The Story Behind Custom Ode
For years, I worked as a creative director in Amsterdam's nightlife world with my company De Nachtvlinders, The Nocturnal Butterflies.
Then, on a spontaneous date to Paris, everything changed.
Wandering through Deyrolle, a poetic antique shop in the 7th arrondissement, I saw a butterfly preserved under glass. In that moment I had a vision: a butterfly, coming out of a Pilot fineliner.
The image stayed with me. Not just as aesthetic impulse, but as question: what does it mean to preserve something? The butterfly under glass is frozen, protected, removed from time. The butterfly emerging from a pen is mid-transformation, caught between states.
When I got home, I had to bring that vision to life. It became my first ode, not a commission, but something personal. Pure. A seed.
That seed became Custom Ode, and the question never left: what do we actually preserve when we make something permanent? And what happens to the things we don't?
Now, over 33 Odes later, that question still drives the work.
My first Ode. An Ode to the concepts I wrote for my company ‘De Nachtvlinders'.
The place where I found the butterfly, that became the beginning of Custom Ode. A hidden little gem called Deyrolle on the top floor of a magical shop in the 7th district of Paris.
