“Don’t Be Alarmed”, New York/Stuttgart, 2019

Acrylic painting, drawing cutout, collage of pages from NYPD handbook for personal safety on wooden board 38 x 37 cm with floating hangers.  I mostly grew up in surroundings that – except of my mom and my sister – pretty much looked at artists suspiciously and sceptical onto every kind of art besides decorative things. It had a lot to do with my runaway dad being an artist, even though he was a musician. I always wondered how much of my insecurities in younger years came from that and how it influenced my view on art. Certainly I love most definitions of art that are about freedom of expression and inviting people to feel free to interpret how they want looking at it – even though I always try to hide things and thoughts in there to be found if someone feels like it.Naturally I always hated when I felt that people take on a “snob-ish” condescending stance on viewing and talking with people about art (not meaning analysis that is different), because I feel they make it harder for art to be what makes it most precious.To me the magic is on one hand to be able to put something into the world that has no pragmatic reason to be there, potentially being able to inspire question marks or any given emotional reaction. On the other hand it always gave me joy to listen to other people’s interpretation because I feel that way we can expand things together. As a young artist I loved Jarmusch talking about how it is his job to make the films, with most honest effort, and the job of others to interpret them, “because, I can’t see my movies for the first time”, he said. That observation never seized to amaze my little ol’ head. It is both freeing and a bittersweet irony, as it is true for every human being for whatever you create, it seems. In insecure moments one might find oneself caving in to percieved pressure of explaining too much or even apologizing – even though it being irrational. Sometimes in my notebook I try to experiment to tackle those silly demons by “noting” the circling thoughts about them down in the form of artwork. In this one: Funny how insecurity can create a lie, despite best intensions – but only from some perspectives on context, chosen personally and anew every time.