I was about 18 years old when my interest in art awakened. Before that time I was busy with puberty and school and since my high school wasn’t focused on the creative classes I didn’t learn much in that direction there either. From my father I got some notion of culture though. We went to art house movies, theater, design exhibits and there were often interior design magazines around.
One day my grandparents of my dad’s side gave me two art books. A painting in one of them that really spoke to me was Kämpfende Formen 1914 by Franz Marc 1880-1916. I loved the shapes and colors. This awakened my love for the modern arts. Later on I bought a book about Franz Marc’s art in which there were much more beautiful art works. Two that I liked especially were Tiger 1912 and Der Mandrill 1913. I found that combination of animals and modern art very interesting somehow.
I always had a love for animals. I saw them as something vulnerable and magical that needed to be protected. In that period of time I had mainly an interest in tigers. I collected photographs of them that I had cut out of magazines. I’d always had a preference for felines which I found gorgeous and gracious.
In the meanwhile I had started to develop my skills in drawing and painting by taking several courses in different media. In that way I developed my own artistic path. All the while I was also developing in other areas and becoming a mother.
For a long time I’ve been searching for what exactly I wanted to express with my art. What did I want to make? What inspired me? Eventually I researched what I found the most fun to draw and that were animals and abstracts. I also wondered how I could link this to my values (like wanting to live as sustainable as possible) so I would get a stronger motivation. That’s how inspiration works for me.
I’m still at the beginning of my development in this and searching for ways to combine animals and abstracts or not combine them. Also I have more interests that I might integrate into my art like yoga, nature and health. So there are still plenty of roads to take.
Anyway I really believe that first fascinations have an impact on the rest of your live like Franz Marc’s art did on mine.
