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| I was born and raised in the countryside of northern Germany, in a village that has been the seat of my family for over 500 years. The hilly wooded landscape is breathtakingly beautiful when the sun shines, but colorless and oppressing when the weather is overcast or rainy, which is how it is most of the time. So from an early age I started to yearn for exotic, faraway places. After finishing boarding school I studied textile design, first in Hanover, Germany and later in Vienna, Austria. Not satisfied with the resulting employment options, I moved to Paris to study haute couture. I then worked for eight months helping decorate the famous display windows at the original Hermes boutique on the Faubourg St. Honore. At the age of 25 I decided I wanted to see more of the world, and took a job with Club Med. Many clubs have art studios for the guests, and I was hired to teach weaving and batik. Little did I know how much this new venture was to change my life. My first assignment for Club Med was in Morocco. Under the blue skies of northern Africa I had an epiphany in the use of color within the first 3 days of my stay. I also discovered the technique of painting on silk, which would later allow me to combine my knowledge of design, fashion and interior decoration. Plus I was finally exposed to all the exoticism I ever wanted. I stayed with Club Med for two more seasons, in Mexico and Greece, and then moved to Hamburg, Germany to start my own business as a fine artist painting on silk. A few years later I visited the United States and fell in love with California, its people, its climate, its colors, its way of life. In California I felt I could make use of all my European background and training without having to adhere to Old World rules. What freedom! I moved to Marin County, north of San Francisco. At first I continued to paint exclusively on silk, while also designing scarves for Hermes, Bogner, Leonard and other international fashion and accessory brand names. For my personal development I began to paint with oils and acrylics. This is when I started rendering my travel paintings and exploring many other subjects on canvas. Over the years I also began working with murals and ceramics and gradually stopped painting on silk. In 1995 I met and later married my prefect match, the writer Thom Elkjer. In 1999 we both fell in love with the Anderson Valley in Mendocino County, Northern California, where we now live full time. |
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