Hello Katharina! How did everything in the world of art start for you and what came first, music or painting?

And how did these come together?

Katharina: It started with my teacher saying: "I can't give you a better grade than an A for your drawing." He encouraged me with that and I felt a great passion for further artistic activities, e.g. taking on some festive activities for school parties, which gave me space for my creative ideas. Building ghost trains, a ball throwing system to knock over teachers depicted in a picture, etc. But I also, to everyone's dismay, sprayed the foam from fire extinguishers onto the walls of the auditorium as a work of art, or draped the stuffed animals from biology class in the trees outside in the pouring rain for an exhibition. So, they loved me and they hated me. In the end they let me leave school, even though I was classified as particularly intelligent in a test, simply because I was too different. But then I knew that I would become an artist.

I have been working as a freelance artist since 1983. As a percussionist, I have been playing concerts in various ensembles around the world since 1989. In 1986, I began studying and completing various training courses in sound engineering with a focus on audio in the field of art, media and communication. Together with Marco Ambrosini, I founded the music and film production studio "Studio Katharco GbR". Since then, we have been working here on the synergy of image and music. My focus here is film and theater music as well as sound art for multimedia productions/stagings. See also www.katharco.eu.

The images have always been the focus, usually at the same time. Whether it's painting or photography or simply perceiving visual ideas while I'm working on music compositions in the studio or as a director in a production. For me as a synesthete, images and music are inseparable anyway. When I make music, I see images and when I see images, I hear music. So it's quite natural for me that an image also has a sound. But not everyone can hear it, so I use the sound images to make something audible for everyone.

Please tell me more about it, such as CG Jung's idea of the unconscious action in the second level and the resulting imagination of each individual, and how you challenge your audience to discover their own story in your art.
Katharina: My pictures can tell stories. For me, these sometimes arise during the painting process or develop later. When I sometimes ask the viewers what they themselves discovered in the picture, it never takes long before they let their imaginations run wild. This often creates new, personal stories, with their own character creations, and since everyone sees themselves and the painting in their own way, I think it happens on a different level. It is as CG Jung explains. For example, the theory that the unconscious has a much greater influence than conscious perception. What happens to people when they stand in front of a picture? Are they looking for a connection? Do they feel a desire or does it give them an inspiring feeling? And why? What do they perceive? The artists, with their sweeping brushstrokes? The imagination and creativity? Is it the desire to be detached and free? Just doing it? Or can it also be the effect of the colors? Something that reminds us of happiness, flowers, rainbows, the sky, or does it touch us in our sadness and it seems as if something is being reflected, understood or perceived? In any case, what moves us in that moment is something deep within us, something that often cannot be explained. Painters probably feel the same way; they paint because that is who they are and because that is how they can show it. If a picture and a person feel attracted to each other, a relationship can develop and maybe they will live together, happy and content, until the end of their lives... Haha.

What does a working day in your studio look like? Do you have rituals that help you to get motivated or to be “in the zone”? be?

Katharina: Before I paint, I often go for a long walk, I let myself be inspired by the colors and shapes. I see a green, lush tree against a blue or wonderfully gray sky. A cube next to a round shape. Rough next to smooth. All of this makes me want to paint. When I get to my studio, I go to the pictures I'm working on and give them my admiration. I don't want to say here that I talk to my brushes and paints before painting, otherwise everyone will think I'm crazy.
I don't listen to music! When I paint sound, I hear it beforehand, but while I'm painting, it's so quiet that I get a fright if someone comes in. My workspace is in rooms where music production and painting are close together. So it's possible to switch quickly from here to there and that gives me great opportunities to express myself in a variety of ways. I also like working in the garden, where I can splash around.

Which aspects of your job always give you butterflies in your stomach or make you curious?

Katharina: It's the project itself. When I plan the first small steps and then when it starts. When I meet other artists to work with them. When parts become more visible and you can already feel it. When I can be brave and big and humble at the same time. When the day of the performance comes. When the audience loves it. When you get the right respect and recognition. The whole process.

What was the coolest artist tip you ever received?

Katharina: “Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.” – Rumi

Have you ever experienced creative blocks? And if so, how do you overcome them?
Katharina: Yes, sometimes I think, oh dear, what if you run out of imagination, ideas or you can't paint anymore? But then I laugh and think: Nonsense! That never happens!

What is your most recent piece of artwork that you enjoyed working on?

Katharina: In the Sound Images project, it is a painting with music, it is called "The Guardians". It has a very special red color, deep, calming, shy and at the same time powerful and strong. Here, the collaboration with the Japanese Koto player Karin Nakagawa on the music for this painting was also very inspiring. She was able to connect very well with the painting. Her own culture also had a big influence. The most beautiful and important thing is to work together on art, that brings variety and creates wonderful events.

What advice would you give to aspiring artists on how to think outside the box and grow?

Katharina: It is important to be very open and respectful, courageous and daring, sometimes humble, that is also important. Don't try to copy, that won't work anyway.
Then always have several jobs or art forms to guarantee variety on the one hand, but also to be more financially stable. Always keep learning, learning, learning. Invest more than you can. It's also fun to see everything in life as art or as a composition, that's the best state - cooking, brushing teeth, walking, cleaning, being - everything is art!

Do you see your art as having a purpose beyond art?
Katharina: Yes, but I would still call it art. A therapeutic art. I firmly believe that we can save this crazy world with art. Art can provide therapeutic help, help you feel better, make decisions, enjoy yourself, free yourself, make yourself happy, the list is endless.
Everyone should surround themselves with art, it would bring a lot of joy into their lives. I have worked with my art in a therapeutic way for people with physical and mental illnesses. I have made music that matches their symptoms and painted pictures for them to support their healing process. Art with music to support healing is nothing new. It really is fantastic and it works.

What will happen next with Katharina?
Katharina: I will be doing exhibitions with my pictures and music all over the world. Also some spatially dynamic light and sound installations in combination with painting, sculptures and architecture. Sound architectures, especially in complex surround or multi-channel technology up to 10 channels.

A bright future for art!

Interview by Lisa Harris, Art Magazine. Translation Deeple.

In this picture I use the methods of abstraction of painterly color worlds, of light and shadow in a water whirlpool and then digitally form it into graceful and geometric figures. A special power is revealed here, similar to that which I have often experienced musically. A leap outside, a new chapter that is pleasant. This wonderful picture is a print in metallic colors on aluminum, under a layer of acrylic glass on an aluminum plate, framed in a 0.5 discreet aluminum frame in gold.

- What was your first experience with art? What made you want to become an artist?

Even as a child, I had the feeling that I wanted to live differently in the world of art and artists, because only there could people understand me, and I could understand myself.

At first I was fascinated by music, which, with a lot of luck, catapulted me to success. Then I began to study music through technology. Image, light and sound, as well as their transformation, shape my life. This is also how my sound images came about, which is a total work of art consisting of my own paintings with specially composed and produced music.

- Are there any particular themes, messages or theories behind your work? What are they?

I am a synesthete, which is a neurological phenomenon in which different sensory perceptions are linked together. This gift enables me to see and hear the world in a slightly different way. It is like experiencing different sensory impressions simultaneously and intensely. I think this ability in particular led to my fascination with images and music and their transformations, whether in multimedia installations or productions or in painting and photography.

- Can you tell us something about your artistic approach? (Style, medium and specific techniques.)

For me, the pictures exhibited here are the expression of my ever-simmering desire to play with colors and light, to compose images - similar to music - and to create a work that is emotional and inspiring. In this way, the canvas becomes the stage, the impulse becomes the symphony and the colors are the actors.

I don't strive to depict a theme, my style is mostly abstract, mostly in acrylic. Often a story emerges anyway - each one has their own.

For me, photography also means painting; it is painting with light and dialogue with nature, and it is painting on the go.

As a painter I create, and as a photographer I discover and create image compositions. For me, photography means capturing a moment, capturing color elements, interpreting a visual language and creating a compositional arrangement of image elements. Here, too, I use the methods of abstraction to painterly color worlds, light, shadow, artificial, organic-looking and geometric figures and move away from realistic and technically perfect depictions.

With the eternal desire to capture a piece of the world that only appears for a very brief moment and may never be seen exactly the same again.

- Please write a personal quote / statement that best represents you as an artist (in your own words, maximum 30 words).

Inspiration, transformation, spiritual encounter and pleasurable emotion – art is life