Martina Falk’s enchanted world of colour

Island resident, Martina Falk, has increasingly been tantalising the white isle with her cheerful artwork. IbiCASA hooked up with her to explore the inspiration behind her work.
Martina was born and bred in Germany. Surrounded by creative friends throughout her life, she yearned to take the same unbridled leap into creativity, but found herself thwarted by self-inflicted mental constraints: “Deep down I wanted so much to find my creative outlet, but every time I thought to put brush to canvas, the pressure of not having a specific plan or end vision stopped me in my creative tracks.”
A degree in Spanish Philology and administrative work in event coordination took her through her 20s and into her mid-30s, with little time to focus any further on her creative hankerings. That was until one fateful day when she finally followed a strong instinct to simply take brush to canvas and wash it with the colours red, petrol and gold. Little did she know that merely playing with colours in this way was to form the foundation of her future work; something further reinforced when she enrolled on a course exploring one’s true self and radiance. Within these teachings, she was given the freedom to tap into her creativity, without any rules or constraints, and without particular emphasis on the outcome. “It was impressed upon me that the journey and process were the key. I found that with no pressure on the end result I could finally express my creativity freely.”
It was in 2010, aged 36, that Martina moved to Ibiza with her partner of the time. With his unconditional support and encouragement, she embraced her newfound time and space to really explore her art. A second course quickly strengthened her understanding that art flourishes most when left wholeheartedly intuitional. Not to mention a powerful reminder to step into the void and embrace the prospect of a work’s inevitable “errors” as nothing more than a prompt for readjustment, oftentimes to superior effect. “Not so different from life itself,” Martina observes.
Martina recalls that on the way to the airport to catch her flight bound for Ibiza, a Seat Ibiza advert jumped out at her flaunting the words “Ibiza – Freiraum fürs Leben”, which loosely translates as “Ibiza – Space for life”. In Martina’s case, never have truer words been written. Powered up by being surrounded with Ibiza’s cosmopolitan, colourful, non-judgemental, open-minded people, she fully embraced her artistic initiation. To this day, Martina views Ibiza as her “spiritual and creative boot camp”. All her creative output reflects the very things that Ibiza generously proffers to enhance her artistic journey: “The intense colours, flowers, trees, sunshine, ocean, moon and outdoor living. The things I look at become a part of me, and then unravel in an altered form onto the canvas.” And her motivation is simple: “My mission as an artist is to bring more beauty to the world. I desire nothing more than to evoke a feel-good, positive, uplifting response from anyone that views my work.”
It is no surprise that such a pure ethos has afforded Martina exhibitions both in Germany and locally at the Centro Cultural in Santa Eulalia (in collaboration with local art collective: ‘Arte Figurativo’), Sansara, Las Dalias, Pacha and Atzaró. She is also a regular exhibitor on the Ruta del Arte circuit, along with ongoing permanent exhibits of her work at Anita’s bar and Las Dalias Bar in San Carlos. Her work predominantly takes the form of vibrant swathes of hues, shapes and forms in acrylic on canvas; at times accented by words or the best of nature’s bounty.
Keen to share the merits of her own journey away from self-inflicted psychological constraints, Martina has chosen to host creative workshops to help nurture the same in others. The first of these are being held on 14th and 21st March. With them she invites any age or level to enjoy a few hours of abandoned and unplanned creative exploration in a safe, relaxed, fun, non-judgemental environment: “My intention is to create a space for people to explore their creativity and put paint to canvas in a playful way.” A plethora of tools will be at hand to enhance the process. “This isn’t about the end product, but just about the freedom to express yourself creatively, without judgement.” Total novices are welcome, and even those who don’t presently consider themselves remotely creative. After all, we human beings are creative by design, it’s just a case of freeing ourselves to unleash our potential – or to at least enjoy trying! •