Brita Seifert - Part II

Brita Seifert



"In 1963 I was born in Leipzig, Germany. In 1980 I started drawing with pencil and paper, and then learned to paint with oils. Never having agreed with the method of art education in school, all my techniques in the application of art materials were self-taught. Being interested in all that encompasses art and design I decided to investigate computer art. In January 2000 my first formal education in multimedia design was completed, enabling me to pursue a career in the digital arts.

The strongest social critical period of my work was from 1980 until 1989, the years that I lived in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Many turbulent surrealistic paintings were produced which contained images critical of the government at that time. Deciding to express my unrest with the current social/governmental situation I put caution aside and produced several exhibitions of my artwork. My hope being to wake the people up and to bring about change.

 The GDR showed no tolerance and in October of 1989 I was told to leave the country or go to prison. I moved from East Berlin. Living and working in Tuebingen, South Germany, Italy and back to Berlin from 1989 to 1992 my education in the arts grew. Gradually the aggressive attitude in my paintings transitioned to more peaceful topics and my understanding of art techniques expanded. Ten years ago my response to landscape painting was one of repulsion, I found it very boring. Today I have found a path leading me back to landscapes but not the traditional type. Instead I incorporate an element of the fantastic or cosmic bringing about a sense of the surreal. I feel that the time is coming for a new direction. Instead of following tight photographic images of everyday life or human / mental deformations I am turning to a stronger direction of fantastic and surrealist imagery. My journey continues."