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Mirjam Rothkamm’s art work is focused on the invisible - the sacred - the unseen. Her work can be considered as an attempt ‘to make the unseen seen’ - ‘to make the light visible.’
Mirjam’s art is strongly influenced by her mystical experiences and the life long study and practise of the spiritual teachings of Christ, Buddha, the Sufi traditions and the Indian Advaita. Another source of inspiration comes from her friendship with the High Shaman of Africa Credo Mutwa and aboriginal elders who introduced her to different forms of shamanism. Forty years of Meditation practise, two decades as a spiritual teacher and her time as a counsellor and art therapist have also left a considerable mark on her work. A further source of inspiration is the beauty of nature, Mirjam’s love for literature and poetry, history, art history as well as philosophy. Three great questions formed in her as a child : Who am I ? What is the meaning of life? And why do we die ? These questions and searching for their answers became guidelines for her life. Her art work, poetry and writings are centred around these fundamental questions. Even as a young glass artist, Mirjam Rothkamm was already fascinated by the concept of making light visible. Glass as a material lends itself beautifully to this purpose as it is almost frozen light - somewhere in between light and matter. Today, her body of work depicts transpersonal aspects of inner growth, healing and transformation, initiation rites, ethereal beings from other dimensions and sacred geometry. After she had been working for almost two decades as a glass artist and exhibiting in Germany, various European countries and the USA, Mirjam became aware that something substantial was missing in her life, through being solely involved in the arts, and she felt the need to become more engaged in easing the apparent suffering in the world. So, she studied Art therapy and Gestalt Therapy and worked from 1995 onwards as a counsellor with patients suffering from cancer, depression, brain injuries, as well as people who had survived suicide attempts and terminally ill adults and children. This work felt deeply rewarding for her. By the end of the nineties Mirjam also began to teach heart centred Meditation and ran spiritual retreats in Europe, the USA and Australia. She continued to facilitate this work with great love and passion for over twenty years. In 2015 Mirjam had the sudden and rather unexpected notion to return to her art work. For her, the growing commercialism of spiritual teaching seemed to prevent true inner liberation. The limitations of language to convey truth also became all too apparent and felt restricting. So she went into a three year inner retreat where she abstained from teaching and her role as a counsellor. Mirjam painted and listened to silence and inner stillness became her teacher. Since then, she enjoys her wordless work with colours, structures and forms and tries to translate onto the canvas that which is invisible to the human eyes. |
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Although Mirjam prefers silence and inner stillness, she is still fascinated by the look of letters and the beauty of the written language. She loves to use poetry and mantras, excerpts from sacred texts or her own writings and poems in her paintings. It feels for her as if she is impregnating the canvas with the deeper meaning beyond the words. It is less important for Mirjam that one can precisely read the text - it is more about the viewer diving deeply into the painting and allowing its meaning to speak directly to the heart without the constraints of the linear thinking mind.
Every painting begins with a deep meditation that lasts for days until she feels drawn to paint. This meditative state continues until the painting is complete, which can take weeks or months. Each painting consists of up to 30 to 40 layers of thin glazings in order to create depth and transparency. Mirjam works mainly on canvas with acrylics but also uses different materials and fibres she collects on her walks through the untamed raw nature of Western Australia. Her work can be seen as an attempt to bring back the sacred - the mystery - into a world - devoid of mystery.
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