Britta Grassman
Britta Grassman (SWEDEN) born 1967 Köln, Germany
Lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden
In my experience, artistic activity starts with the ability to stay with the thoughts and feelings that occur in the present, in order to be able to transform them. The artworks, primarily paintings, can be viewed as a form of transcription of this experience. Thoughts and feelings transform into new shapes and new meanings in an ongoing process of examination and discovery. I’m attempting to discover a new space, a kind of frontier that tends to appear in the gaps between external world and inner reality within the picture as it unfolds. In my explorations, I keep returning to this frontier. Landscapes are a recurrent theme, but other themes will also enter the pictures. My aim is to keep the painting as open as possible for as long as possible in the process of creating it. I tend to work with a number of layers, and believe that all layers count and contribute to the final work, no matter how little some of the first attempts will be visible in the end. Until I was in my mid-thirties, I kept my artistic activity more or less to myself. It was a highly private pursuit. The idea of creating art on a larger scale, getting an art education, and plunging into the “big blue” of Art felt very distant. But once I jumped in, I just wanted to keep swimming. I have a BA in professional social work, and I work with consulting and with foster care. For my artistic activities, I have a studio in my home in Stockholm. The focus I’ll get from the month-long retreat at ALN will result in new inspiration for more projects, and hopefully exciting exchanges with other participants. I’m joining with big ambitions and an open spirit. Britta Grassman will be spending September of 2019 at ALN.
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/brittagrassman/