I grew up in a small village in northern Germany, right on the Danish border and by the sea. There was a telephone box, a small merchant and not much else - no internet, no computer, hardly any television and making phonecalls was far too expensive! But what we had was time, a lot of time and a lot of ideas. We climbed on trees and dug deep holes, we used to sink with homemade rafts, roasted potatoes in a found oven, and almost every day the trousers were torn. When I wasn’t building a very secret hideout somewhere, I was reading or drawing.
After school I went to London for a year and then studied communication design in Mainz. During my studies the first publishers became aware of me and I was able to publish my first illustrated book at Jungbrunnen Verlag. My diploma project was published in 1999 in cooperation with Thienemann Verlag. Since then I have illustrated over 40 books for many publishers (e.g. Carlsen, Coppenrath, Cornelsen, Duden, Gabriel, Gutrath, Jungbunnen, Löwe, Oetinger, Ravensburger, Rowohlt, Sauerländer, Thienemann). Many were translated, such as “Monster unter Willis Bett” by Angelika Glitz (into catalan, chinese, english UK, english US, hebrew, korean, durch, portugese and spanish). Some Titles were animated for television, too. My own book “Oma Adele und das Glück aus der Kiste” has been made into a puppet theater play by the Wolfsburger Figurentheater and is currently been shown throughout Germany.
I work on picture books, make title designs, illustrations and handlettering. I write my own texts and have designed pictures for texts of many authors, both in traditonal media and digitally. I also design postcards and greeting cards in the stationary sector.
Meanwhile I live in Aachen, together with my husband, three children and a cat. There’s no sea here, but two other countries right next door and a forest almost in front of my house!
Drawing is still my favourite hobby. Latest books can be found in the blog, for recent sketches have a look at my Instagram account :-)
AWARDS:
Reinhard Jung: “Das kleine Nein!”
- Die besten 7 (Mai 1999)
- Federhasenpreis Design Austria, 1. Platz (1999)
- Ehrenliste zum österreichischem Kinder- und Jugendbuchpreis (2000)
Ildiko von Kürthy: “Karl Zwerglein”
- Lobende Anerkennung der Stiftung Buchkunst “Die schönsten Bücher” (2003)
Gaby Scholz: “Frech wie Oskar”
- Bilderbuchpreis Buxtehuder Kälbchen (2011)
EXHIBITIONS:
“Frau Holle”
Märchen - Sage - Mythos
Schloß Elisabethenburg, Meininger Museen, 12. Nov 2009 - 2. Mai 2010
“Buxtehuder Kälbchen, Bilder der Preisträgerin 2011”
Kulturforum am Hafen in Buxehude, Hafenbrücke 1, 21614 Buxtehude
2.Juni 2013 - 23.Juni.2013