I was born in Saarbruecken in 1951, and live in Berlin since 1976. I studied graphical design (diploma), history of art and sociology (1970-76). I have been working as an independent artist since 1984, and since 1988, I am exclusively devoted to painting and drawing.
Painting is the focal point of my artistic exchange. At the same time, however, I am interested in experimental drawing and photography, and - on special occasions - I keep engaging myself with "light painting", a means of expression I discovered in 2002 in the framework of a multimedia art project. Since that time, the collaboration with performance artists (contemporary music / contemporary dance) has become another vital part of my artistic dialogue.
It is not my aim to depict an exact image of reality; I rather intend to express my feeling of what we call "reality". In this sense, painting and drawing - or the combination of both - range between the figurative and the abstract art, and reflect my attention and sensibility for everything that occurs around me in every day life.
This involves the fact, that I always pay close attention to current events in the world and that I include these observations in my art. Then, when it comes to transfer my thoughts and feelings, I choose an atmospheric way of narrating.
Its been many years ago that I discovered my artistic possibilities of collage, particularly in the making of large-scale collages with paper or photographies on canvas. While applying newspaper photos as undercoat - which marks the first process of creating a painting - I pay full attention to the contrast of light and dark and to the texture. Both the contrasts and the textures inspire me; they are input for the entire composition. - The photos depicting events that are significant to me, normally derive from my own collection, and are included to the overall composition according to relevance.
Through various journeys and study trips that took me across the continents, my work is very much influenced by the changing ways of life and thinking that characterize various cultures. Over a longer period, the encounter with the strangeness - the foreignness - was one of my key topics in my work.
Its my fascination for both the metropolitan cities as well as the natural landscapes that provides the basis for intensive reflections and artistic examinations regarding the theme "human-nature-environment".
My works deal with the vision of (value)-free environments in which own confidence and strength can develop, and intellectual and emotional tolerance define our thinking and acting. These free environments can be found in my works as abstract spaces or landscapes.
Nature is my favourite and recurrent theme in my works. In nature I see a metaphor for the interaction of inner and outer spaces, of endless becoming and passing. Occasionally, I also love to visualize the human figure within the nature thought.
