LENA GORAL

Hello Dear Lena Goral. Thank you for giving us the chance to Interview with you. Growing up in the stormy, rainy region of Schleswig-Holstein, how did the weather and landscape influence your artistic style and storytelling?

Hi! I would also like to thank you once again and it is a pleasure to answer your questions! Both the landscape and history of Schleswig-Holstein have had a great influence on my work. Over the centuries, this region of Germany has repeatedly been the scene of bloody border wars with Denmark. As a result, this region for me has a certain gloominess about it, despite the fact that it is quite lovely in summer. Many world-famous bog bodies have also been found in the bogs here, which used to be much more extensive in the past. And the region is characterized by the sea and seafaring, so there are many stories of ghost ships and people who were murdered in the water or on the mudflats. And of course the very popular legend of the town of Rungholt, which sank into the sea centuries ago and whose bell tower can allegedly still be heard today...

So imagine a walk here on the bog, in the forest, in an open field or by the sea, alone and in the fog/at dusk - the mind can start to conjure up strange images and sounds. Looking at my pictures is perhaps a bit like leafing through an old photo album that you've found in a hiding place somewhere. The color scheme in my pictures is inspired by old photographs and I also orientate myself in the fashion between the mid-nineteenth century and the end of the 1940s. A photo album with photos taken by a mind that carries the soul of a gloomy region - I think that describes it quite well.

2. You mention that ghost stories have been a part of your life since childhood. Can you share a specific ghost story or experience that deeply influenced your work?

Oh yes, there is a very specific ghost story: “The Judge´s House” by Bram Stoker. I found this story in an anthology of classic ghost stories in the library of my children's (!) library at the time. I still wonder what this book was doing there, as the stories are definitely not for children. The story is about a young student who retreats to an abandoned house to prepare for his exams. But then strange things start to happen: eerie noises can be heard in the house, the young man is haunted by rats and has nightmares about a sinister judge who wants to sentence him to death. The student can no longer concentrate on his exams and eventually goes mad. I was 8 or 9 years old when I read this story and I found it incredibly disturbing. I've always had a very vivid imagination and there was an illustration in the book that showed the creepy judge. I had also lived in an old apartment at the time where there were always strange noises, so you can imagine the effect this story had on me. My fascination with the uncanny has stayed with me to this day and has awakened in me the desire to be able to tell such stories myself.

3. After graduating from BTK Hochschule für Gestaltung, how did you transition from telling stories of trees and tombstones to becoming a professional illustrator and graphic designer?

I no longer wanted to just enjoy my illustrations myself and then let them disappear back into my drawing folder, I wanted to share my stories with the whole world. Unfortunately, this wasn't as easy as I had thought at the time. I had to learn the hard way that in the art industry, it's less about your artistic talent and more about how well you can sell yourself. I cover very niche topics and have never been interested in any trends. Yes, of course I could have drawn whatever was in vogue, but that would no longer be me. I think I'm more of an artist than a businesswoman. But having a small audience is not necessarily a bad thing, on the contrary! I really appreciate a more personal contact with my audience and it makes me even happier when someone really engages with my work instead of just consuming it.

I can't (yet) make a living from my job as an illustrator and graphic designer alone, but I have an additional part-time job that I'm very happy with and that still leaves me enough time to work on my private art projects.

4. The darker side of human nature and the grotesque beauty of death are central themes in your work. How do these themes manifest in your art, and how do you balance them to create compelling pieces?

Here, the stories of H.P. Lovecraft and E.A. Poe had a very big influence on my art. For me, it was always disturbing and fascinating at the same time to empathize with the madness of the individual characters while reading. It's hard to say whether my own characters are good or evil, but they're certainly not really mentally healthy. Following their twisted minds sometimes scares me a little myself, because I naturally wonder where these images and ideas come from. So from time to time, I need to escape from their dark world and distract myself with a cheerful book from my childhood, for example.

And there is, of course, a general morbidity in my pictures, which can be seen in old abandoned houses, rooms or even the characters themselves; everything in my pictures are not really dead, but not really alive either, rather they seem to exist in an intermediate world. I want to show my audience in my pictures that madness, death and decay can also create images of their own dark beauty and I hope that the veil of a taboo will be lifted at least a little.

5. Your work often explores disturbing elements. How do you connect emotionally with your art, and what do you hope your audience feels when they engage with it?

In a way, every single one of my illustrations is a self-portrait. Not so much of my outer self, because my characters don't look like me and aren't supposed to, but rather they are always images of my own personal fears. An example: I am afraid of mummified bodies, whether human or animal. I can't even say exactly why, perhaps it's the grotesque distortion of what was once life that scares me. I like to process that in my pictures and it can often be found in smaller or larger details.

I always want my audience to take the time to let my pictures sink in. I love to incorporate lots of little details into my compositions, which then, the longer you look at them, create an eerie overall picture and I think my art work so well because the viewer's imagination can interpret everything possible into them. So when someone says to me: ‘Your art is very disturbing’, then I know I've done everything right.

6. Can you walk us through your creative process? How do you go from a concept influenced by the paranormal to a finished piece of art?

I think my creative process is relatively unspectacular. I hardly ever make sketches and to be honest. I haven't filled out a single sketchbook completely. It always starts with an idea that either suddenly appears in my mind's eye or slowly, slowly takes shape. The inspiration can be, for example, a certain facial expression, pose, object, landscape, building or even just the way light and shadow interact. I then create a fairly precise sketch, which I later transfer to the final sheet of paper. At this stage, I can still make changes or, in the rare case that I'm not satisfied with the final paper, I don't have to start from scratch again.

Drawing itself always has something meditative about it for me and I love working out every little detail. I confess I'm also very old-fashioned and still work with analogue media because drawing on a PC feels so unnatural to me personally.

7. Looking ahead, what new projects or themes are you excited to explore in your art, and how do you see your style evolving in the future?

I'm usually quite spontaneous when it comes to finding subjects, but I'm looking forward to more images from my ‘Curse of the old Camera’ series, ruins of Chernobyl or more inspiration in Victorian post-mortem photography, for example. But things can also turn out very differently, I like to be surprised where my imagination takes me. Who knows, maybe one day there will be a complete, beautiful coffee table book with my work? But to be honest, I'm still putting this off because as an artist I do have certain expectations of myself: I want to make my drawing style look even more realistic, to be able to feel the texture of skin, hair, fabric, wood and stones even more when I look at my pictures. My great weakness is still drawing hands. I admire artists who can do this so well and so I draw hands as often as I can - also as a very expressive tool! I started combining my colored pencil drawings with alcohol markers about a year ago. I'm very happy with the result so far, but I'd like to experiment further in the future.

Lena Goral