review of Catrin Welz-stein

I am reviewing the artist Catrin Welz-Stein. Catrin Welz-Stein works on Photoshop combining different images to create fantastical landscapes. The images often has a person as the main theme and the people are generally taken from old paintings. What Catrin wants to do with these images is recreate the emotions and creativity of childhood. It is also to convey emotions and a story to the viewer. I think this is an important value because we all need to remember the happiness and innocence of childhood.

What struck me about the portfolio was that it was made in the style of an interview. Most of it was her art and links to sites where you could buy her art. 

Here are some examples of her art. They both have color schemes one that is dark with duller colors the other has bright colors. They both also have an aged look and the brightest part of the picture is around the main subject. The aged look brings a certain fantastical quality. The light around the main subject also does this making the main subject seem like they have an aura. Most of the art has an aura and quite often places odd objects in place of parts of the body, for example branches as hair. The message of serenity is expressed through the soft colors, it is also expressed using the movement in the hair and that she uses mostly things found in nature.

The first image and one other piece are called the wolf. They are a pair of images created for a magazine called Woman Kind. What stood out to me about this piece is the wolf in the picture and how it is both the dress and in front of the woman at the same time. The image is in dark colors that make you think of the nighttime and this makes her seem mysterious. Her hair is also wild and yet she is calm and as you watch her she watches you right back this creates an idea that she is not of this world and is simply watching you the same way you are watching her. I think that the message that this is trying to convey is an otherworldly being isn't wild or savage and can be just as elegant and calm as any human. This meaning is not explicit much like any of her artworks, nothing is explicit. I think that if it wanted to convey the message very explicitly it could do better but if it just wants you to feel an aura that conveys the message than it does a very good job. This design is good for the target audience because it is meant to be for the covers of books on for interesting pictures in magazines and is not meant to be explicit in it's opinion. 

I think that the wolf conveys the way that Catrin Welz-Stein conveys messages, it is just as implied as all of her artwork. I fact is hard to tell what exactly the message is, all of her art is like that. The art lets you make your own Ideas about what it is about.  I think that this designer has a beautiful style of art that is calming for me. It brings me into the picture and creates fantastical worlds much like writers do in books.