Born (1974) and raised in the south of Bavaria, near the Alps, Melanie Schoeniger graduated with honors in Media Design (Munich, 1999). For many years thereafter, she worked as an art director, overseeing a wide range of projects from small print designs to the digital CI of largescale corporations, including Allianz.

Schoeniger has lived in Vienna, traveled the world, and landed back in Germany in the south of Munich, where she currently resides with her husband and two sons. She spends the majority of her time now creating artwork related to nature. At the moment, she is arranging a compilation of individual collections for a limited edition of fine art prints where a percentage of the proceeds will be donated to causes supporting biodiversity and environmental protection.

We were excited to speak with Schoeniger about her artistic practice.

Please provide a bit of background of how you first started as an artist and how you got to where you are now.

I grew up in Bavaria, Germany, a beautiful area in the heart of nature, surrounded by mountains, lakes, rivers, meadows, and woods. In school, I studied art history, architecture, and product design. I graduated with a degree in Media Design with honors in Munich in 1999. From there, I went on to work as an art and creative director.

It seems to me as if I have been an artist my whole life; only my experiences, circumstances, self-awareness, and focus have changed. Essentially: my vision fell into place. Ever since I can remember, I have been coming up with ideas. Anything I did not understand, I would make a note of it and then do some research during my weekly trips to the public library. For example, I wanted to find out more about calligraphy or sumi- e, so I looked that up. I like following my thought trains and seeing where they led me. I have so many notes written down that I could be occupied with research for the rest of my life!

The biggest shift in my life was deciding to follow my passion as a full-time artist. All of my experiences lead me to the place I am now.

Can you describe your home or studio?

My home is my studio, and vice versa, my studio is my home.

I’ve tried to bring elements of my travels home with me so that each room holds many memories. Our living and dining room look like a wild jungle with pictures of Thailand, our favorite beach in Greece, and plants everywhere – huge ones like strelitzia and monstera. Outside the window, there is a bamboo grove. I love watching the light playing on the leaves in a different way each season. And on the terrace, we have so many different species of plants, mainly local perennials. I think of it as my “Kew Gardens approach,“ which is a place of inspiration for me.

I photograph, do cyanotypes, do studies through drawing, scanning, casting, printing etc. with my plants. I work everywhere — outside, inside on the floor, on the dining table, in my kitchen. Sometimes I use my couch as a background for shootings. I also create on a table in my studio where I store all my pressed plants, artist materials, paints, papers, and prints. I also have a workroom with a really big, old cinema HD display where I create mixed media artworks, and do all the digital work.

What is the art community like where you live?

My art community isn’t within the community where I live, but around the world. I have a wonderful exchange with fellow artists on instagram. We share thoughts and tips often via audio messages. I love that I gain a lot of insight into my fellow artists’ work, culture, and daily life. I am also part of an international women’s book club of mostly artists, which has been and is still so enriching – especially during lockdown!
We started with “All We Can Save,“ which I can really recommend. It inspired me deeply and reconnected me with poetry. That’s how I came back to Chief Seattle’s letter that is linked with my poppies collection.

Germany is known for its contemporary art. Why do you think that is?

Good question. Maybe the German art system still is profiting from its ancestral artists and historically established cultural system: Bauhaus, the Blue Rider movement, the Expressionists, Bechers and Beuys, and many more. We also have stunning museums, academies, and galleries.

Just recently I discussed with my fellow bookclub artists that I was drawn to some english speaking galleries because in a lot of German galleries, there seems to be a lack of my type of aesthetic. And one theory has been, that there is art created from the mind and art created from the heart…

Is there an artist(s) who inspires you?

Lots! I am deeply influenced by Hokusai and Hiroshige and many more Ukiyo-e (Japanese block printing) artists. As a teenager, I used to be very interested in Impressionism, which led to my studies in Munich later on.

Funny thing I realized much later only: the Impressionists were also deeply inspired by Ukiyo-e. The purpose of Ukiyo-e is “joie de vivre,“ which is my subject matter as well.

Other influences, to name just a few:
I love the way of looking at works by Blossfeldt, Walker Evans, Delaunay, Hopper, Twombly. I adore the versatile genius of Gerhard Richter.
I admire Marianne North and Georgia O’Keefe as great artists and inspiring women role models. And I was deeply touched by Pippilotti Rist in one of her early video installations at Villa Stuck/Munich in the late 90ies. I love my books on surf movie posters and underwater photography.

Finally, I love to discover online old botanical illustrations at the Lloyd Library and other great art at the Art Institute of Chicago, especially their Asian art collection.

Do you follow any routines as you work?

It’s all about the mood (and being undisturbed).
For example, I love to do yoga or meditate before I work. I often start to work by doing a playful task like taking pictures with no special result in my mind, just finding the flow and following my intuition and my ideas. After that, all tasks requiring concentration can follow. In the evenings, I enjoy reviewing and sorting my photos on my iPad while laying on the couch and listening to old records.

Do you collect the work of other artists? If so, who?

Yes, I do! I would love to collect more, but I’m out of wall space!

Last week I framed and hang up a woodblock print by Jo de Pear, an English printmaker. We know each other through Instagram as she also creates fantastic cyanotypes. This artwork is a unique AP of a sea fan in lush turquoise green on ochre, which is a beautiful daily reminder of the ocean.

Discuss your commitment to your medium?

I use various mediums and techniques in my practice, but at the moment I am focusing on photography.

With every medium that I use, I strive to “make it mine,” where I can use it intuitively, without thinking of how something might function and how I could achieve this or that.

And talking also about “the result,“ I am totally in love with thick Hahnemühle paper. I love its quality and structure as well as how the pigments of a fine art print create such depth and details. I am always full of excitement while unpacking my ordered prints.
I also use this paper for a lot of other purposes like drawing, painting, and cyanotyping.

How would you define your personal aesthetic?

First of all, its an emotional thing, I want to be moved. I take into account the interplay of proportion, balance, and nuances. There must also be a little magic spark.
I am well trained in recognizing these elements after years of experience as an art director, so I consider them to be a kind of unconscious automatism that runs all the time, to which I can consciously connect anytime.
I am a big fan of Fibonacci and have a crush on the number 7 whenever I need to use numbers for proportions.

What is your favorite art museum or gallery?

This is a hard choice, but I would say the Neue Pinakothek, Munich with all the masters of art from the early 20th century that influenced my personal artistic journey so deeply from the beginning.
I spent many marvelous hours there during my studies. There is also this little coffee place hidden inside the museum’s patio with a fountain, which completes one’s visit in a wonderful way.
This museum is part of the Bavarian State Painting Collections, which has various other museums with permanent and changing exhibitions. Each of them worth a visit.

What’s your favorite place in the world? (Could be your own home, somewhere you’ve traveled, etc.)

Thailand, the southern part. Everything is perfect there for me: the weather, the mood, the food, the sea, nature…
It has been and is still my paradise on earth. My source of wonderful memories.

And living in Europe, the Greek Peloponnese is my second choice, where I spend time quite regularly. When I’m viewing olive trees and the sea, I feel like I’m at home.

What keeps you going as an artist?

My intrinsic motivation to learn, explore and discover, to create and try out something new. I desire to share my vision of beauty with the world. I love to inspire and bring joy and I do hope to make the world a better place.

What sentiment would you like viewers to take away from looking at your work?

Awe and wonder. Aesthetic arrest.

With my art, I try to catch a glimpse of the essence of eternity.
I want to create moments of nowness & oneness. Where a feeling of connection and sublimity appears. I want to nourish that spiritual place in the heart of the beholder. Like John O’Donohue says, “Beauty is not a luxury, but it ennobles the heart and reminds us of the infinity that is within us.“
Joseph Campbell used the term “aesthetic arrest“ to describe the state we enter when we encounter what we perceive to be profound beauty.

What is your favorite flower?

Oh, this is difficult. But I would say, Astrantia (great masterwort).
I grow this perennial in my terrace and watch it blossoming every mealtime during the summer season. Also, I did one of my favorite cyanotypes of them, which is displayed on our staircase. I admire its unique combination of petals and umbels.

Why do you think art is important to society?

As W.S.Merwin said: “I think there’s a kind of desperate hope built into poetry now that one really wants, hopelessly, to save the world.“
That resonates deeply with my understanding of the social role of an artist as well as with the statement of my favorite author Joseph Campbell who envisions that artists are the shamans of modern times and are supposed to create new myths of one world without horizons.
In an interconnected world, everything you do creates ripples. So I want my art to radiate positive ripples of beauty and inspiration into the world. I want to preserve what I love. I want to evoke and ignite that deep wish to protect and preserve nature for future generations. That is the intrinsic message of my art.

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