About me

 

Mein Arbeitsleben in Stichpunkten

• Katja Tomzig | born 1975 in Dresden, Germany | 2010 to 2021 Cologne, Germany | summer 2021 return to Dresden
• 1993 - 1995 studied art and German language and literature at the University of Dresden
• in the meantime: newspaper editor, photographer, press officer for a major event organiser, two burn outs
• 2015 - 2017 studied in painting at Freie Kunstschule Köln (Cologne Private School of Fine Arts) with Diploma in painting
• im Anschluß ein Semester Meisterstudium bei Alexander Rudy
• November 2017 Founding of the independent artist group Art for People (which has fallen into a deep Corona sleep).
• 2018 and 2019 studied in old masters painting at Fine Art Academy Cologne with additional seminars with international artists
• seit März 2019 freischaffend mit den FACETTEN DER SCHÖPFUNG
• Since Autumn 2019: represented in Cologne by Galerie KARAK, Naumannstraße 7

 

My painting series FACETTS OF CREATION and how it came to me

Until the beginning of 2019, I had suffered so much from the world that I used my work under the pseudonym Kato to let my audience know about all the ills and injustices around us. In order to speak my mind aloud, I had specifically looked for schools that taught the craft of old master drawing and painting to start my second art degree in 2015. Thus, I enroled at the Freie Kunstschule Köln (private Art School Cologne) and, subsequently, at the Fine Art Academy Cologne.

The closer I get to my inner self, the clearer it becomes to me that I have to stop fighting social imbalances in my works, because the results pose as pictorial manifests of everything I disagree with. In my view, capturing the evils of the world in pieces of art brings them to my viewers’ attention in the first place, and – in turn – this attention injects more energy in them – energy that they don’t deserve and that needlessly keeps them alive. against to be something and not to manifest the situations I disagree with even more by capturing them pictorially and thus, of course, also making the viewers feed them with new energy through their attention.

At the beginning of 2019, a persistent cold forced me to lie on my sofa for four weeks. I was so sick that I couldn’t get up – but I was not sick enough to suppress the urge to paint. This was the moment when they came to me: My creator paintings.

I had to paint! But with oil paint, this seemed almost impossible in a lying position! Hence, I remembered a colour experiment I had discovered by chance back in 2005, which now seemed the perfect solution for the situation I found myself in. At that time, I used a glass plate for mixing and always used a sheet of paper to remove the water-paint mixture in the cleaning process: I did some rough cleaning with the paper sheet, let it rest on the glass plate for some time, and then peeled it off and put it aside. One morning, after a night of reading, I discovered multiple exciting creatures in the sheet of paper just before I wanted to throw it away. All excited, I began to use my pen to trace their shapes and outlines, basically releasing the creatures that became apparent to me in the dry water-paint spill.

This inspired me so much that I got up from my sofa, spilled some colour mixture on a few pieces of paper in the same way, then let the paper dry and retreated to the sickbed with the entire pile, plus a clipboard and all my watercolour pencils. And then the miracle happened: Ten pictures came into the world through me in no time. I had never seen anything like that before and painting them was an enormous pleasure. This was followed by another miracle - they were appreciated by others from the very beginning. Everyone who saw them for the first time exclaimed "Ah!!" and "Look at this!!“ and "There's a unicorn and a crocodile..." and "That's wonderful“ ...!

I spontaneously named them "creator paintings", because they are created in the painting process. I don’t start to work on a piece of art thinking "I want to paint a specific object now and it is supposed to look like this and that" and then set to work. On the contrary, everything is already there, reveals itself to me and I simply make it more visible. That's how they are created: The visuals with the many creatures. From the creator of all humans and things, and of me, who - like all of us - is also a creator ;o)

Shortly after that, my works had to be renamed, because a friendly colleague of mine pointed out that the name was somewhat unfavourable and could be misunderstood by many people who might think I was a megalomaniac and thought I was God. So, I renamed the series "Facets of Creation". And I‘m perfectly happy with that!

What can my paintings accomplish? They can make my audience feel comfortable, secure, relive the joy that I experience when I paint – get an idea of the many possibilities that are available to us, every moment. We can, time and again, and with great joy make a decision for a world full of love, respect, abundance, freedom, creativity, individuality, equality and togetherness. We recognise ourselves in the idea of „I am you“.

I feel especially joyful when someone talks to me about one of my paintings and tells me what she or he discovers in it – together we find things we haven't seen alone. It is always an enriching experience for both sides and a wonderful time together! Thank you.

 

Wenn ich gerade keine Geschöpfe aus Farbklecksen befreie, denke ich mir zum Beispiel Pflanzen aus, die das Leben vieler Wesen hier auf Erden entspannen und verschönern – wie etwa den EbaHuri-Baum. Seine Football großen Früchte in rot und gelb schmecken roh nach Erdbeere bzw. Banane, gekocht oder gebraten wie Rind oder Huhn. Ihre Schale ist besser als Leder und die riesigen Blütenblätter ergeben getrocknet das feinste Papier der Welt. Er blüht und reift das ganze Jahr über und wirft einmal im Jahr seine komplette Rinde ab, die ein hervorragendes Material für Möbel oder Häuser abgibt. Wenn ich alles zu Papier gebracht habe, werde ich es veröffentlichen und ich glaube, je mehr Menschen die neuen Pflanzen gesehen haben, desto eher werden sie auf unseren Wiesen wachsen. Glauben Sie nicht? Ich probiere es aus und bin schon sehr gespannt.

 

And here's my very first explorer painting from 2005 on the back of an already crumpled, meant-to-be-thrown-away drawing pad cover.

 

THE THING ABOUT LOVE

Eines schönen Tages im Jahre 2019 hörte ich auf you+ube folgende Worte: „Wenn Du das nächste Mal das Haus verlässt: Schaue jeden an, der Dir begegnet und denke ,Ich liebe Dich‘. Du musst es nicht fühlen oder laut sagen – denken reicht. Und guck‘, was passiert.“ *

I listened and thought, this fits perfectly into my private series of experiments on how to be more beautiful together.

An extensive field of experimentation opened up the very next day. To finance my late art studies, I worked in a small, privately run specialist shop for artists' supplies in the city centre of a West German metropolis of millions.

Ich ging also morgens los und die Zahl der Begegnungen steigerte sich gemächlich, so dass ich mich gut „einlieben“ konnte. Beim Umsteigen an einem Knotenpunkt sah es dann ganz anders aus. „Ich liebe Dich“, „Ich liebe Dich“, „liebe Dich, liebe Dich“ …… es kamen mir geschätzte 70 Leute entgegen, wovon mich keiner ansah. Ich liebte sie alle. Auch die Stadt-Tauben, die dafür offen waren. Plötzlich war mitten in der Menge ein breites Lächeln – ein junger Mann mit einen lustigen kleinen Hütchen sah mir im Vorbeigehen direkt ins Gesicht. Er blieb der einzige.

My train arrived, I took a seat at the door and was heavily occupied with all the "I love you's" on the train, outside the windows, passengers getting on and off. It is always said that the universe (alternatively God, the Source, the angels)

Es heißt ja immer, das Universum (wahlweise Gott, die Quelle, die Engel) sendet einem ein Zeichen, wenn man sich nicht ganz sicher ist in seinem Tun. So sah ich mich bestätigt, als die Mädchen-Rehbock-Skulptur direkt an der Strecke mir heute einen dicken, knallroten Herzluftballon entgegen streckte – angespornt liebte ich weiter, was das Zeug hielt!

Wobei, das hätte ja auch Zufall gewesen sein können… Als hätte das Universum mein Zweifeln bemerkt, kam gleich darauf ein regelrechter Bestätigungs-Hammer: Kurz bevor ich aussteigen musste, steht plötzlich der junge Mann mit dem lustigen Hütchen (der vorhin an mir vorbei in die andere Richtung gelaufen war) direkt vor meinem Sitzplatz, schaut mich durchdringend an und sagt: „Was immer Du da tust, hör‘ nicht auf damit!“

I was completely thrown off my game. And even today it still trickles up my spine.

It was clear that I had to tell my colleague all this before I started work. We were four mini-jobbers and all very interested in the path to a more beautiful world and regularly exchanged new insights and experiences. Therefore, she was immediately on fire and we decided to spend the entire day with loved ones - with united strength.

„Wundervoll“ und „zauberhaft“ sind zwei sehr schwache Worte, um den Verlauf der nun folgenden Stunden zu beschreiben. Es war einfach unglaublich: Kunden blieben nach dem Bezahlen an der Kasse stehen und sagten irgendwann „Ich hab‘ zwar schon alles, aber es ist so schön bei Ihnen, man möchte gar nicht gehen.“ Sogar sonst schwierige Stammkunden hatten jeglichen Dünkel verloren und waren offensichtlich beglückt.

One father came back with the child on his shoulders and said: "He wanted to see you again and wouldn't be dissuaded. When we had looked deeply into each other's eyes again, the little one was able to leave. I was deeply touched.

That day was a revelation. It was certain that the love-thinking-giving has a powerful force. Highly potentiated by just two lovers. Since then I would like to know what happens if for just one day ALL - or even just a hundred or a thousand people simply love everyone they meet (as I said, thinking the words is enough - this also works with people who would otherwise be difficult to do :). What power! How quickly would the earth lift?

That is the reason why I wrote this story down. And because I asked the universe what I could do directly and constructively myself to speed up the collective awakening and the beginning of the new era. And because the answer was: "You are already doing it and now write it down and distribute it to the people!

In diesem Sinne: Danke für Deine Aufmerksamkeit und bis gleich in der neuen Welt.

GANZ NEU: Mein Kurs „Die Kunst der Harmonie“ vermittelt die Weiterentwicklung des „Ich liebe Dich“ als individuelle Formel zur Integration in Dein Leben. Du gestaltest damit selbstbestimmt Situationen und Orte in Deinem Leben harmonischer, leichter und respektvoller Dir gegenüber. Dauer: ca. 4 Stunden.

* Nachtrag: Heute ist mir endlich wieder eingefallen, wer die zündenden Worte damals sprach! Es war Sandra Weber (die manche vielleicht durch THEKI kennen) – mein ganz herzliches Dankeschön dafür an dieser Stelle an Dich, liebe Sandra.