Short biography

I was born and raised in Germany and as long as I remember I was drawn to art and loved to paint, take photographs and write poetry. After finishing school I wanted to go to the art school (Kunstakademie) in Karlsruhe, Germany. Though I was admitted, I did not choose this path. More than the serious resistance of my family, the argument of a good artist friend of mine was responsible for this decision: "If you want your creativity stifled and bent to the ideas of other artists, go." I didn't. Instead, I studied Indology (Eastern Indian languages, religions and philosophy) and received my Ph.D. from the University of Heidelberg, Germany, in 1979. More than 13 years of post graduate research in India followed, which brought me in contact with spiritual masters and many great Indian musicians and artists. I became deeply engrossed in all aspects of Indian culture, received the name Sautamali and increasingly devoted time to express my experiences, thoughts and beliefs through drawings, paintings, photographs and poetry.

Besides being an artist, I work as author and translator of mostly spiritual books for various publishers in Germany. My new translation from Sanskrit into German of the major Upanishads came out in 1996. For more details visit my website at  www.turstig.net. Recently I moved to Santa Fe, NM, and in this artistic atmosphere my creativity found new ways to manifest and to express my metaphysical interests and insights. I developed a composite technique working with my own photographs, with digital enhancement using various computer software, different printing methods on diverse surfaces and additional drawing and painting by hand. In 2005, I moved to Berlin, Germany.

Artist’s Statement

Digital Fine Art is based on a computer and appropriate software, technological tools that have pushed the limits of creativity far beyond the possibilities of more traditional art. Yet, how an artist uses these exciting tools and explores their possibilities and limitations is – as with any other medium and tool - determined by each artist’s skill and talent.

A unique feature of Digital Fine Art is the possibility to share it with the world immediately and with fantastic speed via the internet. New venues of transverbal communication are thus opened up. Whether or not an image carries a message beyond itself, it certainly contributes to an international understanding and transcultural exchange that may well become the necessary ground on which lasting peace on this planet is feasible.

Thus I see my digital artwork as a way to share my life experience and non-verbal understanding with people all over the world, initiating a dialogue that bypasses all seeming differences. This unmediated directness is infinitely more personal, leaves less space for misunderstanding, moves us closer together and helps us realize once  again that we are all interconnected and more alike than unalike.

It is my firm conviction that this fast, active and interactive creative process of sharing Digital Fine Art is a step on the way of us humans back to our place as part of nature rather than this selfproclaimed final peak of evolution and selfimposed rulers of our home planet. This humbling realization may well turn out to facilitate enlightened and conscious global awareness.