Tell a little bit about how you first got into creating art.
Surely, it began as with so many to have drawn a lot as a child. The real impetus to start with the art came, however, when I realized that I could channel things through it. I can't make art, I have to make art to survive!
What artists or movements have had an impact on you?
I would not say for all but most of the movements have their special thing which inspired me. Maybe that's why I work interdisciplinary. But if I have to name some I would say: Impressionism, expressionism, the new objectivity and abstract art.
Every work must hold a special story. A story that is mostly known only to me. Just doing anything has been pointless in my eyes.
What themes does your work involve?
It's all about feelings that touch me in some way in life. Sometimes very direct and sometimes I realize only in the middle of a series about which feeling it is or which feelings I process. From these feelings arise, the themes with which my work deals. It can be in the whole range of feelings and themes, but mostly there is a touch of melancholy in it. At the moment I am dealing with illness and mortality. For example: This work is called "coffin corner" which describes usually a status of a flying aircraft in which it can't go faster because it will loose boost and also can't go higher. In both ways, it will crash down. This work refers to such a condition of a human being. It shows the inability to do anything.
What is important to you about the visual experiences you create?
Every work must hold a special story. A story that is mostly known only to me. Just doing anything has been pointless in my eyes. So if there is no story then I don't do it.
when I devote myself to new materials or techniques, sometimes by chance, I am guided and surprised by them
What is the significance of medium and color?
There is no significance at all. It is important what you show, not how. But I like to try out new things to be inspired from medium and colour itself. So when I devote myself to new materials or techniques, sometimes by chance, I am guided and surprised by them.
What is your favorite art accident? Did it change your perspective?
For example, if you have a complex printing process in front of you, such as aquatint combined with mezzotint, and you forget a step in the middle of the process. Then you have to rethink the whole printing process, which leads you, let's say, like a good accident, to a completely unpredictable result.
Do you have any artistic goals for the future that you would like to share?
For several years I have been planning a large installation and social experiment for which I am looking for sponsors. Two containers placed side by side in a small village. You can see through a plexiglass pane, and you can go in through a door on the side. In each container, there is exactly the same kitchen. The inhabitants of the village don't know why the containers are there for a few weeks. Only the photo at the beginning and at the end.
Installation counts and will be the result. No matter if the kitchens are destroyed, looted or left untouched. This installation will again promote communication between people who otherwise would not talk to each other.
What do you consider the role of an artist today?
The role of the artist towards himself reminds me a lot of Ninjutsu which I have been studying for 13 years and teaching for two years. It takes you through different phases like learning new forms of movement, questioning yourself in what you are doing or surrendering to the flow of art. Visual and martial arts sometimes correspond with each other and make me the artist I am. The role of the artist in society is to show things in such a way that people have a different perspective on them and to make them think outside their usual thinking.
