Erik Pevernagie is a celebrated Belgian painter and philosophical author whose work delves into the profound relationship between individuals and their environment. His evocative art and writings explore the narratives of everyday life, inviting viewers and readers to find deeper meaning in the mundane. With exhibitions across Europe and thought-provoking books, he challenges perceptions and encourages a more mindful, introspective existence. His creative journey inspires others to see the extraordinary stories hidden in plain sight.
"Let's watch out for the unpredictability and the wildcat jumps of contrarian people, whose sole interests are soaring targets at high-speed, at all costs and without any consideration. Perceptive understanding may help us discover the hidden actualities behind the 'appearances'. ['Mama. Meine Bäume wachsen bis in den Himmel']"
"Some men can be good ' horse whisperers ' and many dogs can be wonderful ' man whisperers '."
"Fear has always been a very important whistleblower. Our emotion and our history can provoke fear that may arrest us at any time or at any place. Above and beyond, fear might be contagious and its scent, sometimes sensual, sometimes mystical or animal, can exude the musty and arcane smell of destiny. ['One could still feel the smell of fear']"
"When love is roaming in our mind, looping in the deepest fringes of our heart, undreamt spaciousness emerges, repealing the constraints of triviality and letting stifling narrowness fade away. While our mindset is besieged by a revolving burst of emotion, our world is ultimately opening up. ['Cape of good hope']"
"It is so simple and easy to hate and so grueling and hard to love, when the emotional "love forever- revelation has become a crumbling "love never, ever again- crack-up. There is no route back to a paradise lost, when the bonds of trust have, irrevocably, been blasted. ['Another empty room']"
"Love assumes expectation and hope. All actors of the hazardous pursuit of love eagerly look forward to passing a significant cape without injuries or aching scratches: "the Cape of good Hope". [' Those journeys of love']"
"Relatedness is vital in a time when so many people suffer from social deafness. Emotional insensitivity being caused by a redoubtable "tin ear makes it impossible to hear any signs of empathy or capture the vibrant qualities of 'sharing'. ['Only needed a light ']"
"Relationships may become wrecked by a quirky syndrome: the "Ain't broke, don't fix-syndrome. When there is no interaction in the neural network and no breakthrough into the mind but only a shallow skin experience, living together might be very torturous. If a heartfelt bond has not been molded, nothing can be broken and thus nothing needs to be fixed. ['I wonder what went wrong']"
"Should happiness and success be hidden, in view of the misery and poverty around. Would it be a sign of selfishness and un-intellectual behavior, if we admit to a pursuit of happiness? Could it, on the contrary, not work out as a motivation and an incentive? When giving voice to our happiness, could it not be perceived as a positive challenge? Could happiness not be contagious and become a salutary infectious syndrome? A beneficial infection. ['Happy days are back again']"
"If love has taken us for a ride and passion made us ignore sham and swindle, the time has come to separate the wheat from the chaff and polish up diamonds of trust, neatly, day by day. ['Taken for a ride']"
"Happiness is an undercurrent of sensitivity and leads a surreptitious life: it is an internal eventuality. We can feel it in stillness and it stands the test of time. Joy is an eruption of cheerful moments and we want to express it: it is an external eventuality. We might shout it out, as it conveys a dynamic of fleeting instants. Joy gives voice to "en-joy-ment. ['The grass was greener over there']"
"People live on the flow of the daily reality and they surge on the waves of hazy expectations. They can experience pleasant junctures and try to catch and enjoy each special moment that is offered to them. Until life takes them by surprise."
"When we are "time traveling, we may trip over problems from the past which distort our memory. If we are weary of dealing with lost causes or lame ducks in our history, we have to make up our mind and give up destructive thinking patterns. At that juncture, time has come to go back to the future. ['A glimpse of the future']"
"Foulmouthed individuals seem to have their neuron systems replaced by colon structures, given that their terminology profusely consists of "sh*t and f*ck". ['Tolerance zero']"
"Expectations are at war, if good feeling and discomfort clash. When we are expecting zest and joy, our good karma may be ousted by distress and frustration, if negative downbeat waves are emitted. Just with a feel of realism, without prejudice, should we step into the future. What will be, will be. Only the fortune of war will tell, since life may be war or peace. ['Fish for silence.']"
"We need not be afraid of expecting the unexpected, but let us wheedle each instant we enjoy and endear each happy moment we encounter; let us watch each step we take and each move we make, ever since happiness is a loving and appealing fairy, but utterly frail and vulnerable. ['Happy days are back again']"
"When our mind is in shambles and we dare to reflect on the story of our life, we may discover, in the stream of our thoughts, the fault line between what we have underfelt and what we have overthought on our way. ['Axel Red']"
"It's hard to safeguard a genuine life course, when love tips over from endearing care into tedium, through laziness of imagination or loss of interest, and the storyline becomes barren and desolate, insipidly dull, turning into a threadbare act with the same trite modus operandi. "The same procedure as every year, James! ['Things needing to be changed']"
"Only if we transvalue the plain-vanilla standards of our life, we may bring back things to light and sense the lies behind perceptions. ['Behind the frosted glass']"
"We perceive the world through the rear window of life, observe all the puzzles and little pieces of our existence and assemble them in a comprehensive pattern. This allows us to reassess and evaluate our world view. ['Waiting for the pieces to fall into place']"
"Some seem to be desynchronized in their relationships. They feel oppressed, because they cannot move forward together and at the same pace. Their thinking is often incongruent, their motivation disparate. The phone could be a mediator, as it creates an impression to be a perfect reliable friend. However, in the end, it causes rather a sense of isolation, since it divides more than it unites. Eventually it appears not to be such a good friend but only a ghost friend. ['Kein Schwein ruft mich an']"
"Outbreaks of unvarnished truths in the backyard of our true self can be very precious and inspiring, even though we might inconsistently be tempted to give in to the exhilarating perfume of fables and fairy tales or to flattering praise and fiction. ['The day the mirror was talking back']"
"Postmen have a legendary aura. A ring at the doorbell may inflame a sense of expectation, suspense, secrecy, hazard or even intrigue. Ringing twice may imply a warning that trouble is on the way or an appeal to make the coast clear. Not all mailmen, though, will ring twice and await an eye-catching Lana Turner, whom they can whisper: "With my brains and your looks, we could go places. ['The postman always rings twice']"
"Life is an intricate play with actors waiting for an explanation. Each added act confers a new interpretation of the story. ['Waiting for the pieces to fall into place']"
"Art can blow us out of our pigeon hole. In deafness it may shout or scream, in blindness it may arrest our attention, in numbness it may shake up our mind. If we don't sense anything at all and take everything for granted, art can kick us in the ass, give a conscience and make us aware. ['When is Art?']"
"Definitions and meanings change all the time. Truth and reality are very volatile, indefinite, multi layered and sometimes very paradoxical. That's why it is very fiddly to make a set definition for the phenomena of our daily life. [' Did not expect it would ever happen, there']"
"When life hasn't got a swing anymore, people may give in to obsessive oniomaniac compulsions, in as much as they are going out of their way to construct a flamboyant life style and change their identity from "don't-need to "must-have consumers, so as to satisfy their gripping buying desire. ['Buying now. Dying later']"
"Conversation often becomes mere verbal performance and oral horseplay rather than fair-minded communication. ['Juicy rumours ']"
"We may wonder what is going on in the back of the mind and what betides in the mood of some people who live on the edge of isolation and emotional poverty. They belong to life's outcasts: deserted by affection, deprived of physical or lingual contact and finally reduced to silence. ['Why didn't he ask ? ']"
"Even if we have bad feelings about our past and it causes a sense of alienation, it belongs to our history. Its benchmarks are stored in the granary of our mind and crucial evaluations for the future cannot be made without consulting the archive of our memory. ['Not without the past']"
"Let us not fall short of desire, but instead give way to the unspoken passion hidden deep within the closet of our discretion." ['Crépuscule du désir']
"People are not dying of lack of money but of lack of esteem and awareness. ['Kein Schwein ruft mich an']"
"By freeze-framing the image of our lifestyle, by stopping our mental clock at times and letting time flow, 'psychological' time can replace 'chronological' time and our human condition can be called into question. This opens the door to a new challenge and a new future. ['Svp "ArrAat sur image']"
"The perpetual movement of the water, rolling from and to unknown destinations, the voices of the sea shield us from the raging furies and shrieking sounds of dystopian surroundings, creating an unwinding veil for stilled happiness, acquainting us with the gentle, cosmic rhythms of an extraneous world. They are a soothing relief and let us listen to the voices of our inner world. ['Voices of the sea']"
"While we are curling down in our comfort zone, the perverted talents of connectivity-designers drive us surreptitiously into a blind alley of addiction. If, however, we succeed in impeding mobiles' unlimited rule, we may be able to relish the fragrance of the 'moment' but also sense the vital spark and spirit of "otherness. ['Even if the world goes down, my mobile will save me']"
"When questioning ourselves, we must identify, where we are heading to. Do we prefer our life to remain untitled. Will we stand bare and naked without dressing any expectations or do we decide to interact with the world around. Will we play a part on the stage of life or do we choose to remain simply a chapter without heading, an episode without caption, an untitled interval. ['Life untitled']"
"As light splinters into darkness, new thoughts may take over in the mind and allow upbeat views to gain power. Thus and so, thoughtfulness readily opens a blistering sky in the faltering shadow of unawareness. ['Absence of Desire']"
"We may be happy but just don't know it yet. Many want to rebuke themselves for not finding the threshold of well being, since they simply haven't learnt to be nice to themselves and to enjoy the privileged twinklings of life. ['C'est quand le bonheur ?']"
"An insipid voice message or an incongruent emergence from the 'other world' may disrupt our entire thinking system. If we are unable to cope with the fragmentation of our self and to assess the deconstruction of our identity, even a trivial incident could easily capsize our being. A misinterpretation of facts and expectations can disturb our awareness and unsettle our perception. When the 'I' and the 'me' don’t get along well, the road to oneness is often a bumpy one. ['Alors, tout a basculé']"
"When shrouded meanings and grim intentions are nicely polished up and pokerfaced personae are generously palming off their fantasy constructs, caution is the watchword, since rimpling water on the well of truth swiftly obscures our vision and perception. ['Trompe le pied.']"
"Memory may be pig-headed and want us to follow its whims along the blips and dips of our time line. ['All the words he always wanted to tell her.']"
"A thousand times, people may have touched each other, but never ever sensed a single vein of oneness or complicity in the wilderness of their inner world, since obdurate mental impediments have been barricading the road to understanding and propinquity. ['A thousand times']"
"A fleeting moment can become an eternity. From a past encounter everything may disappear in the dungeon of forgetfulness. A few furtive flashes or innocent twinkles can survive, though. Some immaterial details may remain marked in our memory, forever. A significant look, a salient colour or a unforeseen gesture may abide, indelibly engraved in our mind. ['Girl in blue']"