The artist Miriam Harten was born on September 11, 1954 in the city of Eindhoven, in the south of Holland. She grew up in a family with an elder sister and a younger brother. It wasn't the kind of artistic family one could expect from her very varieted work: from drawing and painting, through teaching and illustrating in the newspaper and as a writer of musical plays. She even wrote an opera in 2006. But in her family the parents had an open mind for arts and music. One could show what you are really like, and choose the profession that fits you. Writing Miriam Harten always wrote a lot. She kept diaries from the age of seven, and wrote her cousin Jo-Ann ever since she could write... in english. A correspondence she kept until today. At the age of 13 she wrote a play for her highschool with her musicteacher. And whenever there was a schoolpaper, factorypaper, neighbourhood paper, she would join the journalists, as a very experienced autodidact. These papers would flourish out of her contributions. Klavarskribo Her mother send her to a pianoteacher at the age of 7. And while her mother came from a small town called Slikkerveer near Rotterdam, she learned the very obscure music-notation of 'Klavarskribo'. The factory and printing was started in this town, and everyone in her family worked there, read it, played it.... except for the rest of the world. Miriam took only one year of it and it is still the only notation she can read properly. It's like speaking Swahili in Norway. Who would understand you? Academy of Arts Arnhem Miriam Harten is able to draw some very resembling portraits from an early age. The family expected her to go to Art College. To make sure there would be a secured financial future ahead of her, she chooce to become a teacher in arts. After highschool (HAVO) she moved to Arnhem in 1974 and followed classes at the academy of Arts.