Ode to Ans Visser | This is how she enriched my life

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My Ode is to artist Ans Visser. I came to know Ans Visser as a writer. But she turns out to be much more. Our contact began because she wrote the booklet Amsterdam collects.

Ans and I are both collectors and stuff-givers. I collected many balls of wool and gave them to her for a clinic in Africa where breast prostheses were knitted. She also wrote a booklet about this project.

The colors jumped out at me at our first meeting: a different color on each of her ten nails, her necklace so garish in color that I immediately wanted to take pictures of her.

She gave me a homemade lucky box, which instantly made me happy.

Meanwhile, bank clerks in Egypt walk around in passed on Dutch white polos and shirts. Ans has been happily married to her Ahmed for 40 years; she speaks Arabic, feels half Egyptian and a citizen of the world. Ans and Ahmed love to travel; while traveling, she takes beautiful photographs that she exhibits and wins awards for.
 

One exhibit that hit me right in my heart was her exhibit Ode to Women (featured on her website www.ansvisser.nl). Ans' editing gives the portraits a deeper layer.

At my request, she also edited a photograph of my recently deceased mother.

Besides being an artist, she is also a bargee (see her book Between Shore and Ship), grandmother and mother of two wonderful sons. One of them is doubly disabled. About him she wrote the book Hero on Wheels. When he was little, she already wrote the book Pablo de Rolstoelpiet for him. Ans is a hero herself, as she has been doing volunteer work for thirty years. For example, she went with her son to volunteer at the Paralympics in Paris in 2024.

Her current job is volunteer coordinator at Amsta.

Ans Visser is a bon vivant and life artist. In this way she has enriched my life and I hope you have also become curious about her. Her work, her volunteer work, her art and her colorfulness: what an impact, what a contribution to Amsterdam!