Culture? introducing Katrin Berge..

..The norwegian artist Katrin Berge is today`s feature. Katrin has this wonderfull surreal style, that is very interesting. Her teqhnicue is excelent. Katrin is telling us about her work, so have a great read..
..Here it is, your daily shot of art with Katrin Berge:

-Can you tell the readers a little bit about yourself, name, what country you live in, age etc?

My name is Katrin, a 28 years old freelance artist living and working in Bergen, Norway.

-What inspired you to start being creative?

I think I've been creative from a very young age. Already as a 4-5 years old kid I loved to draw, and I always had some kind of project going on, whether it was making a city out of paper, a farm with animals out of things I collected from the nature or just drawing. It was like I had this urge to always make things, and it's still there today. I was also introduced to the creative, visual and crafting world by my aunt, Lillian Øvrelid Berge. She's a painter educated from an art school in Oslo, and visiting her was like a treasure hunt full of impressions, smells, oil colors, paper, pencils, brushes, paintings, drawings and so on. I even got to have my own box in her house where I collected my own things to be creative with, mostly paper and various pencils - which was so exciting! But it wasn't until I was 16 years or so, when I got a whole suitcase as a present from my parents with all of these fun things for painting and drawing, that I really started to draw.
-Is making art your fulltime job, and if not, what else do you do?

As I just recently finished my masters exam at Bergen National Academy of the Arts in April 2010, I am still in the phase where I have to establish a career and show my work through various channels so that people get to know about me. After I finished my masters degree, I got a job at a restaurant so that I could have a bit of financial freedom while starting to settle as an artist. And besides working at a busy restaurant, I started looking for a place to have an office together with two other students who graduated with me, and we ended up finding the perfect location! It was a big place, so we had to find some more artists to join us, and now we are eight people from the same school and department who work there - four girls and four guys. The guys are already an established graphic design company, and they have their own website where you can check out the great things they do: www.kassett.no. The rest of us are working as independent graphic designers and illustrators. It's fun and inspiring to work in a social environment.

I also had an exhibition from June to August that was a great experience. My first solo exhibition that was based on my masters project where I worked with superstition in Iceland. You can see pictures from this exhibition and read about it on my website, and also my masters exam and the result of it.
-Have you gone to art school, if yes where did you go and what did you study?

I first went to a private art school in Ålesund, Norway, for two years. That was a great experience and a maturation period before getting in to the school in Bergen where I had to transmit a portfolio and do various assignments required from the department. I was lucky enough to get in at the first try, but of course had done a lot of work beforehand because I was so determined to go to this school and this department called Visual communication (includes graphic design, illustration and motion graphics).
 -Where do you find inspiration?

Ever since I was a little girl I've always been interested in nature, animals, and both science and superstition at the same time, dreams and emotions. What I draw is often inspired and mixed by these things, and they are a result of both an idea and intuition. I'm also very interested in old photographs from the 19th and 20th century, and of course many of my drawings are inspired by these photos. I love to draw detailed clothing and textiles, so I often use photographs to get the really naturalistic feel to the drawing.
-Do you have a favourite artist and if so who and why?

One of my favourite artists is Erling Valtyrson, a Norwegian artist that lives in Bergen too. He's a great graphic artist and person to be around, down to earth and friendly. What I love about his pictures is the odd, dark and subtle atmosphere, his lovely and strange figures and the simple compositions. His pictures are extremely detailed as he works with a technique called mezzotint where you make the picture on a copper plate with sharp tools. He's regarded as one of the best at this technique in the world today! He has given me a lot of good advice and motivated me during my masters project. One of the things he said to me that really stuck to my mind was "continuity", to work all the time and to avoid taking long breaks from being creative and making things. This way you will always develop and mature in the way you work and see things. You can see Erling's art at www.valtyrson.com.
-Where can my readers see your work?

You can see it at www.katrinberge.com, and also on my flickr-site. Don't hesitate to send me an e-mail if you have any questions about my work!

..culture? Katrin Berge!...