Christel Sobke — Contemporary Art Curator Magazine

Biography

As early as 1982 when I was admitted to the Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences, I presented an environmental topic. It was well received and a 4 year study in design / art followed. I was granted an unusually wide range of studies that later gave me a good foundation of technical possibilities. I choose the medium appropriate to the artistic intention. Regardless of whether it is graphics, painting in a wide variety of techniques, photography or small sculptures, all technical media are the working tools for creating an idea. From 1992 the computer medium was added. This medium really offers all possibilities of representation. Unfortunately, apart from a few exceptions, such as the city of Dresden, there was a negative attitude towards this technology, which was considered to be automatic. However, this digital machine is operated by a person who uses the computer as a work tool, like a brush and pen, to express his ideas. An impairment of the work because it could be copied endlessly is no longer an objection since Warhol and digital photography and the most modern printing techniques. And there are now good solutions for copyright. From 1984 many exhibitions, national and international.

Artist Statement

I've been working as a freelancer since 1984. One of my main topics is the representation of our changing environment. In a sequence I create series with 3 paintings, which in comparison show the changes, but also the changeability by humans. The rowing is : first natural image, second negative image, third positive aspect for future. Another serial sequences represent paintings of gardens, based on own photos, which show one and the same garden in very different ways, in different perspectives and close-ups as well as overview shots. Transferred to the perception of people, we should be shown how things can often be seen better from a distance and how limited the assessment can be from close up. In addition to these series of paintings, countless digital works that I have been doing since 1992 deal with environmental problems. I think the space we live in is worth worrying about with a rapidly growing world population. My pictures are intended as a wake-up call, as an appeal to us to rethink our behavior. It is never too late to act quickly and intelligently. It is important to use the means that are naturally given to us.

What first prompted you to think of becoming an artist?

I've always wanted to be an artist for as long as I can remember. As a kid, when my parents went out at night, I would spend the time dressing up, doing new hairstyles to surprise them when they got home. As a teenager, I did some theater and sang in the school choir. But above all, my devotion and talent for drawing and painting was discovered early on. My father then encouraged me to take lessons from a painter. When I was 12 I won first prize in a competition run by the largest newspaper in the Ruhr area. After graduating from high school, I first studied German and English for teaching at schools. Since I came from a poor economic background, this job offered me financial security. In addition to this degree, I also took painting at the university. Later my husband encouraged and supported me to study again and this time it was art and design. I had achieved my goal.

What kind of an artist do you ultimately see yourself?

I see myself as an artist with a strong social commitment, but also as an artist to whom the visual implementation of an idea is extremely important. I use all media and styles that seem appropriate to me. Techniques and artistic design are a vehicle for me to make an idea, an intention visible.

What are you hoping to communicate to the viewer through your work?

As I said before, social things are very important to me. From the beginning (since 1978) this has included the problem of our environment as an indispensable living space. My aim is to make it vividly clear that everything we are so familiar with and used to, with such a rapidly growing population of the world with all the associated problems will not always stay that way if intelligent solutions are not found. I, therefore, create sequences in the course of which a change becomes visible. For the environmental series in 3 paintings, I chose a special method of representation, for which I borrowed techniques from analogue color photography. With the same subject and picture structure, three paintings with color variants were placed side by side in a fixed sequence. Picture 1 shows the real color, picture 2 the negative deviation and picture 3 the positive outlook on the future and the mastering and solution of our problems. I want to encourage action, but I also want to emphasize that it is necessary to act.

Can you explain the process of creating your work?

Since I am active in a very broad spectrum of representation, this question is difficult to answer. It's easy with the environmental series because I only show typical landscapes and famous monuments threatened with decay from pollution. It is sufficient to look for a suitable motif. This also applies to my perspective paintings and the series with changed positions of details in the image. Often, however, when I see an everyday object such as a cardboard box, a screw or a socket, I have the idea of creating sequences to revive this object, to give it a different identity that is no longer purely functional, but playfully different changes from image to image. At the end of the series of images there is often a totally abstract work in which the original object is no longer recognizable.

What is your favourite part of the creative process?

Actually an idea for a picture, the enthusiasm to create something new. Everyone wonders when I see something interesting in garden waste, such as small twigs, withered leaves and flowers, and when I take photos. What appeals to me are the special shapes that inspire me. So I suddenly see dancing graces in waving clothes and graceful movements in banal, withered roots. When I paint, I feel an almost physical pleasure in perceiving colors and then applying these colors to canvas or paper.

Can you give us an insight into current projects and inspiration, or what we can look forward to from you in the near future?

I will paint and draw more in the near future to slow down. A large number of digital works have been created over many years. The computer in connection with photography is the ideal tool for me with all the variety of possibilities, technical refinements that are available to me to express myself creatively. In the meantime, the passion for working on the computer has become too big. The machine had me fully under control - for hours without a break. However, I am sure it will only be a temporary breakup.

Website www.art-christel-sobke.de