I am Barbara van den Berg a visual artist with a studio in Amsterdam (born in 1978, the Netherlands). I make figurative (digital) collages, mixed media artworks and paintings.In Den Bosch I studied Visual Communication and in 2003 I graduated from the School for Art and Design, St. Joost. I worked as a graphic designer and illustrator for 7 years and then I focused entirely on art. I am represented by MPV Gallery in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Miva Gallery in Sweden and Kroon gallery in The Hague.At a young age I was already fascinated by the behavior of people. As a child I lived in an almost perpetual state of observation, constantly looking around me: how do we relate to each other, how do people show their feelings? How do we make contact with each other? My art is about making contact. I wanted to understand and express what I saw and felt, I mainly did this by drawing and painting at a very young age. Later I expressed this in making art of people grouped together looking for contact. Everyone screams for attention, but nobody really sees the other. You feel friction between what we show on the outside and what we feel on the inside. I play with this paradox, with bright, vivid colors that leave the appearance of happiness and celebration. When I had two daughters, I was inspired by their inexhaustible imagination and curiosity about the world. They are so real, genuine, open and playful. They still have a vulnerability and naivety that I admire. Children can keep looking at you without looking away. They make contact without words. That way of making contact fascinates me. This is how my digital collages came to life, in which I show children in bright colors with an ‘open mind’. Their faces with large eyes and slightly chubby cheeks accentuate childish innocence. They look like a child somewhere between a human and a doll. These children symbolize innocence, playfulness and vulnerability. They look at the world with natural curiosity.