About the artist:
I was born in Luxembourg in 1954.
After many attempts to fit into the “classical” school system I decided to go to a local art school as it best suited my learning style, especially for paintings and sculptures.
Later I went to study in Urbino (Italy) where I got a Master Degree in Art Ceramics. All my teachers became good friends of mine and this period was so rich in many ways that it inflenced most aspects of my life.
After this I went on a one-year trip to India. (This was a kind of fashion in those times). I gathered ground-breaking experiences for life.
Back in Luxembourg at the age of 25, I started as an art teacher to earm enough to ope my first own Art-Ceramic Studio.
There I continued the work I had already started in Italy and my studio became a kind of private Art-Ceramic School.
Since 1984 I have been creating ceramic birds called “Péckvillchen” in Luxembourgish. Tradition has it that these are sold at the annual Easter market in the old town. From the beginning these birds have been a great success and for many years they have allowed me a regular basic income. However they did not fulfill my expectation of a life as an artist and I used every minute of my spare time to work on my sculptures and projects.
The Luxembourg government purchased a large order and that kept me busy for two years. Later I helped my brother to create and build fair stands, but after he passed away in 1990, I stopped this activity.
Since 1987 I have been working on kinetic sculptures driven by small motors. My budget was always very limited but I found ways to create objects that don’t require high investments. Although I have been successful, I could never afford a sophisticated lifestyle and have remained an eternal vagabond, student, searcher ever since.
The “Péckvillchen” work had become bigger and bigger through the years and I had the help of students during the summer holidays. Over the years finding students to help me had become so difficult that I had to find a new solution. In 2004 I decided to travel to Thailand to find some small ceramic studios which can help me for this large production. The ‘Péckvillchen’ had never been done in a mass production style, but the time invested to create, develop, produce and sell the birds had increased during the years. Since 1999 my birds had become more sophisticated, so that every year I spent up to 4-5 months on the design and developing time, before the first bird was produced. Many people did not understand this and they preferred to buy cheaper and simpler birds from other craftsmen. What people didn’t realize was that the cheaper products had no longevity and were not as intricate and the products I was making. Throughout my life I have been living quite a modest life…. And have still had the greatest luxuries one can aspire to: freedom and passion for what I create.
Now I have a large studio in Luxembourg and in Thailand. In Luxembourg I cannot afford the research I can do in Thailand. My research is on a technological level: frustrated by the electric motors you can find on the market, I decided to develop my own motors. After a few years of trial-and-errors I have created some motors that start fulfilling some of my expectations…. well, some of them as I’m still working on it.
Besides I resumed working on ceramic sculptures and I have started to discover the human body as a means of art work.
So I am looking forward to the results following this studying period and what becomes of my everlasting life-long journey.
Exhibitions:
At the beginning of my art studies, I was invited to participate in a few exhibitions but I had no fixed style or technique yet…
Since my return from Italy, I had been asked by so many people, galleries , the Luxembourgish “chamber of crafts”, a section for crafts and art and institutions to show my work. At the beginning it was very interesting and I was proud that the government always selected my creations to be displayed all around the world to represent the art and craft from Luxembourg and for official occasions in my country… but unfortunately my ceramic work would be returned in a broken state. That is why I had to turn down getting this honor as this did not help me to pay my bills. Unfortunately I didn’t keep track of all these exhibitions. Since 1982 I had been selected quite regularly to take part in the “Salon du Cercle Artistique” from Luxembourg. My artworks travelled to most European countries, the US, China and Japan. As I had chosen to make very fragile ceramics and later fragile kinetic sculptures, each of my exhibitions meant a lot of packing, unpacking and mounting. That is why I now prefer choosing where I show my work, because I need to do the packing and mounting all by myself in order to get it done correctly.
Drugs, Yoga, Meditation, Massage, Psychotherapy, Hypnosis etc
In my late teenage period I had some contact with cannabis (weed) and occasional LSD-experiences. These led me to an insight and to a quest: Can’t I reach this state of consciousness by natural ways?
I started yoga courses at the same time as I started my art studies and thereby got to know very interesting people. I studied the Vedas, Samkhya and Yoga Sutras among others. Later, in India, I met a highly enlightened man who opened the “next door “ to me. My experiences of that time remain imprinted in my being for the rest of my life.
Since 1980 I had been teaching yoga. In 1992 I went on my second India trip,
I visited several ashrams and got stuck in some place in Poona where I got closer to quite a realistic approach to life.
Later I took classes for become a psychotherapist using hypnosis, NLP, massage etc. I was pleased to be able to help some people out of their “problems”. Still, at some point, I had to choose between becoming a professional therapist or remaining an artist. And for a long time now my insight has been that the best drug for me is a clear head, regular swimming practice, jogging and my art.
You can obtain any state of mind naturally by allowing it to happen.