In a previous post I told you about the Signs Project of Caroline Jung. Today, I am proud to bring you a more in-depth interview of Caroline
1 - Caroline you are a very prolific artist, over the years you have studied Portrait Drawing and Painting, Chinese ink calligraphy, silk painting, Quilting, Pottery and finally Mosaic ! These are lots of influences ! Who are the artists you admire the most ?
I like Niki de Saint Phalle,
Friedensreich Hundertwasser
2 - Mosaic is a rather unusual medium of expression, much more labor intensive than say Chinese calligraphy. What prompted your interest in it ?
Exactly the intensive work is it ! When you use a brush, you can make one line from a dark black to a bright grey. When you have to make the same line in mosaic, you have to use at least 3-6 colours for one line, and you have to SEE the colours, choose them and use it exactly in one row. You can «play» more with colours.
3 - Obviously you have travelled a lot, you spend lots of your time between Germany and Spain. And I am sure you travel to other countries, this is the nice thing about Europe, you drive 8 hours and you are in an other country ! Do you sell your mosaics in different countries ? Who purchase your mosaics ?
My father was an engineer, and I had the chance to spend the first 4 school years in Cairo, Egypt. This culture and people have stamped my life. I spent a lot of time in so many Bazaars.
I enjoyed so much the colours and designs of Silver and Gold wares, the Carpets and other handicrafts... Mosaics are the same; They can be so colourful and also very monochrome.
But as a child you walk with an open mind in the world, you see people like they are and you get to know that we are all humans - we all belong to humanity, beyond race and religion.
4 - Some artists produce different type of works at different times of their lives. My friend Robert Lisac is presently producing gorgeous Micromosaics. Are you specializing in some type of mosaics at this time of your career ?
The thing I like the most with mosaics is, that you can use all the stuff and materials, people throw away. Porcelain, dolls, Pearls, ceramic (which was used in Bathrooms or kitchens), Wood, Plastic, Metal and so on.
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| Nguyen Van Vien - Recycled Wood Mosaic |
If somebody is creative, in my eyes, you must not spend money for this kind of art.
5 - What are your 3 favourite mosaics ?
(You mean in the world ?)
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| The Empress- Tarot Garden, Tuscany |
The Tarot Garden of Niki de St. Phalle,
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| Benches, Park Guell, Barcelona |
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| Hagia Sophia Basilica, Istanbul, Turkey, |
6 - You have been very influenced by the genial work of Antoni Gaudi. How did the Master influence your mosaic Art ?
I have seen in the work of Gaudi, that he takes a lot of colourful ceramics, already themselves pieces of art, and from them he creates a new piece of art.
Art also happens when you realize that you can use a certain object by incorporating it into your mosaic because you you find a particular meaning or art behind this particular object.
7 - Caroline, we met online because of this wonderful International Mosaic Signs Project you are leading. Can you tell us more about this. How big is the project, how many signs ? What is the purpose of it ?
The "end-panel" will be about 2.20 m x 3.80 m (7'3" x 12'6") in size, depending upon the owner likes to have the design and form. I brought about 160 Mosaic artists from 33 nations together.
This Signs project is a new possibility to get Artists from around the world to collaborate on one piece of art without having to be there in the same place !
I was one of the Germans participating in the project of Isidora Paz Lopez in Chile and people spend a lot of money to travel there and to work with her. If you don´t have much money, this is not possible. So that got me thinking: How can we get a number of artists who can't afford to travel to the other side of the planet to collaborate in a beautiful piece of art ?
I wanted to show that all these artists could work together to create one beautiful art piece, without war and racism, and that so many individual pieces could come together in peace.
Most of the Signs and Symbols are about Peace, Freedom and Tolerance, about being able to live together (Frederic, I hope you understand, what I am trying to say). We all are Artists, and we speak the same language through our work – why would this not be possible for the rest of the world ?
8 - How difficult it is to work with a great number of people to collect these signs ?
It is not very difficult, but it takes a lot of time. At first you have to motivate and convince people and inform the Community about your project. It is important that people believe you are serious about this, about what you are trying to achieve, and then, little by little, they begin to understand the concept. This is not so easy at the beginning, but the more the project grows, the more artists join in.
But then of course each artist in the group brings something of themselves in every piece of art, and that is when this project becomes so special. Without them, this project would not be possible and I have to say a very very big Thank you to you Frederic and all the other artists around the world
One motto I have is :
You never know, what you can create,
if you do not try it.
9 - Caroline can you give us links to your work ;
Website, Facebook, Pinterest, Blog, etc...
This is the link to the Film of the Signs Project :
This is my Homepage : www.carolinejung.de
This is my Pinterest :
This is my Facebook page :
Thank you Frederic for this great interview, I hope you can use what I have written. Tomorrow I will drive to Spain and stay there for one week. I won´t have much access to the Internet. But if you need something, let me know.
All the best Caroline.
I
am a French Mosaic Artist. I live and work in Alabama with my 2 dogs, 2 useless cats and
many chickens in Alabama. I communicate with mosaicists around the world and blog about all things mosaics, ancient and modern. If you like this interview of Caroline, you might enjoy my mosaicblues newsletter where I share with you the last news about Modern Mosaicists, Materials, Techniques and
Sources of Inspiration of modern and antique (Specially Greeks and
Romans) Mosaicists and Patrons !
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