We recently connected with Sonja Kreisel and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Sonja, thanks for joining us today. I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?

It’s an odd question being asked if I am happy being an artist or creative as it’s like asking – are you happy to be you? Yes, I am. I have always loved drawing, painting and making things. I just never knew that this could be a profession or even a career. I quit being a creative when I left school as I didn’t think I was good enough to become an artist or to pursue an artistic career. I also didn’t have a grid for what this really meant. Fast forward nearly 20 years when my life took a full reboot and I started picking up art again, I realized what I have been missing all these years. I had plenty of regular jobs in my life time. I love starting new things, learning, I’m very curious, so all these jobs were fun for a while until I eventually got bored and was looking for a new challenge. Now I love exploring the full spectrum of what it means to be an artist including being the business woman that comes with marketing your art business.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I AM SONJA KREISEL A JOYFUL CREATOR, AN ETERNAL OPTIMIST AND IN EVER EXPANDING PURSUIT AND DANCE WITH THE DIVINE.
I SEE MY ART AS A CATALYST FOR PEOPLE TO DISCOVER THEIR TRUE PURPOSE AND IDENTITY, TO FIND FREEDOM, COURAGE, JOY AND TRUTH WITHIN.

Already as a little girl, all I did was drawing horses, animals and portraits of my family. I would sit hours in my room absorbed by drawing, feeling deeply connected to our pets and the horses I was drawing. This was my happy place, just as much as being out in nature, playing in the woods, sitting in the cherry trees, picking fresh fruit and veg from the garden and play make belief games with my brother and friends.

Later in school, I often looked at what others where producing artistically and thought they are so much better and more creative than I was. When I left school I also left art, thinking that I wouldn’t be good enough to make it as an artist and my perspective of an art career would look like being stuck in a museum as a guide after studying art history. So I went abroad and focused on learning languages – my second passion – and just living life and having fun. I spent time in France, learning French and snowboarding, then I went to Brazil, learning Portugease and working with street children. That’s also where I created my first mural, there on the walls of the child care center and I planted my first own garden with the children. After my time there I went back to France and finally got married to a Scottish man and spent the next 10 years in Glasgow in Scotland, my now second home and family by heart. Then divorce happened and as I was in the process of reassessing and rebuilding my life, I discovered my first passion again. When after almost 15 years I touched paint again, this volcano inside me erupted and I knew I had to pick up art again. The creativity inside of me experienced a rebirthing and it seemed like everything came out at once. The first thing I painted was a horse running through fire. And that was me. Today I am still painting horses running through and with fire. Now I know – I am that horse on fire.

I knew my time in Scotland was over then and I moved back to France, knowing that eventually I was to head back home to my native land Germany.

In France I was part of a creative community in the Ardèche, where I found my new home for the time being and I kept painting and learning. There I also rediscovered my love and deep connection to nature and how I love being outdoors, picking fresh fruit from the trees and shrubs, hiking for hours, swimming in rivers and lakes.. All things I also loved when I was little.

2 ½ years later I had connected with artists in Germany and I moved to Duisburg and became part of the Transforming Arts Team. My art kept evolving from there on a lot and not long being in Germany I stepped into becoming a full time artist as demand on my work started picking up.

What I am most proud of in my journey is the I just always went for it. When I had something on my heart, I just did it. I am not afraid of trying new things, failing or just being bad at it when I try somethings new and I have the tenacity to just keep going, even if progress seems slow. This helps me a lot encouraging others, especially other emerging artists or simply people who want to start off in their creative journey.

What truly makes me me ist that I have an innate sense of freedom. I love being free, with no restraints. Free on the inside and free to make my own choices, go places I like to go and to try the things that I I’m curious about. I think this childlike innocence, play, fun, my love for nature but also my strength really emanate through my art and touch the person beholding it.

I feel deeply connected to nature and love animals. They have always played a bit role in my life and still do so not just in my personal life but also in my art.

When I paint an animal, it comes alive on the canvas and becomes its own character with its own story and meaning. It speaks volumes to me and it also does to my collectors who often feel deeply touched by my work.

I love working on big canvases. Walls are even better and I love being expressive with spray paint and inks, hide hidden messages or characters with collage, add texture and then fill in the details.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

Creatives are a different breed of people. Often we are very messy, scatty, full of ideas, always on to the next project… I would ask you to just give us room to be. You don’t need to understand us, just enjoy who we are. We don’t fit into the status quo but we will definitely make your world brighter, more joyful and more colourful. We need room to explore, to make a mess, to talk about crazy ideas, dream far and wide. We need room to fail and create ugly things so beautiful things can be birthed. Don’t question the idea, tomorrow we are on to the next one. Encourage us in the dreaming and please, please, please don’t tell us to get a job and forget about art. We might do so temporarily but half heartedly and if we don’t continue art, we will die internally and with us the ideas and solutions that we are meant to bring into the world. Remember that the beautiful car you drive, the movies you watch, the books you read, the furniture you like, the phones you cling to – were all thought of by some crazy creative. I also don’t look at life in a linear way and in the terms of what I have accomplished til now, the house I have or the career I had – I look at life at all the beautiful moments I had, the experiences I gathered, a never ending journey. It’s not about arriving somewhere or retiring someday. It’s about to keep exploring, to keep learning, starting from scratch all over again from time to time, knowing my life will most likely not look like it looks now in the years to come but it’ll be beautiful.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

I think the first thing would be to not kill them in school. Let children play, make mistakes, look at the likes and giftings at an early age and start developing that. The second thing would be to form communities where artists can be artists and people with different skill sets come around them, like the marketers, the business people, the product and web developers, the accountants and tax advisors, the city councils etc. We all need each other and we could all thrive better if we could offer our strengths to the working together of the common good. I believe our cities and communities would look so different if we’d work together instead of next to each other or even against each other. Artists make things more beautiful – beauty heals and healed hearts commit less crime.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sonjakreisel.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sonja.kreisel/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sonjakreiselart/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9aMRrwoUW11r2rDtGRq_7Q
• Other: TikTok: @sonjakreiselart