Interview with Magdalena Fasching — Contemporary Art Curator Magazine

Can you tell us about the moment you decided to pursue a career as an artist?

I have to confess, I don't even know if I consciously decided that. However, I can still remember when, shortly before finishing my elementary school, it was a question of what you wanted to become and what goals you wanted to pursue in life. At that time I said I had one dream: I would like to officially call myself an artist one day – as I have painted and drawn since I was a young girl. So I enrolled at the Vienna School of Art and studied Multidisciplinary Art.

Today I still see this critically. I have my degree and I am also active as a freelance artist, but when exactly does one decide to pursue a career? Can one even consciously decide that? Isn't it more a question of resonance? Of the feedback? Of interested parties?

I can already actively decide to pursue a career in the artistic field, but this is dependent on interested parties, which makes the whole thing a bit of a contradiction for me.

What kind of an artist do you ultimately see yourself?

I don't really see myself as a certain kind of artist. I'm far too interested and curious about methods, materials and topics.

I work multimedia and interdisciplinary. Although I follow a certain thread on the whole, I am very flexible in the individual.

However, I see myself as an artist whose work should be accessible to as many people as possible, or to those who are interested. In my opinion, art should not be reserved for the Privileges. I am not a friend of utopian prices and the pure trading with the name.

What do you want your art to convey to the people who see it? What is the meaning or creative motivation behind your work?

Of course, there are topics that I follow and that I have been dealing with for years. But above all, I am fascinated by illustration. The visualization of texts, that is, to let my imagination play. And so I give the viewer the opportunity to play his own imagination. I want to give the viewer the freedom to decide for him-or herself what he or she sees in my works or what meaning they might have.

As said, there are topics where only little room for interpretation is given, but especially with my kind of "pouring-" or "color flowing-" technique I always find it interesting to learn what others acknowledge in it.

Can you tell us about the process you use to create your works? What is your typical workday routine?

My day-to-day work as a freelance artist looks pretty chaotic. Starting from the spatial conditions up to the production of a picture.

I work at home. My studio is mainly my living room and vice versa. When I'm in my process, I don't even have the space to eat, as the dining table and living room table turn into my papers on which I work. This way I have access to all my materials at all times and can draw from the full at any hour.

Most of the time I work on several paintings in parallel.

First, I cover my kitchen counter and lay out a blank canvas. This is prepared for my Water- and Color-fowing technique. (For example the picture called "Dragonflies" or "Frogs are comming")

While this keeps drying for hours, I start in parallel with other works. And so the back and forth alternates, just as unplanned as the result of my pictures themselves.

Where do you find inspiration? What motivates you to create?

My biggest motivation is my imagination, I think. But also my environment, nature, flora and fauna, and books. Lots and lots of books!

What has been your most outstanding achievement to date?

My biggest success so far was the participation in a competition during my studies and the 1st place, which I won together with a colleague.

The prize was not only financia, even more encouraging the contract for the implementation on site.

It was about the design of a public passageway in a newly built residential complex in 1020 Vienna.

The Art Walk in the Obere Donaustraße in Vienna has been on display since its opening and will be until nature takes it back.

More info at: http://www.raumgeschichten.at/wohnart-leopoldstadt/

What are your ultimate career goals?

I do not yet dare to define definitive professional goals. I think I'm still too young for that, and I'm too much at the beginning of my "career". Nevertheless, I have more short-term goals, such as illustrating and publishing my self-penned children's book. And ongoing, to get the chance to illustrate other books in succession.