath during monsoon season, it rained in my bed, I had cockroaches, snakes, rats and monkeys as pets, dealt with long power cuts in the first year and a half there was no Internet, To name a few examples. It was rough, real, sometimes rough, but exciting. Higher highs and lower lows. I felt alive.
Through my job at lumberjacks first shaping day where I learned surfboard glassing and did lots of custom colorful surfboard art, I became obsessed with a new medium that I wanted to explore. I was seeing the oceans textures and everything around me, and had a strong urge to try and re-create them with resin.
Being on the local Indonesian wages, spending a ton of money on anything else than food, Petra and transport the surf spots wasn’t really an option. But for some reason there was this raging adrenaline in my gut that told me to go for it, and I spent my years salary to invest in materials. Half of it then got ruined due to the humid climate and Indonesian customs. I was broke and had to borrow money to pay for my health insurance at 26 years old.