I am a self-taught collage aficionado who loved drawing classes at school bug stopped in grade 10 when I did not get along with my new art teacher. I studied French and comparative literature up to a Master’s degree in Bordeaux and Berlin and opted for a corporate career as a PR and Marketing expert in financial services.
My Artistic side re-emerged during university and later after a hurtful breakup.
I did collages everywhere in my house on the wallpapers, furniture. Today I do them on canvases, boxes, or big ones. My home is my gallery. I print them on tees and phone covers. My collages are very colorful and always have women and people of color or tribes featured. My source of inspiration are travels and personal experiences. I do art listening to afrobeats or dancehall.
I live currently in Frankfurt, Germany but love Berlin, Miami, LA, and the Caribbean islands.
Hello Birgit! How would you describe your art to people?
Birgit: I would describe my art as fresh, colorful, feminine, and different, spiced with a lot of visual anecdotes and references to either celebrities, other artists, or musicians. You have to read or rather see between the lines. Enjoy it like an exotic dish.
What’s the most challenging part of your artistic process? And how do you overcome it?
Birgit: The fun part of the artistic process is collecting my material on the go wherever I am. Could be in a coffee shop, at the dentist’s waiting room, a kitchen catalog or a flyer. The challenging part is to assess all those bits and pieces, select the ones I feel are right for this collage I have in mind, and put them together. Before I start with the glue bottle I do a variety of layout combinations as a dry run and take pictures with my phone. It is like trial and error. Once I have settled for one layout I am finally satisfied with I am working in a kind of flow adding or omitting parts or shifting in a new order. That is my artistic freedom. I can go weeks without touching a canvas, the challenge then is to go back to work when I feel being too much of a lazy hedonist. Once I open my pandora box of material, I get a kind of urge where I forget time and just want to express myself. It can be tough for neighbors as this happens sometimes in the middle of the night with blasting music and I cannot stop a collage until it is finished.
You say your art is inspired primarily from travels and personal experiences. Describe a real-life situation that inspired your artwork.
Birgit: Yes, this is true, I travel a lot or used to before the pandemic hit. My favorite destinations are the Caribbean and any part of Africa. Two years ago, I was having an eye infection in Barbados which got treated by a doctor nearby I happened to develop a crush on. On his prescriptions, I found local stamps which inspired me to do a collage with this stamp at the center of a little box and Caribbean carnival people dressed like for crop over surrounding the stamp. There is also some text from a perfume ad sticker which says I am your man. Actually only a fantasy of mine as the guy was happily married and never knew what was going on. It is a homage to him and the feelings the place and moment inspired in me to do this collage.
What motivates you as an artist? Is it curiosity, the search for beauty or meaning?
Birgit: My motivation is my gut feeling and seeing the beauty of life which I kind of recycle and combine within a new context. I collect a lot of what I call raw material, that can be a gift wrapper, tons of glossy magazines especially from foreign countries or just an entrance ticket to a museum or a flyer or calling card I coincidently happen to see or stumble across. It is the beauty of a picture that fascinates me. When I see a picture in a magazine or on a postcard I actually know from that moment of how I will use it later, put it in a context or mix it with acrylic colors or plants or body pieces like lips or fruits in combination. I like to see colors and femininity in my collages. I grew up in an all-female household where men were not so important or present. If you take a close look you see some men but mostly they are not really well known and none of them is Caucasian. I find my collages very bright and voluptuous without being frivolous. Where women can be beautiful and strong at the very same time. While exploring you might find a girl abducted from Boko Haram next to a Kate Moss disguised as a nun. Or Cindy Shearman next to Cher to Barbie etc.
How has your style changed or evolved over the years?
Birgit: Yes, my style definitely has evolved from say 15 years ago to now. In the beginning, I used to assemble a lot of dark and sinister colors that stemmed from a post-traumatic phase in my life. I started putting collages together either on any kind of wallpaper in my apartment or on little boxes but mostly walls. When I did not like them anymore, I would just move or redecorate. A crucial step for me was to switch the collages on the canvas where I could preserve and collect them. The early work did not have an acrylic finish which made them fade or get destroyed over the years.
What is your most recent piece of art that you have enjoyed working on the most?
Birgit: I worked on a bigger canvas recently with a lot of female heads and figures, some well-known celebrities like Frida Kahlo or Marilyn Monroe in it but also the girl with the pearl earring by Vermeer and some less known social media influencers. There were only two male people of color in the artwork, one was Elephant man, a Jamaican dancehall performer I saw in Berlin in a concert, and the other one a musician I came across in a flyer. This piece was challenging because of some much canvas to fill, so I left it half-finished for weeks and then eventually got round filling in the blanks with colored fabrics I had found in a UK fashion catalog called Boden. You would never guess they belong to a dress or skirt. I just like their patterns and they perfectly fit into my collage as a finishing touch.
You say your home is your gallery. What is a day of working like in your home-studio? Do you have any rituals that help you get motivated or in “the zone”?
Birgit: Music is a great motivator for me to get me into a creative mood and keep me going for hours. I listen to a morning radio station called Cosmo radio and also have a vast playlist of afrobeat tunes (my favorite is Burnaboy right now), dance hall, reggaeton, and contemporary music. I need my espresso shot in the morning, my African herbal tea, and good German muesli with fresh fruits. Once I have read my daily horoscope and sprayed on some nice verveine or drama fragrance by Fragonard or other expensive perfumes brands I am in a good mood and can start working. It is all about creating the right setting for me.
What memorable responses have you had to your work?
Birgit: I get a lot of likes for my collages on my Insta page and when friends or acquaintances see my work for instance on my personal phone cover they want one for themselves as well. One friend said for example make sure Frida Kahlo is featured. Or can I have that canvas as a birthday present? I also printed some pictures on T-Shirts I wore and got a lot of compliments in the street for them, like where did you shop these online?
What is the best way to reach people that are interested in your art?
Birgit: The best way to reach out to me is on Instagram where I post my artwork for anyone to view it. I am a great fan of social media channels to spread new ideas, art, love, poetry around the world and find likeminded souls.
Are there any upcoming shows or workshops we should know about?
Birgit: Up to now I had no public exhibitions yet as I am not really involved in the professional art and exhibition circuit. I also have not come across a gallerist who spotted my collages. I will always come out with a new piece of art, so I won’t get bored until opportunity knocks at my door.
What’s next on the horizon for Birgit?
Birgit: I am totally open to professional collaborations with carpet manufactures, cell phone cover producers or clothing lines, leather goods. I am kind of entrepreneurial-minded. I can imagine that Rihanna wearing a customized handbag with my prints on or Billie Eilish sporting a Tee. And hey I also can sell my original canvas babies of course, if the price is right. Or finding the right gallery representing me and my work would be terrific, US preferably.