Mixing Imagination with Reality through Digital Art
“In my art, I blur the lines between imagination and reality while exploring womanhood in many different ways. I like to give my images a vintage, ethereal feel,” says Catrin Welz-Stein.
Catrin was born in Weinheim, Germany. She worked for different advertising firms in Germany and the US after completing her graphic design studies at Darmstadt. Her trademark is her bizarre and sensual images that are both familiar and alien at the same time.
Catrin started making digital art in 2009. She does this by fusing historical paintings, oddities, and illustrations from fairytales. Catrin’s artwork is offered for sale globally and has been shown in Asia and Europe.
“In my art, I blur the lines between imagination and reality while exploring womanhood in many different ways. I like to give my images a vintage, ethereal feel. During the creative process, I scan old paintings, photographs, and illustrations, making sure they are in the public domain. I work digitally and transform the scans by first tearing them apart. They are like puzzle pieces that I work together until they reveal a whole new meaning and tell an unknown story,” says Catrin.
Catrin Welz-Stein’s imaginative airy artwork offers the conventional portrait a new dimension. The artist incorporates vintage-inspired components into all of her works while also adding her unique combination of the bizarre and surreal. This gives her collection a vintage aesthetic.
The art initially resembles an oil painting that has been created gradually, layer by layer. Catrin does meticulously layer each component in her art, but she does so in a very contemporary manner. She methodically manipulates pieces of vintage photographs, artwork, and illustrations in Photoshop to produce her distinctive image.
Looking at it, one is hard-pressed to consider it a collage, but instead of looking like a mash-up of favourite pictures, her finished product is a smooth, unified whole. Her ethereal, fairytale-like artwork allures and intrigues with startling naivety and femininity.
Catrin said in an interview that “her art world” is “Otto Dix, Frida Kahlo, Picasso, Gustav Klimt, Magritte, and Boticelli.” It is easy to see those influences in her works.
“My art world” is “Otto Dix, Frida Kahlo, Picasso, Gustav Klimt, Magritte, and Boticelli,” says Catrin Welz-Stein.
