‘Wow, we had a lot of fun’, when you said that, I knew you were fine. You were just up for any fun, that’s what fascinated me about you when I met you in 1985. I was working at Philips Austria you were the central advertising manager there and I was a quota woman in your department. Seriously work and laughter were not contradictory, they were dogma. When you then took over the position as the central advertising manager at Konsum Austria, it was a bit more difficult to laugh. Too many interests, too much ideology and little professionalism. But you made it there too – and all grocery chains have taken your idea of the printed carrier bags and designed delivery vehicles – with colourful fruit, vegetables, fish and much more.

1995 was your year. Konsum Austria went bankrupt and you were free for art.

You suffered from the loss of your job in the beginning of course. But towards the end of the year, you were back at work, painting and drawing and also building historical ship models.

In 1993, I gave you the ‘most lasting’ birthday present. I bestowed you a week’s ‘etching’ course with Christoph Donin* (1930 – 2013) in Neumarkt/Raab, Burgenland, Austria. After that, printmaking became an integral part of your artistic work and Neumarkt/Raab became your second home.

You were there every summer. First one week, then 2 weeks, then 3 and more weeks until you rented the oil mill as your summer studio in 2010. There you also taught etching and experimental water colour painting, a technique which you have developed by yourself, helped to look after the printing workshop and briefed the newcomers on Sundays. Your studio was always open to everyone, whether they wanted to see your pictures, your objects or just visit the old mill. Almost all of your objects were created in the oil mill.

You were happiest in Neumarkt/Raab. That’s where you spent most of your creative and productive time. You always sat on the bench in front of the mill and chatted with everyone who passed by. You had so many friends there that I was almost jealous at times.

You were sick too, of course. Your arteries were severely calcified, but the art of the doctors and your art never let you despair.

When the helicopter landed near by the mill in the summer of 2011 to take you to the general hospital in Vienna with a weeping bleeding into your abdomen, you were the talk of the village and you were, how could it have been otherwise, very amused.

And that’s how you left, still positive and full of ambition. No thought of an ending.

I am sure you’ll stop by at your next exhibition.

Christa, your wife

December 2013