Betta [Kampffisch) Print

In short: I make empathic artworks for complex minds. Elaborately: Hi! I am a fine artist and sometimes illustrator who is polyamorous with different art techniques and styles. While I deeply love drawing with ink, I also love experimentally combining many materials such as watercolour, acrylics, acrylic and shellac inks, oils, varnishes, tea, pencils, and markers. Etchings, monotypes, and collages complete my range, while I also dabble in Photoshop. This wide array is also resembled by my usage of old and new paper, canvas, and old and new wood as support. Most of my recent motifs are female watercolour portraits. Emotions, strength, and vulnerability are themes that don't cease to inspire me. Another recurring theme is nature, growth as decay, and life's beauty and complexity. I've done many works for exhibitions about the environment and Fukushima. I don't want to limit my work to beauty. Art, for me, is always also political. It can give problems voices and open up new options for actions. I'm a fan of LGBTQI+ art and humanist mindsets. My art has already been shown in exhibitions and museums in Germany, Spain, Portugal, Macedonia, Japan, and South Korea, some remaining in the ownership of the museums. I divide my time between creating, learning new stuff about art, organizing and partaking in exhibitions, working part-time for the benefit of a stable studio and living space, and teaching workshops. I'm a highly sensitive person and I often feel other people's feelings unfiltered, so being with many or new people can be much or too much; nevertheless, I enjoy other people's company a lot. The dose makes my poison (and sometimes gives me new input to paint). Therefore, I invite you to interpret my artworks as a story I'm telling you about a special mindset, beautiful detail or strong feeling. As you, the recipient, are part of this process, your story from the picture will differ to another one's story or yours on another day, life situation or age. While I dose my emotional discourse through letting an artwork do the connecting, you are free to dose your further discourse in your pace. In a way, it can hopefully become an enriching dialogue throughout the viewer's life. Whenever my inner punk yells at the introverted and reclusive artist-me again, I include environmental or social / zeitgeist critics in my works.