Künstler portrAIts

Séverine Mertens

Born and raised in the late seventies in Luxembourg, Séverine began her passion for painting.
This love and hate relationship started in her early childhood. She affirms that “I was always in contact with my environnement and experienced life through my colored point of view. Colors speak to me“.

Séverine’s art is diverse. It goes from motion painting, to abstract, collages and even contemporary art. The techniques she uses the most are action painting, collages and spatula technique.

As one seeks for new creative ideas and inspirations, her art is inspired by mankind and nature.“Already as a kid it felt difficult for me to express myself by words which brought me very early to beam me in a world where I could express myself more easily through art“. She also added that her favorite artists are Frida Kahlo, HR Giger, Jackson Pollock, Mc Escher, Georgia O’Keefe and Nikki de ST.Phalle because all of them truly inspire her art.

Painting was used in her childhood in a way to communicate with the world.She describes herself as a more quiet person, who doesn’t like to shout out loud to communicate. She affirms that such is definitely not her lifestyle.

Even though painting was a passion that started while in her childhood times it didn’t end there. The main goal of Séverine’s art is to make people think about themselves.Her message appears to be simple: Paint whatever you want and express what you feel.

Her art is like a cinema session inside of your head, she affirms that “painting is much better than watching TV”. One of her thoughts regarding painting is that bringing color to life through painting is the best way to express oneself. Words are often too poor to express what humans can feel. “Remember what Dave Gahan sang: words like violence, break the silence, words are meaningless and forgettable”.

The reason why her paintings stand out from the others is due to it being able to have different interpretations. Once it is turned, the painting will create a new image and a new story will be told.

Besides painting and creating art, she lives a double life. As a job she currently runs a camping location. Unfortunately this consumes most of her day time. In addition to this, she also is on board of a PAP “ Production des artistes pluriels”. The main goal of the PAP is to seek for new artists. Most of them are street artists from Africa and third world countries. After finding the new artists this association provides them with workshops and private music lessons so their talents can be enhanced to the fullest.