Magdalena Bogart

Tiny Artist

I was a young child when a friend of my parents showed me how to draw a braid. It seemed so easy and the effect so amazing. I was able to replicate it right away even with shading. And I continued drawing ever since.

Fashionista

I noticed fashion and became totally wrapped up in it. I “designed” clothes and sewed and knitted for my Barbie-dolls. I constantly drew mannequins and clothes. I was thinking about going to fashion-school.In high school art-class my teacher put me down for those fashion drawings. “That was NOT art”. And I stopped. I painted the approved-kind of narrative paintings.

A Detour

The worst event in my life was losing my mother when I was 18 years old, one year away from finishing high-school. A decade followed of going through the incredible pain of loss.Dealing with it in unhealthy ways until I learned healthy ways from one of the best art-therapists in Munich.One of the ways was making collages.

I remember putting on a collage about the difficult relationship I had with my father. Putting what is inside out there on a canvas to face it is healing.

A Brush in my Hand Again 

 
I met my husband late in life on a flight to San Francisco. The timing was right. A couple years later we had a son and two years later another. 

 All young mothers know, how demanding it is to have young children. You have not one single moment to yourself anymore. Though I loved being at home with my children 24/7 it also made me angry at times and bored. 

One evening I started painting again. All of a sudden, I was on a quiet island. Just by myself and 100% in the moment. That was MY time. 

 I took more MY-time. I went back to study interior design and eventually had my own firm in the Bay Area for 10 years. My creativity was in demand as award-winning space-problem-solver. I kept on drawing and taking art-classes as rewards for myself from the best teachers I could find. 

My Art Mirrors Life

Experiences Tell Stories
All I have learned about myself, others and life in general started appearing in my paintings. I had moved from water color to acrylics and multimedia and painted on wood panels.They are the only substrate I paint on now, because I can scrape them up and create heavenly textures.

Embracing Life as It Is
My paintings mirror life inits intricacies and many layers. We start as a blank panel.Throughout life there are many colorful (happy) events, but we also experience scrapes, scratches, punctures.We are knocked down and built up again. Nothing is really ever lost. Everything is part of life. And each life is a beautiful, deep and meaningful composition with a fine polish. The process only ends when life ends. Select an area to comment on.

My paintings are encouragement for people to experience their life in its entire width and depth. The bad stuff is there too for a reason and not to be pushed aside or ignored. It is part of a rich life.

Heart pounding Journey

A great idea for a painting gets my heart beat faster. It is hard to describe, but I compare it to a journey. From putting on gesso to the finished painting I am on an amazing trip full of failures and discoveries. The learning and growing is a never-ending fascination for me. The biggest reward is a painting which makes me happy every time I look at it.The next biggest reward is when it makes someone else happy too.I have often felt an obligation to make a political statement with my art. But that is not me!When I paint I am as honest and accepting to myself as possible. I want to create and give beauty with rich textures, happy colors and interesting shapes.I want to make people happy, relaxed when looking at my art. The viewer should feel transported to feeling the most peaceful and loving.