An Craps lives and works near Brussels and graduated in June 2022 from the BKO academy for visual and audio-visual arts in Overijse (specialization in painting).

Every new work is based on existing, self-created images or personal photos, which are powerful and confrontational, but also have a certain melancholy and imperfection. As a result, they unconsciously or consciously raise questions and emotions. She has been collecting these images for years, on paper and in a digital archive.

A tangible element in her portfolio is the constant search for personal development and individuality (gained through new impressions, knowledge and daily experiences) versus the need for breathing space, focus and simplicity.

Although the start of a new series is partly coincidental and the theme is not an end in itself, its choice is always accompanied by that field of tension between excess and tranquillity. The beauty she sees in the imperfection of the subject is also decisive. The choice of the colour palette is a means of building the atmosphere that she wants to convey. The powerful sketches by Rubens, the Seville series by Meunier, but also the Spanish artist Sorolla have an influence on the applied movement in the works and also on the colour palette used. In addition, An is also strongly influenced by the abstract paintings from the 1960s by Cy Twombly or Joan Mitchell, making the work often large-scale expressionist, focused on the emotional interaction between viewer and painting. The works also contain a certain structure or a limited amount of realism, but this is often a coincidence and not an end in itself.

The process she uses allows her to escape from the rat race society is and creates an oasis of mental peace where the acquired impressions from her personal search are used. The basic image is released at a certain moment and the work becomes a non-existent new world in which both the maker and the viewer can go on a quest.
She uses a powerful and recognizable writing style to apply the different materials such as acrylic, oil paint, pastel or ink and combines this with subtle details that arise from coincidences or are applied very deliberately. She builds up the work in many layers and plays with the paint by combining transparencies and opaque layers. Because of all these choices made, the work needs breathing room to come into its own.

The end point is a non-existent new world in which both the maker and the spectator can break free from the environment and go on a journey of discovery.