About my Artistic Work Process

I do not make any (visual) sketches for my paintings and always perceived this circumstance as a striking difference to how other abstract artists proceed. However, all my works carry very explicit titles or are part of series and refer to specific experiences or situations.

In 2003 I started writing longer texts along with some of my series (such as "Sati" or "The Lotus Feet"). In 2005, with the series "Cinque Leoni" I finally understood that it was not visual but lingual-emotional sketches that were starting point for my painterly work. Three of the five Leoni-paintings came along quite easily, however I had difficulties with the other two. For days I was undecided and tried different approaches, all the while titles and the specific encounter they referred to were already determined.

At a certain point I just took my sketch book and wrote a long, diary-like private text for each painting. While writing I reflected upon the situation each painting referred to, analyzed it and tried to "abstract" it, i. e. understand the underlying scheme. As soon as I got hold of that scheme (or: matrix) of my personal experience I found it no longer difficult finishing the painting.

Maybe this way of developing a painting could be best compared to the work of an actor who prepares for a role: in doing so he must build his cast through combining his personal biography, his experiences and detailed observations of his environment until he eventually has a clear emotional idea of the character he will represent. Only then he will be able to play his part in a convincing way.

Another remark regarding observing my environment: sometimes I meet people whose feelings I can access. Eventually these feelings are un-organized, chaotic, un-controllable. I then permit that these feelings take over, I jump into this flood, drown within it, myself becoming its object - until I finally learn to dominate these feelings and understand their inner logic, the underlying archetype. Maybe I could describe this process as perceiving energy particles of other people's feelings, reproducing and multiplying them within me and finally modifying them within my own perception. In the end I will find new patterns and distillate a/my personal emotional image from them. Only at that final point I will be able to finish my painting.

And then, when I again emerge from such an emotional flood, the only things I carry with me are some titles I found, some pages of paper and notes in my diary. Some time later I will have finished the paintings and polished the texts so that I can publish them, being clear and cool, a bit distanced, and above all: anonymizing all players.

In an interview(i) Gerhard Richter was asked for a statement regarding the fact that currently his work and his personal biography were being analyzed thoroughly. Richter's comment: "It is only to a very limited extent that biographic details can be helpful in understanding my work."

In fact I perceive this correlation in a similar way: at some point my personal, biographical experience disappears beyond... my "part in the piece"; my works then no longer speak about "me", but rather about aspects and experiences of human life.

(i) "Mich interessiert der Wahn": Der Maler Gerhard Richter über die viel zu teure Gegenwartskunst, über Schönheit als Programm gegen die Verwahrlosung und seine künstlerische Auseinandersetzung mit einer schwierigen Familiengeschichte.
Der Spiegel 33/2005, 15. August 2005, http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/0,1518,369580,00.html