ABOUT ME

I was born on March 28th of 1979 in a German-Hungarian-Romanian family in Hermannstadt / Sibiu.

Hermannstadt, is a city in Transylvania, in the geographical centre of Romania. It is known for the Germanic architecture in its historic centre.

Despite my many moves through Europe, my heart always remained there.

I’ll tell you why; because I was born in an era that always made me feel safe, you could move freely in the streets without anything happening to you, even at a young age.

In winter there was so much snow that you could skate on the streets. I loved to go out and skate on the frozen streets for hours and there was no danger because there were about 10 cars in the whole city. When we visited friends or family, my father always took me on the sledge, which was always an adventure. I would lean back, look up and watch the snow fall as if I was flying into the sky.

In spring, the fields were full of flowers and lots of butterflies in all colors were flying around, like in a land of milk and honey, I would give anything to experience this again. I have so many nice memories that I could write a lot about it, but I don’t want to deviate from the main topic.

Let’s go back to my first experience with art.

My first experience with drawing, which marked me for the rest of my life, was already in my first year of life.

Fortunately and naturally, I can’t remember the moment when I accidentally stabbed myself in the face with a coloured pencil. I rushed to the chair with the large crayon firmly in my hand, the crayon fell straight onto the chair like a tower and onto the right side of my face. Since this incident, I have had a peanut-sized scar on the lower cheek of my face. I feel a bit like a little Van Gogh. And if you look at my paintings, you’ll see a similar preference for vibrant colors.

My grandmother told me that, from a very young age, she would sit me at the table with a piece of paper and some colored pencils, she would leave me alone without any problem. When she returned to check after one or two hours, I was still so engrossed in my drawing. I didn’t even realize she was gone.

When I was 6 years old, I painted the entire windowsill brightly colored. You can imagine how angry my father was when he came home. We would rather leave that story out. Haha

At the age of 10, when communism fell, my family and I moved to Germany. We had now a new life. Big changes and I call it “homeless children” or “backpacker Germans.” In Romania they called us German or Hungary and in Germany they call us Romanians ! Divided cultures, old stories, we won’t go into detail because otherwise we would have to go back to the 10th century and then my ancestors would most likely be from the Benelux countries.

I have not received encouragement from third parties and even I did not have the confidence that it could lead me to study art. People told us that art would not bring us money, that we couldn’t live off of art.

So, I attended as a commercial, somewhat charmless hotel management school in Germany.

I then worked for many years in the hotel sector in Germany, Spain and Switzerland. I never kept the same workplace for long. I’m afraid I still have my backpack on. I have tried many different jobs in different areas. I wish I will have more confident about myself. I wish I will be strong enough to just paint.
I wish people would look inside us and let us paint and create.
I have tried a lot of things and none of them makes me as happy as much as painting. None of them brings me so much peace of mind, like when I was sitting in my childhood, in my chair and grandma’s colors.

Today I live on a beautiful island in the Mediterranean Sea. Palma de Mallorca is one of the best places for artists. Here I found again my addiction for painting.
I started painting with acrylic and in my innocence I thought that I should use a lot of paint to make the colours brighter.

I felt incredible again painting and last year I found an advertisement for an Art school and my heart told me that I should learn some techniques because YouTube videos are no longer enough. So, I went to school in November 2022 and I am aware that I still have a long way to go to learn but it makes me happy to paint, I try a lot of possible techniques, my paintings are now different,
I learned a lot in a few months and I am very grateful that some special people have come into my life to support and encourage me.

I keep trying all kinds of techniques, but my favourite is oil painting and I’ve learned to use a lot less paint. I like to paint all kinds of art, actors, musicians, funny animals and lots of colorful nature.

Sometimes I switch to water colour painting, especially when I want to go somewhere nice and don’t have to take much with me, then I sit down and paint little postcards. I can’t decide on one type of painting or picture because my mind wanders from one page to another and I get tangled up in a thousand ideas. What I use the least is lapis lazuli grey (it lacks a lot of colors), although I have learned to shade with a pencil.

My own definition of grey is shadow, it conveys sadness, and shadow is something we leave behind. I like sunshine, happiness, looking forward, I like to smile and I love to paint in color.

That’s why you won’t find much grey in my paintings, because I like the positive side of life.

Mary Filip is my stage name and the real birth name of my mother, who passed away from cancer in 2017. I like to use her name and keep her alive in voices and stories. At the same time, I would like to make one day a charity gala and invite children with cancer and let them see my colorful paintings, let them get lost in their childish fantasies in the underwater life of my paintings. I would like to make them forget the grey shadows of suffering and pain and make them dream in blue.

Thank you for reading my little story.