BIOGRAPHY
| German-born artist, Martina Hoffmann, spent her childhood in Germany as well as Cameroon, West Africa, where she was raised bi-lingually in French and German, while surrounded by African, French and German culture. Here she lived as a white minority in black Africa, one of her more valuable life experiences. |
 Lisa, Martina & Ulrich Hoffmann |
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 The Manengouba mountain near N'Kongsamba, in the highlands of Cameroon |
 Martina in Africa with a pet |
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Upon returning to Europe with her family she finished her formal education in Germany majoring in art with professor Kiefer (father of Anselm Kiefer) while studying sculpting and French at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany. | |
| As the need to travel and experiencing new places is an innate part of her nature, Martina moved to Paris, living there until the flow of events brought her to Cadaques, Spain (home of Salvador Dali). While discovering this romantic, beautiful bay on the Mediterranean coast she met visionary artist, Robert Venosa, and, inspired by his work, took up painting. |
 Cadaques |
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 Robert Venosa & Martina Hoffmann |
Living the life of an artist proved to be more exciting and educational than academics, so Hoffmann decided to permanently move to Spain and embarque on the inspirational journey of being an artist full time. Upon arrival in Cadaques she moved into Venosa's studio. | |
| As both shared the fascination for travel they soon embarked on a series of trips to Venosa's homeland, the United States, and, after several journeys back and forth, they eventually decided to set up studios in both Colorado, and Cadaques. |
 Martina with her sculpture |
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 Martina Hoffmann sweater design |
In her formative years as a painter, Martina also designed and marketed her own line of clothing and jewelry, with articles on her work and activities published in Ornament Magazine, Accessories Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, et al. | |
 The Goddess Belts |
 Goddess Belt |
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| In the early 90's Hoffmann joined a group of Colorado women artists and activists who presented their ideas and concerns in multi- media stage shows under the name of 'Vox Femina'. For those shows Martina created live sculpture on stage, videos, as well as her own multi-media performance pieces. During this time she also taught sculpting to children and disabled adults. |
 Vox Femina gives new meaning to the term' girl group' |
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 Esalen painting class graduation party |
As a painter and sculptor , Martina Hoffmann, intersperses
her life of creating art with giving painting technique workshops
with Venosa at such institutes as The Skyros Institute on the island
of Skyros in Greece, Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California and the
CIIS (California Institute of Integral Studies), as well as private
workshops in Boulder, Colorado and on the Big Island in Hawaii.
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| Together Hoffmann and Venosa have designed numerous
CD covers, amongst them Kitaro's 'Mandala' for which Hoffmann
did the photography. Also Martina has designed and created original art for book covers. |
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 'Birthscape' |
Her early paintings were influenced by her interest
in how much of the human persona is reflected in the face, so portraiture,
in particular of women, became her first main subject matter. Later she explored women¼s creative and procreative nature in a series of paintings and sculptures of pregnant nudes. She calls these life-size images 'Birthscapes'. They are full-body portraits describing the physical and spiritual realities of pregnancy. |
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| Early African imprints also started to re-surface when the Artist took up sculpting again in the early 90's and started to create images of earth-Goddesses. |
 'Grace' |
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In time this series gathered more and more momentum and, over a period of two years, finally grew into a 20'x10' multi-media installation piece consisting of nine paintings, sculpted elements and sound. Hoffmann considers the resulting creation, which she calls 'Goddess Triangle', her masterpiece. | |
| In her latest work Hoffmann uses her inner
visions as a guide and the inspiration for her paintings. She primarily
sees herself as a 'translator' for these visions. Having started out with a more traditional approach Hoffmann's work has evolved into a Magical Realism all of her own, although she still enjoys using realistic elements in her visionary paintings. |
Hoffmann at work on 'Phoenix' in her sudio |
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Martina is also a Reiki-master, studies western herbalism
and is continuously trying to broaden her understanding of how the universal
energy moves in, through and around us. Martina Hoffmann's work has been exhibited internationally as well as being published in books, calendars and magazines such as Illuminatus, Drinking Lightning, Craftsman House, One Source, Sacred Journeys, Markowitz Publishers,The Return Of The Great Goddess, Shambhala Publishing, Celebrating Women's Spirituality, The Crossing Press, Magical Blend, Expose and Nexus . |
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