163cm tall, blue eyes, brown hair, healthy enough to feel happy in my own body, born in 1965 in Waldkirchen, a small rural town in the Bavarian forests. I grew up surrounded by mountains and nature, far removed from the hustle and bustle of city life. An unassuming provincial town where life has a different rhythm; things move at a slower pace, it takes longer to adapt to and adopt life’s changes and developments.

I was the eldest of three children. My brother Markus died at the young age of 20 and I have a sister Sandra, 8 years my junior, who is very dear to me. My parents ran their own business and looking back, I had a very normal childhood, nothing out of the ordinary. I attended a convent boarding school and my early years were shaped by the strict Roman-Catholic ethos of the school and its teachers. Early on, the confines and constraints of this environment set me on the path to find a creative outlet for my feelings, but at this stage this was expressed in a conventional and unrevolutionary way.

I worked in social pedagogy in this same rural town for several years, but I soon started to ask myself: is this really EVERYTHING? Life had more to offer. So, in 1993, I bid farewell to my hitherto safe life and embarked on a journey within myself and into the wider world, in search of something as yet unknown. I needed to learn, be alive, independent, free, and face whatever consequences this new life would bring.

I was unafraid, ready to take risks and follow my intuition. With a healthy dose of blind optimism to boot, I took on extraordinary challenges. I travelled to the USA, Southeast Asia and Europe, furthering my education and gathering experiences in different areas of life (physical, emotional, mental, spiritual and creative). This enabled me to explore and embrace other perspectives and worlds, and in so doing, to discover the truth within me and find a spiritual home in the new life I had chosen for myself.

I have had many mentors along the way. In nearly all cases, our paths crossed by chance, yet they all shaped me and my personal development significantly. Even though some 2 experiences were emotionally and mentally painful, the past 15 years of INDEPENDENCE were infused with an energy that gave me the inner strength and confidence to pursue this path. I made a conscious decision to pursue this fulfilling and enriching life as an artist. I wanted to use my art to explore the SOMETHING that I could not see; to reflect it, make it visual, quite simply to reveal it. This SOMETHING has many definitions throughout the world: strength, energy, basic trust, love, power, God, and it is at the heart of us all, irrespective of the religion, philosophy, continent and culture in which we feel at home.
With this in mind, I want to thank all those people who have accompanied, moved, formed, shaped, encouraged and supported me, each in their own individual way.

What do I want the DESTINATION of my journey to be? I want the authenticity and truth at the heart of all my work to speak to these people, with ever more intensity, and be a visual doorway and pathfinder to a reality hidden within ourselves. In contemporary terms, my art is a journey - an expedition into a colourful, emotionally expressive world, a quest to become aware of one’s SELF. If you can approach my images and statements with spontaneity, courage, joy, vitality and openness, I hope you can emerge feeling stronger, more aware, more whole. In the spirit of positive ZEN and a healthy ZEST for everything that life has to offer,

< JUMP + JUST DO IT> I / YOU / WE CAN ONLY WIN!

© Petronilla H. September 2010