The home and studio of visual artist Carmen Maria Traud, better known as Carmi or “Frau Grau” is nestled up in the eaves of a typical Berlin apartment building. While she’s lived all over Berlin, it’s Kreuzberg, with its endearing contrasts, that has her heart.
Carmi grew up in a small town in Hesse and first came to Berlin in 2002. “My mom always says that whenever she wanted me to be well behaved as a child, all she’d have to do was give me a pen and paper.” She went on to study industrial design and in her years after graduation involved herself in graphic design and illustration in a range of mediums.
Carmi’s work is decorative—nature is a strong motif, as are geometric shapes. She doesn’t overcomplicate it, “My leaf drawings are more illustrative rather than artistic. When people ask, ‘Oh but what do you mean by them?’ I tend to say, ‘Well, you need to work out what it says to you.’ For her, drawing the lines and leaves is therapeutic. Her memorable plates, meanwhile, started out as a present for a friend, and grew from there. “Painting plates is very old-school, but this is my kind of new interpretation. My granny always bought plates back from her holidays. And my mother was like, ‘Really? Another plate.’ Now it’s my turn, I guess!”
These colors run riot in her studio—every surface is laden with a full spectrum—tubes of paint, markers, pencils. “I shared a studio a while ago, but I really like to work alone. I find it difficult if others can see the process of my work, I like to keep it private.” The artist, however, has a cheery antidote to her solitary work practice, “Making art and drawing a lot is a very lonely business since my studio is at home and I thought, ‘I really need something social.’ Two of my friends work at a kindergarten nearby, so sometimes I do a bit of graphic stuff for them, activities or go along on trips.”
While Carmi loves to work quietly from her Kreuzberg space, her main source of inspiration comes from stints further away from the city. “In 2013, I was invited for a year’s residency on the island of Sylt, so I would be back and forth between here and there every month. I was so inspired by the stones everywhere and the lines in the sand at the beach,” she enthuses. “I need to always be changing locations, and then come back to ‘my little castle’ with new experiences!” Carmi leafs through a stack of works, showing us the watercolour series that arose from this with their special coloring. In addition to her home is also an archive—she pulls out works to show us: records designed in San Francisco, canvases for Alfa Romeo and the hand-painted unu scooter, adorned with graphic vines, parked in her cosy studio—“My knees are blue from painting it!”
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| Ms. Carmi Grau |
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