Interview with Karin Döring

"Intuition is a great power. It is the support that gives people security and self-confidence and does not make them hesitate. I am convinced that every person has this ability within him, and I would like to encourage everyone to trust in the great power and thus instinctively set out on the best and, therefore, the right path."

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Why did you decide to pursue a career in the arts?

It was the other way around: the artistic career chose me. When I discovered and started my passion for painting five years ago, it was very quickly clear: this is what I want to do; this is where my fulfillment and strength lie. So basically, it was not a conscious decision but a logical consequence of what feels good and right for me.

Little by little, I withdrew from my previous, other fields of activity and gave more and more space to art in my life. Following my intuition played a big part in this. Intuition is a great power; it is the support that gives a person security and self-confidence and does not make him hesitate. I am convinced that every person has this ability in him and would like to encourage everyone to trust in the great power and thus instinctively set out on the best and, therefore, the right path.

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What inspires your work every day?

People in all their facets and feelings inspire me. To bring these diverse different emotions of man, such as joy, compassion, anger, happiness, fear, or sadness, on the canvas and then let this feeling jump like a spark to the viewer, is my challenge. Global events and my own life and experience also flow daily into my work and give me inspiration and creative ideas.

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What subjects do you deal with in your art, and why is that so important to you?

My favorite subjects are people and their emotions, which inspire me to create my artwork. Over the years, I have found that my greatest passion is for my fellow human beings and for creativity. In painting and my art, both passions find each other, and I give free rein to my creativity and enthusiasm for people. We humans all have longings. To depict the longings of the heart and soul in my paintings and to uncover them in the viewer is the drive of my artistic work. To follow one's passion is, for me, the greatest form of freedom. He who follows his passion is free. The added value for all people who follow your passion is satisfaction and balance, a deep happiness and fulfillment.

What aspect of the creative process do you like best?

The diversity and the infinite and unlimited possibilities in art excite me. No one tells an artist how to do things or even to always do things the same way. I am allowed to be free every day, with every painting, to be creative, brave, and surprising, and thus to surprise myself. I love trying new things, focusing on my passion for creating and letting intuition take the lead. And, of course, the creative process is also always about going to your own limits and overcoming them to achieve goals. I do this with every single painting and want to show people that it is worthwhile to break through your own limits, to exceed and thus release undreamt-of forces.

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How would you describe your technique?

Amazed, like a child, I stand in front of the many different possibilities that exist to create art. This amazement and curiosity drive me to always try new techniques and materials. I started with painting with knives and acrylic paints, and now I also work a lot with the brush and in alternation or combination with acrylic and oil paints, wax crayons, ink, gilding, and many other materials. Once a year, I take a course in stone sculpting at the Academy of Arts Schwäbisch Hall to work sculpturally. And I have by no means tried everything that is floating around in my head. To commit myself to only one technique would be too narrow for me and would not correspond to my nature and idea of artistic freedom.

Do you start your work with a preconceived concept or idea of what you want to achieve, or is the result unexpected?

I have a very clear idea of the direction a work should take and how the work should look later. But, and this is the beauty, some particularly exciting results are achieved through coincidences and unexpected turns in the work and the creative process.

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How do you know or decide when a work of art is finished?

That moment of realization comes all by itself. I look at the work and know, now it's finished. However, this sensing and knowing when a work is finished was a process. At the beginning of my artistic work, I actually often worked too much on a piece and didn't always make it better in the end. That doesn't happen to me anymore. I have created a ritual for finishing each painting: I stamp it with my logo, and stamping is a conscious decision to end the painting process and finish the work.

What other creative people, books, music, or movies inspire you?

When I'm working on a piece, music, podcasts, or audiobooks always accompany me in my studio. Sometimes only in the background but often themes and moods from them flow directly into my works. For example, when I was working on a portrait, the song "Bridge over troubled water" played repeatedly in my playlist. The song was so incredibly appropriate to the mood of the painting that I named the finished work "Troubled Water." This is just one example of many. Inspiration can be found everywhere if you go through life with your eyes open and especially with an open mind and heart. This is how the idea for my series LICHTEGSTALT came about during yoga, more precisely during shavasana, the final relaxation in which one lies motionless on one's back so that the preceding yoga session can have an effect physically and mentally.

In this final relaxation, I saw the finished work of art in my mind's eye, came home, and immediately began to implement it. I like to attend classical concerts, where I can wonderfully send my thoughts on creative journeys, and at many a concert a creative idea has been born and implemented. But creative people also inspire me a lot, be it big names exhibited in museums or also through social media channels or contemporary artists. There are some here that I follow.

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Do you have certain rituals or indispensable objects in the studio?

My studio is an energy space, a place of well-being and a workplace at the same time. There are actually several rituals with me. One I've already described is the ritual of finishing by stamping my work. Another ritual is the complete tidying and cleaning of my studio when a work of art is finished. The paint tubes, brushes, and painting spatula chaos while working on the painting can probably also be called a ritual. It is all the more important to me to have the "outside," that is, my workplace, orderly and clean again in order to let new creative ideas arise in the "inside."

Another ritual that I particularly love is the sealing of a work with the final furnace after drying. And, of course, the ritual of packaging for picture shipping when the work is sold and creating the certificate of authenticity. Indispensable, in addition to the painting utensils, the easel and my wallpaper tables for horizontal work are now the technical devices, such as the MacBook, tripod and camera, and iPhone for photographing the works, and the maintenance of art portals such as Singulart, my own website, and social media channels. Since I work a lot with fluorescent colors, I also have blue light installed in the studio to see the effect of the images.

Do you work with real-life examples, or are your works mainly based on fantasy?

My works are very much based on real life, which means that the people I paint actually exist or existed in this world. I work partly on the model in the studio, partly from photographs. In the realization of the painting, my imagination then comes into play, which translates into colors, so my portraits are usually not "skin-colored" but adapted to the emotion that I see, feel, and want to convey.

How do you come up with the titles of your artworks?

The titles to the paintings arise in the creative process, manifest themselves at work in my thoughts, and often the title is already decided long before the painting is finished.

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Would you tell us more about your current project? What are you working on?

I'm currently working on a new series that (of course) deals with people again. Specifically, it's about depicting people in their everyday lives and with things that surround them. I have been fascinated by collages for a long time, and I am working on my first own collage series. Collage is a technique from the visual arts in which individual fragments of different materials are combined and put together, resulting in a new total work of art. The term "collage" comes from the French word "coller," which means "to glue" or "to glue."

However, I do not work out my collage as conventionally by "gluing." Instead, I paint the individual fragments (everyday objects, environment, plants, animals, etc.) in my collage and arrange them around and with the person I represent in it.

Where would you like to exhibit one day and why?

My dream is to one day exhibit in my favorite city, New York. This vibrant city and the diversity of the people in it inspire me, and with my art, I want to show exactly that: the human being in the middle of his life and its diversity. Daum, New York, would be just the right place for me.

Where do you see your career as an artist in five years?

As we see in current world events, an enormous amount can happen in five years. Living in peace and freedom while staying healthy are probably the best and most desirable future prospects at the moment. To preserve and live out my creativity and to carry my artistic work into the world, that will be my path in the next five years. And then when I see you at my exhibition in New York, I will be very happy!

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Visit the website of Karin Döring now:

https://www.karindoering.de/

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