Carmen Rieger
I was born and finished my studies in Romania. I have been living in Austria for almost 20 years. I graduated from the Faculty of Industrial Design and worked as a furniture designer. Since 2018 I've been experimenting a whole new style inspired by fluids, by the organic shapes that fluids create through their free movement in nature. I have called my new style "Fluidism".
Please tell us more about your background and how you began creating art?
Drawing was present within my life ever since my childhood. I spent a lot of time in nature, in my grandparents’ village. I was, most of all, drawn to the water. It all started as a play with rainwater. I enjoyed drawing the outline of small pools of water after it rained. I loved to sing and dance in the rain. At home I drew fantasy scenes inspired by the rain dance. I was the happiest child in the world. Thus began an adventure that influenced my entire existence.
My drawings and paintings are inspired by the liquid aggregate state of water, giving me the greatest freedom to create. The shapes and features of all living bodies are continually growing and changing. In the bodies of plants, animals and humans water is in a very large proportion _70%. That's how I got the idea to draw only the liquid part of the bodies without completely destroying their initial shape and character. All my artworks are complex, highly organized constructions of organic fluid forms.
Daily contact with fluids, for years on end, has influenced my artistic development and has brought me to that moment of becoming aware of something I have always carried with me – Fluidism. The “awakening” happened, I managed to make my “inner voice” heard through original artworks bearing a brand new style based upon an original concept. Now I truly consider myself an artist. My artworks are the essence of what I am, what I feel and what I live.
What does your art aim to say to the viewers?
It’s all about fluidity. Everything flows. Fluidity belongs to the human being, is in our biological composition and in the composition of our society in which we all are immersed. It's about a strong communication system with its own language and infinite ways of expression. It’s about a reality that finds and elaborates its nature in the liquid state of things. We are immersed in it and we’re carried away by the flow of eternal becoming.
Do you have an essential philosophy that guides you in your creative expression?
In order to be able to create, I have to connect me emotionally to that "huge power", I have to obtain a certain state of happiness without which, in my case, nothing works. And in order to better understand everything, I will explain what is art for me.
Art is like a river. The biggest and most powerful river in human history. A river with fantastic colors, sounds and shapes, with hidden messages and healing powers that takes with it the emotions of those who feel and understand its vibrations.
What art marketing activity do you put into practice regularly that works most successfully for you?
I don't have a marketing strategy based on a successful formula. I make spontaneous decisions based on the invitations I receive to participate in certain cultural events. In future, I will think about the rigorous planning of my artistic activity.
Can you tell us about the process of creating your work?
I always start a sketch with the thing I want to draw, and then I change it multiple times until I reach a point where I feel like I’ve said everything and I am very happy with the end result. In the case of a portrait, for instance, each line needs to be in a very precise spot. Any change to the base lines, however small, might completely ruin the expression of the person in the portrait. All my artworks are complex, highly organized constructions of organic fluid forms. This stage in the creation of my works is the most interesting and the most difficult from all.
The next step is transferring the sketch (usually done on A4 format) to a very large canvas. This step is crucial in its importance and extremely complicated. Any slight variation, when scaling up the drawing, might distort it, change it and completely ruin a portrait. Every detail needs to be drawn with utmost precision.
The last step is applying the colours. I use acrylics that I apply with the help of a brush, between tape of varying widths, lengths and shapes. The colour is the element that offers visual unity and harmony. I use the seven colors of the rainbow and the shades obtained by combining them. For me, the colors of the rainbow are states of happiness that bring a portrait to life.
How much planning goes into each artwork?
I am not an artist who creates spontaneously. I invest a lot of time in a work of art. I meticulously plan every detail of construction and color in each artwork.
What’s the essential element in your art?
My drawings and paintings are inspired by the liquid aggregate state of water. The idea of combining organic fluid forms in an advanced, complex composition I had some years ago when I started drawing portraits, animals and landscapes in a whole new style that I called ”Fluidism”.
Fluidism is a concept, through which I express my artistic creed in works of art, inspired by the existence of a complex substance of outstanding properties and qualities - WATER.
WATER is an unique and indestructible substance. WATER is the basis of life, growth and change. WATER has the ability to regenerate continually. WATER is comforting and shooting.
WATER shows understanding and sensitivity.
WATER is an accomplished artist.
WATER is the most important element on the planet , can be found in 70% of our earth and in the same proportion in the bodies of humans, animals and plants - sometimes, even in a larger quantity.
A person`s character and inner life can be recognized in a portrait. A bird remains a bird without losing the character and idea of flight and an elephant is transformed into a new elephant through a complex ensemble of colors and organic fluid shapes, without losing the idea of the elephant.
What is your daily routine when working?
I need music, a certain inner mood and a large bottle full of water that I always keep in my studio. When I start working, I say "Thank you" and "I love you" to the water. I wish that through my artworks I can bring more interest and understanding for this unique and perfect substance that sustains life and unites everything in a whole of beauty.
