6 artists on decisive moments behind their work

when I was 22 I was like a 14 year old

and I was somewhat just doing

what my mother said to me

what I should do

I was more a dreamer

I was... I did not really know what to do

on this 22nd birthday I went with my mother

through Hamburg, through town, and she asked me

"what do you want for birthday present"

and I thought a little bit and then I said

"I want some paper and some pencil or pastels

and I want to start doing painting/drawings"

and my mother looked at me and said

"why you want to do drawings?

You were never interesting in doing art."

even at that moment we didn't say 'art'

"you were never interested in drawing."

and we have not so much money

and it costs a lot of money, this big papers

and but then she bought this and from that day on,

I started to paint, to draw,
and to make sculptures.

(noise of rushing water)

(off screen)
"when did you find out that images

play an important role in your life?"

when I fell into a lake
when I was six years old

and I fell to the bottom and I saw

probably the most beautiful world
I've ever seen

and it was colorful, and there was light,

and these plants were moving

I mean I see it regularly,
I see it constantly almost in my mind,

in my mind's eye