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Q1 Could you tell us your career as an artist? How did you get involved in art?
I studied graphic design in Germany (Trier) and and visual arts in Italy (Milan). I've always enjoyed going to art exhibitions in galleries, museums and to art festivals. That's why I started doing exhibition design at the beginning of my professional career. Unfortunately doing exhibitions for museums like the above mentioned doesn't have much to do with the stimulation and excitement of contemporary art. |
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It is more about providing knowledge - which is also interesting and challenging but not quite what I always dreamt to do. I really started missing going to art exhibitions and I started missing doing art myself. I just didn't have the time anymore. That's when I decided to work as a freelance illustrator and designer and strive for proximity to the art world. I am now doing illustrations, graphic design and art projects.
Q2 Where do you turn for inspiration for your painting?
It is hard to say. Sometimes the idea derives from a certain material, for example a special piece of paper that already has an interesting shape. Sometimes I've got an interesting object I want to draw. But most of the time it's a word or a sentence (I call them "fragments") that inspires me to depict something that loosely associates with the subject. In general my creativity lives on variety, it tends to doze off if it there's too much routine. |
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Q4 What projects you are currently working on?
I am currently doing illustrations for a column of German "Buecher"-magazine. It's a very enjoyable job. They send me the text and I am free to draw whatever I find suitable. I am also doing the graphic for several print products for heliumcowboy artspace in Hamburg, in cooperation with Steve from Neasden Control Centre. |
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They've got their 5th anniversary this year and there will be a huge art exhibition with all their artists with lots of posters, invitations and publications to be designed and printed. My long-term-project "daily exercise" also keeps me busy plus I am planning to do some large paperworks, a series in collaboration with Dominik from antimation.org
Q5 Could you describe your designing process?
At first it's an intellectual approach. There's the briefing the client delivers. And even when there's nothing preset, I have to make up a "subconscious" briefing for myself (like a text fragment or some given material). I need restrictions or instructions to start from. After all the facts are clear, the intuitive part begins. It's much about assembling parts and about trial and error. Combinations of shapes, techniques or materials that usually don't go together sometimes result in the most interesting looks. Also styles that are a little disturbing often are most vivifying to the eye. That's what I try to achieve. |
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Q8 How do you represent yourself through the artwork?
I don't aim at displaying my inner life through my artwork. Most of the time I am reflecting external circumstances. Sometimes I am simply drawing things that surround me, in combination with colors and forms which I find interesting at that given moment. Sometimes it's the interpretation of a sentence from a book I've read or a film I've seen. People shouldn't speculate over the meaning of my artwork. If there is a meaning it should be obvious, but most of the time I am only trying to puzzle the beholder in a fun way and achieve a contemporary look.
Q9 What is your future vison?
I would be happy if I could continue successfully what I am doing now: traveling around the world while working, working while traveling, meeting people, broadening my network and having an exhibition now and then. |
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Having studied in Germany and Italy, and now traveling between the U.S., Japan, Australia and South America, Gudrun is searching for the new and unknown and takes life as a steady movement. That's why her work comes along as a chance acquaintance, an impression, a nice memory and sometimes it perplexes you like a foreign custom you don't really understand. In her life not only time-zones tend to shift, also her occupations vary: she works across the fields of exhibition, graphic design, fine art and illustration. Her subtle pencil drawings have been published in international magazines and appeared in the book "Freistil 3 - Best of European Commercial Illustration" by Die Gestalten Verlag. |
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Q3 Could you tell us how do you like your work space? How does it look like?
I am currently traveling around the world, so I don't have a fixed working area. Wherever I go I've got a pencil case, a tiny box with watercolors and thick paper. I've also got a box with paper snippets of different sizes and colors that I use for collages. Whenever I cut something out, new snippets occur, so I've got an endless resource. A flatbet scanner and my MacBook are the only bulky items I need to take with me. They take half the space of my suitcase which is a bit annoying. In my last appartment in Manhattan, where I stayed for 10 days there was a real desk, but that was coincidence. Then I stayed for a week in California at a friend's house. I loved it there. I could draw outside on the beach. Now I have a studio in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, for two months. I've suddenly got so much space I certainly have to take advantage of it and create something big! |
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| It is also a nice location because I can work on the bed, at the table, on the roof garden, at the waterfront, in one of the nice cafés of the neighborhood... - even when staying in one place, I like my work space to be flexible. |
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Q6 What does your average day entail? Could you explain?
I try to start my day with half an hour of running, on the beach or in a park, depending on where I am. Then I'm having breakfast and some correspondence. After having written some e-mails I am working on my "daily exercise" which is a daily drawing I am doing to try new interesting styles. After uploading this to my website I am starting with the comissioned work. There's a break for lunch and maybe a break for a walk or for shopping or for sight seeing, cooking, eating - some of my favourite pastimes. But all this depends on where I am and how much else there is to do. Sometimes there's too much distraction and I am a week late with my "daily exercise", so I've got to catch up and skip sports. The next day an urgent job keeps me both from my daily exercises and from doing sports. It's a constant dilemma. A perfect day would be a day where I could include all of my activities, but most days are too short. |
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Q7 Who is your favorite artist?
It's hard to name only one favourite artist. I like Tobias Rehberger. I like Tom Friedman, too. Both have a conceptual approach in common, but always with a funny twist and the results are highly aesthetic. |
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