Hello! I am happy to share with you that the Backnanger Kreiszeitung published a full page article about myself and my work on the 20th of March!
I also want to share a sneak peek of my newest series "YOU WIN!" and invite you to join the journey of me revealing the world of "YOU WIN!", piece by piece.
Read the article here: BKZ Meine Heimat.pdf
For my english speaking subscribers, here is a translation of the article:
Alice Obermeier Paints Her Home
The 28-year-old artist from Sulzbach an der Murr transforms living rooms, plants, and memories into warm images. Her art tells of home, optimism, and life between the USA and the Murr Valley.
“Between houseplants, couch, and Chicago memories, art with a personal signature is created”
By Ute Gruber
Photos by Alex Becher
If you walk through the living space of painter Alice Obermeier, you currently experience one déjà vu after another. The philodendron in the painting looks strangely familiar. Ah, it stands there by the window. The bouquet of tulips on the table can also be found on the wall: once conventionally as buds, once in full bloom, once wilted: “I find all stages beautiful,” is the young artist’s explanation. Then the bright orange sofa set in the corner of the room: once with a child playing in front of it, another one with two men on the couch playing video games. Then again the orange sofa is completely overgrown with contrasting green houseplants in the hand-signed calendar of the Schorndorf art association. Or the chocolate cookies with the funny dots that are offered to visitors: they also exist in exactly the same way in textile form and as a miniature painting on the worktable.
“Some time ago I discovered how important it is to design your home as a place of well-being,” says the 28-year-old in accent-free German, who came from the USA to Sulzbach an der Murr nine years ago for love. “You yourself decide what is allowed in here.” She calls the resulting series of pictures “Homebody,” which actually means “stay-at-home person.” However, in English this is not negatively connoted. And so the large bright room, which is used not only as a living and dining area but also as a studio and home office, is filled with warm colors and plants. “I used to have no luck at all with plants.” Until she got a Chinese money plant, “I really didn’t want it to die.” It was the beginning of a great friendship – today everything at Obermeier’s is full of magnificently thriving houseplants.
In stark contrast to the cozy sofa pictures stands the almost wall-filling painting above that very sofa set: the famous skyline of Chicago, which is reflected in Lake Michigan, with the white Ferris wheel appearing tiny in front of this grand backdrop. “I was often there with my grandpa at Navy Pier.” She has “always carried” the image of the skyline in the mild evening light “in her heart” since around ten years ago, when she showed her hometown to her internet acquaintance Carl Obermeier from distant Germany. “We had been playing strategy games and chess online and skyping for a while. We are both a bit nerdy and got along well.” But that the young man then actually came to visit her surprised her. Today the two are married and have a son.
That even the metropolis in the Midwest of the USA is bathed in soft pink has not only to do with her feelings at the time, but also with Alice’s optimistic outlook on life: “I want to put the world in a positive light.” And so there is another series of pictures called “This is AMERIKA” with abstracted and collaged acrylic paintings from the dreary backyard world behind the shiny skyline façade of Chicago, to which the petite woman in the colorful knitted sweater gives a hopeful note through friendly red tones. “Art should of course also depict harsh realities and shake people up, but I do not see that as my task.”
She had a great interest in painting as a child. Her mother enabled her to take private lessons with an artist and learn oil painting. After finishing school, she applied in her hometown to the very renowned School of the Art Institute of Chicago. “That was actually my dream school,” she says with shining eyes. She was indeed accepted and even received a scholarship. “But I wasn’t so sure,” she occasionally slips into Swabian dialect. Such a course of study is a life decision in the USA: “It costs up to 30,000 dollars per year. Even with a scholarship you have debts for your whole life.” Whether one is then successful enough as an artist to pay them off is questionable. So instead she moved to Germany with her Carl. She was warmly welcomed by the man’s large family in the rural community and actively supported in learning the difficult German language.
Seven years ago she then began to paint intensively. At first all kinds of food such as fruit, fried eggs or cups full of fragrant coffee. She joined the Schorndorf art association and after some time presented her pictures as a guest at sales exhibitions. Her small pretzel paintings were regularly a hit: “I love the Swabian pretzel. Nowhere does the pretzel taste as good as here.” That apparently also comes across in the pictures: once a man from Berlin called: “The pretzel from your exhibition won’t leave my mind,” he explained. She sent him the picture and he sent her a photo back from his kitchen, with the pretzel picture next to a hearty beer mug as a decorative still life.
That there is a widely traveled artist in her village only became known to many people in Sulzbach last summer: “That’s when I organized my first own exhibition with Susi Salzinger, in the blue house on the main road.” In the old lime kiln, that is. Very creatively they integrated regional winemakers and brewers, sent personal invitations and offered weekly activity days over the two months. “There were over 100 people at the opening and the mayors of Sulzbach and Murrhardt,” she reports proudly. Introducing beginners and children to art is particularly important to her, which is why she offers all kinds of workshops and courses. She is skilled in many techniques. The two courses “Art and Cooking” in the summer are already fully booked.”
“Even as a child, Alice Obermeier received private lessons from an artist. After her move from America to Swabia, the 28-year-old now appreciates Sulzbach as an oasis of calm.”
Lately I've been completly immersed in my newest series, "YOU WIN!" Because the work really feels like an immersion into an alternate world, I'd like to bring you along and invite you to follow the release of the series, piece by piece. I will be posting short videos on Instagram and Youtube Shorts over the next couple of weeks. Follow me there:
In the meantime, here is a trailer for the series, "YOU WIN!
