O-A: What is art to you? Is creating an urge, necessity or maybe an incontournable, essential way of life?
Mara Ruehl: Art begins where words fail. That is why I feel it as necessity to implement topics that are important for me in such a way, that communication and examination of these topics can take place on a non-verbal level.
O-A: What wouldn’t you do without art? What did you discover, achieve with it?
Mara Ruehl: I cannot imagine a life without art, because it is my tool of cognition. It has helped me to a deeper understanding of myself and my environment.
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O-A: Who or what inspired you artistically; a person, artist, event, experience…
Mara Ruehl: My inspiration comes from many small individual parts that come together to form a whole in an unspecified period of time. It is never an event on its own, but the interplay of different images, feelings and impressions.
O-A: What is a vivid memory of a remark concerning your art that got stuck with you?
Mara Ruehl: Many of my collectors say that my works remind them a bit of Mark Rothko. They say it’s Rothko 2.0. Most visitors to my studio believe that the works are illuminated from behind because the colours have an incredible luminosity.
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O-A: How do you search for inspiration and themes for your work?
Mara Ruehl: I do not seek inspiration, but it finds me. My topics and ideas for my paintings arise from the intensity with which I perceive certain thoughts.
O-A: How has your art changed over time? Why?
Mara Ruehl: The change of my art came with the transformation of my themes. The less objectively the subjects I dealt with, the more essential abstraction became. And the more I focused on the essential, the more compelling reduction became. With a figurative painting style I could only ever reproduce my own reality – and that would always be just an illusion!
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