Franziska Dörfel on Visualizing Inner Worlds Through Abstraction and Figuration

Franziska Dörfel is a contemporary artist from Germany, known for her thought-provoking paintings. In this interview, she shares her creative journey and the inspirations behind her work. Born in 1982 in Rostock, she talks about how her training as a wood sculptor and her studies in painting and philosophy shaped her as an artist. Franziska describes her creative process, explaining how she explores the complexities of human life through her art. She highlights the importance of silence and introspection for finding inspiration. She also opens up about how her paintings aim to offer new perspectives to viewers, blending abstract and figurative styles.

Artist Franziska Dörfel has been featured in the Arts to Hearts Project’s book Lines And Curves and is recognized by the Women in Arts Network as a portfolio partner. Women in Arts Network is a proud portfolio partner of the Arts to Hearts Project’s books and magazines.

Franziska Dörfel, a contemporary artist from Germany, was born in 1982 in Rostock in East Germany. After graduating from high school and training as a wood sculptor in Thuringia, she began her studies in Art & Philosophy at the University of Greifswald. During her studies, she decided to pursue a career as a professional artist and started studying painting at the Burg Giebichenstein Art Academy in Halle/Saale. She has been fascinated by the art of the old masters while also being interested in abstract and contemporary art.

In her studio, she works intensively to explore the boundaries between abstraction and figurative painting, developing her artistic expression. Her work starts with an informal painting of oil on canvas. Through the act of applying paint, she creates a stage for her themes, allowing the canvas to become an open space that evolves by sensing the existing abstract color spaces. Her artistic research focuses on the superimposition, condensation, and transparency of color, reinforcing her pictorial themes through layers of paint.

Franziska’s works address the duality of human existence and the often contradictory complexity of life. She visualizes inner worlds that reflect different levels of consciousness and subconsciousness, aiming to understand human emotions and the core of human actions. She recognizes that our relationship with ourselves and our environment is more intense than we often realize.

While she draws on an old-masterly approach to painting, she consciously incorporates contemporary elements and disruptive factors to create tension, which she identifies as the focus of her work. She sees the complexity in her pieces as an opportunity to challenge viewing habits and stimulate further thought.

Franziska has participated in regional exhibitions, and her work is held in private collections across Germany. Recently, she has decided to engage in international calls for entries to increase the visibility of her creative journey.

1. What inspired you to become an artist?

With the awakening of the self, I saw myself more and more as an observer of other people. I was rarely a part of them and was fascinated and sometimes surprised by their rituals and practices of coping with life. My inner world was and has always been a safe space for me to process and understand my experiences on the outside. As I grew older, it became a source of inspiration for my artistic work. The relationship between inside and outside is a living, passionate love between two poles. I could only deal with the reflections and insights and the tensions that arise in the process artistically. Painting is my language. I can say that there was no exact point in time when I described myself as an artist. This assignment to a professional group is a development process on the path of self-discovery and the consistent decision to work on it.

My works deal with the duality of human existence and the deeper, often contradictory complexity of our existence.

_{Franziska Dörfel}

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2. What is your creative process like from start to finish?

At the beginning of a new work, I invite all the artists I value into the mental space so that they can accompany, criticize, and support me in the creation of the work. Deep introspection and constant communication with the many critics are my sources in the search for the holy grail, the mastery of my personal and unique creative self-expression. The search for it begins with each new work. I stand before it like a child, completely open, vulnerable, and immensely curious. What happens next? The initial themes of a painting are never fixed. I sift through my collected references from old paintings, sketches and memories, sculptures, photographs, film clips, and newspaper articles… if the work resonates with the fragments of the painting, I incorporate and integrate them. My painting is a constant negotiation with the emerging and emerging protagonists and processes on the canvas. I struggle with my resistance and that of the material. Decisions have to be made about the composition, the colors, and the statement of an evolving work. What can remain? What has to disappear? I am hard on myself. It often happens that I paint over everything and turn the canvas upside down or sand it down again. Everything starts all over again, but much more secure in the lines and the statement, until the work and I are satisfied. Then there’s nothing more to say and I can let it go without a second thought.

3. Where do you find inspiration for your artwork?

Silence untouched nature and deep immersion in my inner world are my resources and the places of my inspiration. Silence is a completely underestimated resource to open the doors inside. Painting is concentration. An image needs certain conditions to show itself. Concentration, time, light, good work material, and distance. I work in my studio on several works at the same time to be able to meet the picture again and again with a new and unbiased look. Leaving the universe of work and then continuing to paint with a sharpened look is necessary and valuable because a good image must unfold in the confidence that everything takes its time. Some pictures take months to mature, others tolerate much less attention and breathe through their simplicity.

4. How do you handle creative blocks or periods of low inspiration?

Art is a process and an offering to the duality of creation with all its facets of feelings narratives and experiences of human existence. With the claim of wanting to communicate something in art and my understanding of assimilation from within, it takes time and contemplation to create deep works. Normally, I sometimes have nothing to say. Nevertheless, I continue to work hard to explore the material and techniques of oil painting. Painting is work and a constant routine in the studio is important to refine your style technically. Working on your maturity requires regular practice. When I’m not inspired, I paint what’s around me, make portraits, play with color gradients, or read artist books to learn from others.

My paintings are the visualization of inner worlds. They show different levels of inner spaces that move between consciousness and subconsciousness and try to understand the human being with his emotions and entanglements, the core of his actions.

_{Franziska Dörfel}

5. What do you hope people take away from experiencing your art?

People need mirrors and stories to understand themselves. I believe that good works of art are keys to doors that, in the best case, open rooms that the recipient has not yet entered. They don’t know the structures, they don’t know the view through the windows, they don’t know what awaits them there. Perhaps he will meet himself? In the noise of the visual world, good works are anchors that make it possible to linger, resonate for a long time, and perhaps always remain. I will be grateful when my work opens these doors.

Franziska Dörfel’s creative journey shows her commitment to understanding and expressing the complexities of life. By mixing traditional techniques with modern ideas, she creates paintings filled with emotion and stories. To learn more about Franziska, visit the links below.

You can explore Franziska’s journey and the stories of other artists by purchasing our Lines And Curves Book here: