Every artwork on my website is unique and there is just one original available, standard size DIN A4 (30x20 cm), stamped and signed by me. For each of them I normally spend around five hours only for the creation process - catching a creative idea, looking at all the material, making a selection of it, store them in a specific order, and then start building the collage.

That’s the moment I leave the track of being systematic. That’s where the artist dives into the flow of creativity. The sense of time disappears and the subconscious directs the process. I think it is ok to say this is something magic. Sometimes it costs hours before the moment when the glue is used. Then the free creative process is changing: From playful handling in free space to a more mature, manifesting composition. For sure, the creative process does not end here either, further changes are always welcome and key of the creation process. 

My artworks can be classified in different categories. For my Classic Series I only use material from old stocks. These are excerpts from magazines, newspapers, brochures, etc., some of which are several decades old. From an aesthetic point of view, I particularly like the appearance and patina of the material. Added to this is the magic of a kind of absorbed energy inherent in the historical content. Arranging these in a new field of tension inspires me.

The Art On The Way Series gets a different focus. My family and I, there are 6 of us, we travel. In 2022 we sold all our belongings in Germany, remodeled an old truck which caries us through the world. From there on I started to create my Art On The Way. Our truck, built in 1985, is called Hartmut. The domain ARTMUTH.com can be derived from the name. To the point - a collage from this series is created from material that I collect during our journey and assign to a specific location where we are staying. This is how different materials come together. This can be a restaurant menu, the flyer for local events, tickets from the subway, a concert and other different sights. As a result a collage composition with a clear local reference is created. More details about the creation process, us as a family, our travel stories, locations and events in the blog section and on Instagram.

made with patina

Although I had a successful management career, I decided to go back to my roots for a variety of reasons. First of all I asked myself: What do you really want to do, what do you love to do? I remembered my early childhood and quickly got the idea that I wanted to be an artist. I have always been interested in art and later especially in creating collages. It took a couple of decades and I think they were well invested to get to the point of doing things differently. So in my forties I decided to follow my passion of being an artist.