Karel Mommers was born on June 15, 1946 as the fourth child in a family of six.
His father, a National Beekeeping Consultant during his professional life, instilled in him a great love for nature. As a meritorious amateur, he also teaches his son the basics of perspective and still life drawing.
His mother died of breast cancer shortly after his youngest sister’s childbirth. Karel is then five and a half years old. Amid the sad family, he cherishes the memory of the peaceful sight of his deceased mother. Nature and its death are undeniably the reason why he is still looking for beauty and comfort in his creativity.

On his businesscard he writes:

“Since then he sees to it that things can incarnate, can be born. He incites to a new beginning, gives energy and vigour. The motive to create comes from the fear of death which can only be resisted and allayed by making it the raw material of objects, by transforming it into images.”

Karel’s high school was a disaster. “He can do it, but he won’t do it” is often used. Only much later does he discover that he is a “visual thinker” (dyslexic) and that “learning words” does not happen in the normal way for him.
He really revives when he can study theology. This study is followed by a training at the social academy focused on group work. After these two studies, an art academy was no longer for him and he continued to develop his artistry as an autodidact.
As a philosophy teacher, he finds a permanent place in secondary education. He becomes a tutor for new teachers and as vice-chairman of the participation council he leads the school through merger processes.
He builds his studio behind his house. He teaches ceramics courses in art education centers and provides didactic training to artists so that they can teach professionally. Finally, he founded his Pansofia Institute, which focuses on institutions and individuals who would like him to delve deeper into a specific question.
He describes being artistic as follows:
“Since Voltaire, everything in nature, including humans, has been approached like a clock, controllable down to the smallest part. I contrast the tendency to control nature with surrender to nature. As a sculptor and teacher, I do not assume the idea or the analysis, but I search, I touch, I make my shapes with natural materials.
I would therefore rather call myself a Things Maker. As the ancient Germans held their Ding meeting; where they determined and ordered everything, where they organized their lives democratically, with my images and work I determine my environment, my territory, I create my autonomous space as a response to a mechanistic worldview full of contradictions . I have taken these opposites and contrasts as a starting point in my monumental and cursory design.
Contrasts between people, cultures and peoples are quietly observed, confronted and brought together. And despite processing different materials, wood and iron; the different forms, organic and mathematical, the images appear to radiate a certain tranquility. My work is an attempt to achieve mystical surrender and oneness through physical effort.”