Drawinghell 1

Manifes­tation of the free brushstroke – Room for ideas and movement

In 2013, I had the opportunity to rent a room at Hauptpost’s top floor. It only became apparent what I was going to do in there when I moved into it with paper rolls and tape. I started to cover the walls with paper, then the cupboards, bays, bends, recesses, almost every nook, the floor ... it was not planned, but it seemed exactly the right thing to do.

At the outset, I locked myself into the room for three days and thus completely gave myself over to my work. I slept and ate in my paper creation. Without distraction, I sped up a process I have pursued for a long time. I like to seize a room and react to it. It is my very own way to deal with rooms, to create and stage my world inside it. It was also a white hell, with all the paper that wants to be filled enveloping the artist, a place where she can let off steam.

After the complete lining with white paper and adhesive tape seams, I started painting on the paper. I treated it like the painting pad on my desk and let figures and ideas emerge from stains. For years, it has fascinated me what can be discovered incidentally in my brush strokes. With ease, all kinds of things are created unintentionally. Here at Hauptpost, I could take those accidents and work with them. I like this way of working a lot, not knowing what I will draw, paint, write next and surprising myself with what happens. Formal and stylistic influences come from cartoons, from illustration and graffiti. Those are the areas I move in and try to link. I do not want to limit myself in any way and take away all freedom. A mistake or an element that seemingly does not fit can trigger and bring about something entirely new. It always baffles me what emerges, what my paintings tell – how much did I contribute to that? What happens at that moment when my hand wields the brush? How much influence do I have on it as an artist? What topics are apparently on my mind, what have I soaked up from the world around me, what messages have reached me, which feelings and premonitions happen on paper?

Here, I make brushstrokes with my whole body. They are different from the ones at the table. They are free, generous lines; they flow and are not concerned with detail but still very precise in what they communicate.