Karin and I are working on showing emotions. Not that we have a problem with it, on the contrary, I believe it is hard for both of us to prevent our faces from showing what is going on inside. Apart from that, it is Karin's job to express emotions, since she is an actress. Allegedly, I should not be doing this, as a painter I was taught that a painting is perceived visually, that any rendering of emotion in it runs contrary to its nature, and that such a thing would be sentimental and petit-bourgeois.

A painting is a thing, one can not feel with it, at best one can feel the wish to own it. A look at the face of the painting merely establishes visual facts, i.e. what can be seen on its surface, and not its emotional state, because things do not have feelings. When people see something that impresses them, they mostly describe it as "beautiful", those in the art scene call it "good". Of all the emotions that a painting may arouse, only unease is probably native to it, in any case it will not make us burst into tears.

The painting is frequently linked to the mirror, and it is said that we do not really see the object of a painting, but only its reflection. I believe that precisely this feature, the reflection, is of great importance, because the painting also reflects the notion that a particular time has of it. Since I live in a different time than my teachers, I decided to try to paint emotions nonetheless. Maybe my predecessors will prove to have been right, but this is not so important, Karin and I are not of the cool type, we love to try hard.

Die fotografischen Vorlagen für diese Serie entstanden in einer Reihe von Sitzungen mit der Schauspielerin Karin Enzler: