We recently connected with Adelphia Von Derka and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Adelphia thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.
As a fun fact, my artist name, Adelphia von Derka, is also my third given name—one with a story behind it. My parents made a playful bet during a horse race: if the horse won, their daughter (me) would be named Adelphia. The horse won, and so did the name, which has since become a meaningful and unique part of my artistic identity.
My mother has been a huge influence on my life—she’s a jewelry artist and a doctor of biology, blending creativity with science in a way that has always inspired me. From her, I learned to embrace both curiosity and intention in my work, balancing logic with emotion. My mother raised me and showed me what it means to approach life with both passion and dedication.
My father is Bavarian, from Germany, and works as a veterinarian and beer brewer. He’s my best friend and trusted adviser. His strength, clarity, and independence taught me how to make smart, objective decisions and believe deeply in myself. Thanks to him, I’ve learned to face challenges head-on and carve my own path without depending on anyone else.
My grandmother was an incredibly strong and independent woman who raised my mother alone in Vienna, Austria, during the 1950s. She was a fashion designer and master seamstress. Early on, I began my creative journey in her apartment, where she worked closely with the Viennese artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser. Growing up surrounded by that environment gave me firsthand insight into the art world—the passion, dedication, and realities of creative life.
Together, these women and my father shaped my understanding of creativity as a balance between freedom, discipline, and independence. Their examples gave me the confidence to build my own path and create work that’s deeply personal and uncompromising.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I am a multidisciplinary contemporary artist and creative director. My passion, and where I focus most of my energy, lies within the realms of canvas painting and the intricate, personal art of tattooing. My journey into this creative life wasn’t accidental; it began with a classical art education. That formative period instilled in me not just a profound appreciation for form, technique, and the history of art, but a deep-seated respect for the rigorous discipline required to translate vision into reality. This is the foundation for everything I do, especially as I explore themes of transformation, the sometimes-unsettling beauty found in deformation, and those quietly charged moments of stillness. When I approach a canvas or a tattoo design, it’s with a commitment to building layers of meaning, often using bold contrasts and expressive color. My aim is always to evoke a genuine emotional depth and to hint at an unfolding narrative that resonates with the viewer.
What perhaps sets my work apart is a combination of disciplines, all informed by a background that also includes over 14 years in motion design and broadcast media across Europe. That chapter was invaluable, teaching me the dynamics of visual storytelling and structural composition—a different kind of discipline, yet one that complements my fine art practice. I find satisfaction in blending different painting techniques, with a contemporary design. My work is a dialogue between digital precision and the raw organic form, striving to connect on an emotional level.
My creative practice now provides a range of works: I offer original canvas paintings, undertake commissions for clients seeking something personal, create fine art prints, and design and execute custom tattoos. I’m also thrilled to share that I’ve recently begun offering my tattoo artistry in San Diego, California. Each of these avenues allows for a different kind of connection. What I believe I offer clients is more than just decoration or a piece of art; I strive to solve the desire for something that carries a meaning unique to them. Many are seeking a way to express an internal passion or commemorate a personal journey, and my work aims to provide that.
If you ask what I’m most proud of, it’s the authentic creative path I’ve been privileged to walk. My career hasn’t been a conventional trajectory, but rather one guided by a discipline, emotion, and a respect for the artistic process itself.
Ultimately, the main thing I want people to know about my work and my brand is the depth of intention behind every piece. Each project is an extension of this passion, a commitment I feel to create while staying true to my artistic voice.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
For me, the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is the ability to transform emotion, thought, and tension into something tangible—something that speaks without needing to explain itself. It’s about creating a visual language that others can connect to in their own personal way. Whether it’s a canvas, a tattoo, or a motion piece, the moment someone sees themselves in the work—or feels something they didn’t expect—that’s the magic.
There’s also a deep satisfaction in the process itself: building something from nothing, trusting instinct, allowing chaos and control to coexist. It’s raw, it’s vulnerable, and it’s endlessly challenging—but it’s also freeing. It’s a space where I can be fully present and fully myself.
And beyond that, it’s knowing that the work lives on. It becomes part of someone’s space, their skin, their story. That connection—that silent conversation between artist and viewer—is what keeps me coming back to the studio every day.
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
Niki de Saint Phalle has had a profound impact on how I approach both art and creative independence. Her fearless expression of femininity, pain, joy, and rebellion through bold forms and vibrant color is a constant reminder of the power of owning one’s voice—especially as a woman creating in male-dominated spaces. Her work taught me that vulnerability can be radical, and that beauty and violence, play and protest, can coexist within a single piece.
Francis Bacon and Basquiat showed me how to channel intensity—how distortion, chaos, and rawness can become their own kind of truth. Max Ernst’s surrealism, his ability to move between material and dream, influences how I layer and build my own compositions. Bruno Gironcoli expanded my idea of scale and presence—how art can feel like it’s breathing in the room, larger than logic.
And Julian Schnabel’s work, especially his use of broken surfaces and nontraditional materials, affirmed something I feel deeply: that art is not about perfection. It’s about presence, gesture, and memory. His canvases carry a kind of physical honesty that I try to echo in my own—bold, unclean, emotional, and unapologetically alive.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: paintings: @von.derka.studio tattoo: @adelphia.von.derka
Image Credits
Magdalena Onderka