Michaela Groeblacher
My artwork is like an invitation to ask questions, to wonder, to
contemplate, to imagine, to explore. The message of the invitation
is being held in the colors, shapes and iconography. My work often
begins with an inspired thought – I always hear the title for my
paintings first – and then the vision follows. Here are some hints of
understanding my symbols:
All of us – whether consciously aware or not – are living both the
questions and the answers in life. This duality of existence is
reflected throughout my work in the faces portrayed there. One
level of
interpretation could be to represent man and woman. On a deeper
plane, they are meant to reflect our own duality – we are all positive
and negative, hopeful yet doubtful, joyful but fearful.
The wide eyes, found particularly in my paintings, represent the
seer
within us all. The eyes are the window to the soul, they are the
pathway for information coming and going in our private worlds.
Some may interpret the wide-open eyes as a naive quality, as
though
only seeing the sweetness of life; that would be falling far short of
my
intention. The eyes wide open see it all: the hopefulness, the
disappointment, the aspirations, the failures, the desires, the fears,
the cruelty, the love.
Even though my work spans varied media, it is all about
relationships. Relationships with our selves, as in balancing our
own duality and conflicts, relationships with nature, the
environment and the planet at large and relationships with other
humans and living creatures.
I believe that human beings are here for one task: to discover – to
remember, if you will, the gift we each came to deliver – the gift that
is essential to bring balance to the earth, to restore our souls, to
create heaven on earth by realizing and applying our thoughts,
ideas
and talents.
Art plays a crucial roll in human evolution, because, just like a
mirror, art reflects ideas, beliefs, emotions that are not readily
seen – or sometimes, we don’t want to see them. This is also,
what makes artistic expression very challenging. As an artist, we
have but one commission: to be honest with what we see and
express.
Having grown up in the midst of ancient art, I could not escape it,
especially since my senses were always open for it. In Austria
there
is art and architecture everywhere, on every old doorframe and mail
box, stair well and window – not to mention all the churches and
other public buildings, museums, halls and gardens. I am
influenced and inspired by the work of the Austrian artists Gustav
Klimt and Friedensreich Hundertwasser , but also by the Cubist
style: I see it as a means to depict the way human thought
processes work: fractioned, interrupted, layered, overlapping,
spontaneous.