Ed.02 - Maxime Rokus
Becoming Her.
The journey of a Woman.
Becoming Her is an ode to the power of vulnerability, the beauty of imperfection, and the layered identity of every woman.
In Edition 2 of our series, Maxime, artist and mother, shares her personal journey - exploring what shapes a woman, defines her practice, and allows her to create from her truest self.
What lies beneath the layers of a woman’s being? What shapes her, defines her, and makes her who she is? And what does it mean to share that vulnerability with the world? Becoming Her invites you to explore these questions and the depth of women’s experiences everywhere.
Maxime founded her studio practice with a clear intention: to make work that is honest and unforced. Not dictated by trends or expectations, but shaped by the quiet details, the soft tensions, and the intuitive decisions that tell her story. "A painting is finished when it no longer asks questions and the image feels quietly resolved," she says.
Her journey reflects growth, transformation, and the courage to return. Becoming a mother in 2024 brought Maxime back fully to painting - deepening her work emotionally while keeping it open, abstract, and free. The rhythm between motherhood and studio time has become not a compromise, but an essential part of who she is and what she makes.
This second edition of Becoming Her is not only Maxime's story. It is the story of a woman who found stillness in motion, clarity in softness, and herself - layer by layer, on canvas.
Read here the full conversation and interview here.
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MAXIME ROKUS - Artist in conversation with VIVEH.
01 // Maxime, how would you describe your art and what drives you as an artist?
My work is abstract and minimalist, built from color fields and shapes. I work intuitively and start without a sketch or fixed plan. The work emerges during the painting process: I feel where balance is needed and where space can remain.
Each field stands on its own, but together they form a whole. Rest plays an important role in that. I make work you can look at without it demanding anything from you. It doesn't need to be understood or explained; it's simply allowed to exist.
The fact that my work doesn't need to explain anything is an important principle for me. Everyone is free to see or feel something different in it. I don't work from a fixed narrative, and that openness gives me a lot of freedom as a maker.
What drives me is the moment a work feels finished. That moment when everything is right. It's hard to put into words, but it's a deeply satisfying feeling, as if all the parts come together. That's what I do it for.
Beyond that, the idea of making something tangible is important to me. Something that endures, finds a place in a space, and becomes part of someone's life. It doesn't need to be grand, just real. The thought that my work can grow alongside someone is a beautiful one.
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02 // What would you say, how has becoming a woman shaped your perspective as an artist?
Becoming a woman has deepened my perspective as an artist above all. When I was younger, I looked much more at the image itself — whether something was beautiful and immediately appealing.
As I got older, that perspective shifted. I'm less focused on appearance and more on feeling, intention, and depth. Perfection isn't important to me. If something is honest and feels right, it moves me more than something that is merely aesthetically attractive.
That change comes partly from getting older, but also from being a woman and becoming a mother. You learn to look more slowly, with greater attention. You want to understand where something comes from, why someone makes something, and what lies within it.
As a mother I experience that even more strongly. The world is seen anew through the eyes of a child, and that invites slowing down and going deeper. I bring that attitude into my work. I don't try to impress, but to make something real. Work that feels like it comes from somewhere.
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03 // Do you create from the female gaze — consciously or unconsciously?
I find that a difficult question, because I don't see myself as someone who is consciously engaged with it. I paint from feeling, without a theoretical framework as a starting point.
My work isn't specifically feminine and could just as well have been made by a man. It emerges from me, and everything said about it only really follows afterward.
In the classical sense, my work is often not seen as feminine either. It is dark, raw, and abstract, and I don't work with light or cheerful tones. As a person, I also don't identify with the stereotype of the "girly girl."
At the same time, I feel very much a woman and experience womanhood as something powerful. That naturally finds its way into my work, without me consciously deploying it. If there is something feminine to be found in my paintings, it comes from who I am, not from a preconceived perspective.
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04 // Has motherhood changed the way you look at beauty?
When I was eighteen, I had Wabi-Sabi tattooed on my arm. It's a Japanese philosophy of life centered on the beauty of the imperfect, the transient, and the unfinished. That idea resonated deeply with me even then. Beauty has never been something smooth or polished to me. I have always seen it as something abstract, something you feel rather than capture. In that sense, motherhood hasn't fundamentally changed my idea of beauty.
What has changed is my sense of wonder. Since becoming a mother, I look differently. The world becomes visible again through the eyes of a child, and that makes my own gaze fresher and more attentive. Small things catch my eye more quickly and carry more meaning.
I bring that way of looking into my work. It doesn't need to be neat or finished. It's often in the imperfect that something real lives, something that breathes. That feeling still rings completely true for me — perhaps now more than ever.
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