INTRODUCTION
My life and work form an inseparable unity evolving within a network of relationships, of which my husband Gottlieb is undoubtedly the most important part. For over thirty years, our respective lives and works have been interwoven in a single and coherent tapestry that keeps growing, slowly or in leaps, depending upon the circumstances.
Originally, I intended to write down only a few short notes about my life in relation to my artwork. The purpose was to permit the reader not only to look for the beauty of my art, but also to perceive the forces flowing underneath. Yet, as I began to dig into my past, I encountered forgotten worlds, people, places and events emerging from deep down, where they had been buried in the soil of my unconscious mind. Thus while writing and researching in innumerable stored-away files and boxes, I began to travel through my own life and to discover, at times with astonishment, the true sources of inspiration that have so deeply influenced my work and me. In the process a picture has slowly been emerging in my mind:
Lotus flower
Floating on the surface of a pond
Stem swaying gently in the rippling water
Roots firmly anchored in the mud
Rich with vital minerals
The unconscious mind
Fed by the sum of all experiences
Made in the course of a lifetime.
Firebird
1974-1976
I created a pointillist picture in an attempt to bring order into my inner turmoil after learning that my parents' home and adjoining carpentry business had burnt down to the ground, taking along all the tangible memories of my childhood. (Read more)
Syngenetics USA - Leap into a New World
1976-1978
The development of a holistic approach to life, based on contemporary systems science, generates a sea change in my life and work.
Phase II begins with a leap into a new world, the USA… (Read more)
Syngenetics Europe - New Start in Old World
Autumn 1978 - March 1983 (5 years)
I am consequently forced to divide my time between the psychiatric centre and my atelier. Nevertheless, this is a period of great learning and growth. (Read more)
Arctic Nights
April/May 1983 (3 weeks)
How to initiate a new phase of creative performance? A time-honoured strategy is to abandon one’s habitual setting and dive into a new environment one is not at all familiar with.
This is exactly what I do. I leave winter in the Swiss Alps and head for the tiny Norwegian islet of Jøa, situated in the Norwegian Sea not far from the Arctic Circle but far away from everything and everybody I know. (Read more)
Maturing in Tranquillity
May 1983 – end of 2004 (10 years)
The speakers at the International CREANDO Symposia on Creativity and Leadership, many of them Nobel laureates in literature and science, are great social role models, inspiring and motivating me to proceed on my creative path. (Read more)
Cosmic Dance
December 2004 – December 2005 (one year)
In December 2004, with Christmas approaching, I decide to give myself a little present: the time to work in my atelier – without any haste or pressure to produce. Thus begins a new round of creative performance. (Read more)
Evolution
End of 2005 -
