ARTIST
Edwin-Andreas Drotleff
in January 2025
Interested in art - in every aspect!
My first conscious contact with art was in art classes at secondary school. I can still remember the picture reviews and especially my own work well. Music also plays a central role in my life - not a day goes by without music. Whether it's relaxing to the sound of vinyl records or listening to albums on the way to work. For over 10 years I also practiced dance sports regularly, from folk dance and folklore to standard dances and salsa, which I also taught for about two years.
What does that have to do with my artistic work? A lot!
Music accompanies and drives my creative process when painting. Through dancing, whether alone, as a couple or in a group, I have developed a sensitivity and empathy that help me, for example, to empathize with an image and recognize imbalances in the composition. My first experiences in art classes were the foundation and the initial spark for my current passion: art.
Autodidact from the beginning.
When choosing a career, “artist” was never up for debate for me – it had to be a “proper” job that would allow me to earn money and that didn’t require any explanations. I followed this common-sense path because I lacked the drive and knowledge to seriously consider becoming an artist. Nevertheless, art always remained a part of my life and
present in the background: be it through dance, music or ultimately painting and drawing.
With my first own apartment, more space in the following apartment, and the Corona pandemic that forced me to keep myself busy at home, my commitment to art as a hobby and side job grew. The conversion of part of my apartment into a small studio and regular work on canvas and paper are the result.
As an autodidact, I concentrate on specific theme cycles in order to master their peculiarities and technical requirements. For me, the focus of autodidactic learning is trying things out in the process and experiencing the process itself. This artistic process includes everything from the concept to the preparatory work, painting, and online presence and self-marketing on Instagram, among others. By reading, trying things out, and practicing, I am constantly developing myself and my work. For me, the satisfaction lies in experiencing each individual step and recognizing my progress - personally and in my works.
Ideas + inspiration = theme cycles
Through new impressions and experiences, I am constantly gathering input for existing theme cycles or developing new ideas from them. This inspiration can come from any situation in life - museum visits, vacation experiences or walks in familiar surroundings. Since the lockdowns and other pandemic restrictions, I have also been looking for inspiration online, through digital museum visits or simply scrolling on Instagram. I often take photos of situations or save screenshots that I collect in countless folders on my phone.
But ultimately, all ideas have to be put on paper or canvas. When I feel that an idea has matured and the image in my head makes sense, I make notes and sketches and sometimes combine them in larger sketchbooks to further develop the concept, content and substance of the theme cycle. This is how more and more theme cycles emerge that help me channel my creativity into paths that ultimately lead to pictures, my works of art.
Art works - in every aspect!
As an artist, I ask myself what I should paint or depict when everything has supposedly already been done, everything has already been seen, or one can satisfy one's own taste in art in seconds with just one click or a suitable online search? There are now apps for your own mobile phone that generate "art" using artificial intelligence and keywords, and people don't even have to do anything deeper. "Instant art" so to speak: without effort, feeling or any participation.
I think the answer can only be - and has always been - the artist's view of things:
My view of the world, sometimes pausing dreamily and childishly and binding a motif in my head to the canvas in that moment.
The attempt to put a topic into context and capture this mood in color and form. Ultimately, my view of reality. Of what I find inspiring and beautiful.
And that is what makes me pause and generate ideas that may even represent something new in art or are at least worth seeing.
As an autodidact, these are all facets of my artistic activity and create an inner confidence that my art also works - in every aspect!
