“Your images show an artistry in painting that suffices to produce amazement and admiration for which words fail me.” – Dr. Albert Hofmann, Switzerland
There are few artists today who truly bridge generations of contemporary art, transcend world cultures, and have the innate ability to paint windows into parallel dimensions. Offering a detailed glimpse into the inner landscapes of expanded states of consciousness, Martina Hoffman uses the power of the brush to show us the innermost states of her mind, and through that the inner mind of humanity in transformation.
Focusing on realms of the imagination, meditation, shamanic journeys and the dream state, Hoffmann has taken it on herself to expresses the inexpressible.
Alchemical and subtle, Martina’s work is decidedly feminine and places the ‘Universal Woman’ in an intimate cosmos. She transcribes her ecstatic experiences but also her subtle reflections on the nature of women in a realistic style which marries the fantastic to the sacred. With a new global sensitivity dominated by the nature of love, Martina Hoffmann has evolved towards a true depth of human thinking, a humanism without concession towards a Universal consciousness.
In this intimate interview, Martina shares her inspirations & techniques, insight into parallel dimensions, and the wisdom of returning to ancient ways in the evolution of humanity.
1. What drives your inspiration to create artwork?
My art is closely inked to my life and anything that happens within it, a direct reflection of it, if you will. Although I have to add that this reflection is mostly related to my ‘inner landscapes’ and the energy that moves me on the deepest level of my existence. Let’s say that my art is at the same time a log book for my spirit and consciousness as well as a tool to developing and understanding them further. My creative process is a sort of ‘Alice’s’ mirror: I use it first as a reflector and this case it will show me anything that my consciousness is able to perceive. And secondly I also use it for deeper explorations by stepping through the ‘looking glass’ portal into other dimension. Here I have access to the ‘primordial putty’ and can restructure or re-create my reality. Creating art can be a truly shamanic journey, highly transformative, healing and transmitting. And it is a powerful meditation practice.
2. What’s your favorite medium(s) and technique(s) for creating artwork?
Painting in oil with a good old paint brush is my primary medium and has remained my first love, as a creative tool, since I discovered it. My process is very ‘stream of consciousness and/or superconsciousness’, a way of directly downloading imagery and information to my canvas. My technique is a mélange of the old ‘Mish Technique’ and various mediums that I’ve discovered to work well together. Each artist has their own well kept secrets. However, I also enjoy the more physical process of sculpting, a form I majored in during the years as a budding art student.
3. How did being married to Robert Venosa change the direction of your artwork?
Nice question… Robert really opened the door to my existence as an artist. I was a student of sculpture at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University when I met him in Cadaques, Spain. We ‘recognized’ each other immediately and never parted for 30 wondrous years. Inspired by his luminous and dynamic canvases, I began my journey of becoming the painter. It was ideal to be sharing a studio with a living master, all to myself, and while Robert did not teach me painting in the tedious sense of the word, it was tremendously helpful for my development to watch him work. I loved and admired his sure hand and the beauty of his forms. Our creative co-inspiration was a true gift and absolutely natural. Even now, I often sense him coming in, energetically looking over my shoulder, and commenting when I paint. He’s never far.
4. The earth is in a formidable time of passage, in an age when the artists have an incredible influence on the mind, imagination and mythos of the collective human consciousness. Is there a particular message or theme that runs through your artwork, or any message that you like to share with the world?
I feel that these highly transformative times demand great attention from all of us. It is a time for humanity to unite and ‘potentialize’ our forces by joining our efforts and energies. This may help create new ways of a peaceful coexistence. Let me summarize, what I believe, the visionary artist’s role in particular might be able to bring to humanity, in a statement I’ve often used:
“The visionary artist makes visible the more subtle and intuitive states of our existence and creates maps and symbols reflecting consciousness and the mystical experience. My work is an attempt to portray Source Energy as the one universal force beyond the confines of cultural and religious differences. By embracing our oneness as a global human family, the interdependency of all life as well as our universal interconnectedness, we have the opportunity to heal and transform the planet’s current state of woundedness and to create a shared global reality, as beautiful, healthy and strong as our imagination permits.”
5. In an ideal world, where do you see the collective of humanity evolving to in the future?
Our life on this earth is a true gift and great opportunity to experience our co-creative abilities and the manifestation of our dreams right in front of our eyes. I see us evolving towards an existence where we start remembering our ‘ancient future’ and the highly developed cultures that existed before us. May we be able to use their powerful knowledge again and learn from their mistakes in order to take our existence towards one of a global peaceful coexistence with the highest values of ethics, dignity, wellbeing in place for ALL. More and more discoveries of these Ancients are being made and publicly shared, and it appears that there is a definitive and perceivable link between these various cultures, which might have existed at different moments in time, yet have shared a very specific basic common knowledge. This seems to be pointing towards the possibility of a once existing global society. I like to think that we are about to rediscover its secrets and that humanity will be returning to that.
6. Your artwork is filled with otherworldly looking beings. Have you experienced contact with beings which you believe are from another world? If so, were they physical beings, or invisible beings? Did they impart any messages to you, or have you learned or interpreted anything from your contact with them that you wish to share?
The entities represented in my paintings come in during my the creative process and ask to be manifested, I simply allow them to exist in my visual world. Whether they are actual spirits, ancestors, archetypes, guides, angels, elves fairies, mythological beings, entities from other worlds or maybe projections of ourselves in another dimension or the future, I can only speculate.
But I do trust that they have a ‘raison d’être’ and much to share with us. Generally, I like the idea of a populated universe. I imagine, there must surely be endless possibilities of life forms throughout the universe. Some maybe visible, others invisible to us, depending on how compatible their biological, mental, emotional or philosophical systems are to ours. Regardless, I see other life out there as a great opportunity. Wouldn’t they be as interested in sharing their existence with us as some of us are to share with them? What if they truly wanted to help us understand and evolve? And maybe they are right here, living alongside us, unnoticed and invisible to us, as if in a parallel dimension, because they are made of ether or gas? This is a big discussion…
Creating art is one way, and in this case my way, to remove the ‘Veil’ between ‘the worlds’. The ancient artist-shamans of Paleolithic and Neolithic times knew this well, and since the beginning of humankind countless artists have attempted to represented ‘otherworldly’ beings and their energy in exquisite shapes and forms.
So yes, some of my paintings depict such ‘beings’ and their energetic presence, and it is my pleasure to make them visible and share them with whoever has eyes and the sensitivity to see. For me, they represent an invitation for tolerance to one another and an openness towards ‘otherness’, to consider the existence of other dimensions and life forms, whether alien or recognizable to us, and for ALL to move towards a communication and unity with a final experience of ONENESS.
It is far from my mind to impose any thoughts or ideas and realize that this artistic communication with ‘otherworldly realms’ is a highly individual and subjective experience: one artist’s step at a time, maybe a large step for humanity……
With this anonymous quote I extend an open invitation to consider all possibilities:
“Happiness isn’t a destination, it’s a realization that things couldn’t possibly get any better than having the freedom to perceive as we please and to think as we choose, in a magical, adoring Universe.”
How exciting a prospect to be such co-creators!
Martina Hoffmann, January, 2016
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Currently Martina Hoffmann keeps studios in Colorado USA as well as in Bretagne, France. She has exhibited her work worldwide since 1985 and is represented in the permanent collection of NAIA Museum in Rochefort-en-Terre, France, the first and only visionary art museum in France, a collective of 44 international artists.
For more about Martina Hoffmann, visit her official website. To buy art prints and apparel of Martina Hoffmann’s artwork, visit her online store.
