Based in Amsterdam, I'm Barbara, the person behind the pink highlight.
I've worked in fashion business for many years, which might explain my love for the colour black and for design.
In the summer of 2022 I started creating these black-out texts for the first time in my life. I simply love the cadence of the words, seeing a pattern around a theme in a text.
Friends often think of me when they see anything pink, so I started using a pink highlighter to add some colour to the texts. Life isn’t always black and white, now is it?
To encourage myself to keep making these texts I decided to post them on Instagram. This was a big decision for me, because I'm actually a rather private person.
Strolling the streets, looking for useful books in those shared book-cabinets, the joy of finding a beautiful piece, already feeling a sparkle, knowing a new text will be seeing the light of day…this is now a fulfilling part of my life.
In 2021 I was diagnosed with autism.
Life is extra challenging for people with autism, but despite the struggles, I see my mind as
a beautiful mind.
I like that I see the world differently from neuro typical people. My creative mind notices details and things others often don't. Other typical things for my autistic mind are: authenticity, loyalty & honesty, compassion, high integrity with a strong moral compass, analytical, critical with a strong sense of justice and appreciative of small things that others might see as insignificant.
You just might find a reflection of those characteristics in my works.