Katja Marzahn

Katja Marzahn was born in northern Germany and grew up in a small town on the River Elbe. As a child, she was enthralled by her chemistry set rather than by paintbrushes, but she attributes her artistic curiosity now to the thrills and sense of adventure inspired by the chemical experiments she undertook at the time. She took her degree at the Academy for Arts & Design in Hanover and now makes her living as a freelance designer, working particularly within the textile industry. She has designed carpets, fabrics and papers for some of the best-known companies and retailers in the home-décor business and her creations have been sold throughout Europe, Australasia and America. She notes as her personal inspiration the tones, textures and shapes of plants and the pleasure she obtains from mixing her own paint colours with real pigments. She works often with mixed media; incorporating painting, photography and graphics and she has also developed her own recipes for wax crayons. In the artistic world, she particularly admires Matisse and Ellsworth Kelly, and the photographic work of Karl Blossfeldt. In 1992, Katja Marzahn won the "European Pepinieres for Young Artists".