BITTERSWEET Painting

Hi, my name is Laura Stöckl. I have Synesthesia, which in my case means I intuitively associate color and sound, vision of colored shapes to music, people, feelings, memories. Every word, every letter, every feeling has a color... I actually see these colors wherever I go, they are not disturbing me though. It is another layer of reality that I can choose to focus on or keep on a subconscious level. People are born with synesthesia /it's intensity is strongly developed during the first year of life. Since I was a child I was loving music, I play a lot of instruments and I always loved colors and painting and crafting of all sorts. My father is an engineer and industrial designer, we spent so many days together building and crafting on new projects. Further on in my studies and still today, the discovery of synesthesia and my relation to it plays a very important role. I was born and raised in Germany and I am half Luxembourgish. My parents took me traveling since a young age and discovering foreign cultures has always been a huge inspiration. When I was 16 I decided to spend a high school year abroad in Mexico. The colors and culture of Mexico influenced me immensely and it was there and then that I decided to follow a creative path. I loved painting since I was a child but growing up in a small town south-west of Germany, I didn't think this could become a career. So Mexico expanded my horizons and I decided to move to London to study ab Bachelor of Arts. Afterwards I started working for some of favorite brands at the time; Diane von Fürstenberg in NYC, Matthew Williamson in London - in hindsight mostly for their use of color. Further on I studied a Postgraduate Degree in Accessory Design at Institut Français de la Mode, Paris. I became Women's leather goods designer for Louis Vuitton in Paris. In the frame of my studies, I collaborated with multiple luxury fashion houses such as Dior, Delvaux and Ballin, working on design and painting techniques. After Paris I spent 1,5 years living and working in Berlin and now I am based in Amsterdam since almost 5 years, where I've been working as Senior Accessories Designer for Karl Lagerfeld. My approach in Fashion and Art, which in my universe merge seamlessly into one another, is based on a passion for colour and material experimentation to express emotions and subculture. My artistic influence is drawn from modern and contemporary movements with a particular focus on Western Art from the 60s and 70s.