German textile artist Linda Männel is based in Nuremberg. Her beautiful ink paintings are embroidered in muted colours to give her work ‘a spatial and temporal depth. Embroidery renders diverse images that arise only as the light changes and the viewer changes their vantage point.’

Firstly where did you grow up and where do you live now?

I grew up in the Nuremberg, a lovely city in south Germany. In my childhood, we lived in a castle and my room was at the top of a tower – with a stunning view all over the city. I suppose that’s where my penchant for motifs with distant views comes from. After some time in Vancouver, Canada, I came back to Nuremberg and finally stayed here.

What is your background in textiles?

I studied Fine Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg. In my academy days, I worked almost exclusively in black ink on paper. There were countless attempts to paint in colour but somehow I never really liked it. After graduating from college, I had a lot of unfinished ink paintings and started embroidering them on a whim. This was the kind of colourfulness that my paintings had been lacking!

What is it about textiles as an art form that appeals to you?

The layering of the embroidery over the painting gives my work a spatial and temporal depth, rendering diverse images that arise only as the light changes and the viewer changes their vantage point. The viewer becomes an actor of my work as they are invited to dig up personal experiences as if memories hide beneath the textile.

I play with the concept of female role models where historically embroidery was a practical activity but also a decorative practice when women were indoors. By adopting this practice in a 21st century context, I break away from constrictions to give my works an innovative and distinct style.

What techniques do you use?

So far I have only embroidered by hand. During the first lockdown last year, I got a tufting machine and I’ve already made my first works with this carpet technique.

How do you describe your work?

My works are painted in black ink on canvas. They are more figurative paintings, often showing landscape scenes. To bring colour into the scenery, but also to create a second, more abstract level, I embroider over the painting with coloured thread.

I embroider without exception in horizontal lines, which have about 5 mm distance from each other. This rasterizes the image and makes it appear slightly blurred. At the same time the yarns colourise the painting.

Standing directly in front of the picture, it seems as if the layers dissolve. The eye merges painting and embroidery, it is hard to believe that the colour is not part of the painting, but was embroidered on afterwards. I have observed visitors at pretty much every exhibition and they can’t stop themselves and secretly touch the painting, pushing the threads gently apart to discover the secret of how it was made.

How do you create a piece?

Most of the images are based on a small sketch. Once the ink painting is completed, I photograph it, print it out and hatch the coloured lines using coloured pencils. I then embroider it. This is the template for the embroidery, although there are sometimes changes in the process.

I know this is a hard question but how long does a bigger piece take?

About two to three months.

What are you most proud of in your art career so far?

In 2017, I was invited to be an artist in residence stay in Tulum, Mexico. It was a great experience that inspired me greatly. Otherwise, each of my exhibitions with my sister, Meike Männel, make me proud. We are very similar, think alike, but work with completely different media. Seeing her photographs next to my pieces often gives me answers to questions that occupy me during my own creative process. I am very grateful for that.

Do you have any advice for aspiring textile artists?

Textile art is often very closely connected with craftsmanship, for which you need a lot of patience and which is very time-consuming. I can only advise you to keep at it and not lose the desire. It’s worth it!

www.linda-maennel.de 

https://www.instagram.com/lindamnnl/