Name: Lisa Maria Kossmann
Age: 20
Country: Germany
Places Travelled & Places lived: Southern Germany, USA, France, Corsica, Italy, Croatia, Greece
Languages: German, English, French, Latin, ancient Greek
Movies: The Lord of the Rings, Amélie, Black Swan, Inception, Hanna
Music: Florence + the Machine, Fever Ray, Bat for Lashes, classical music and film scores
Books: The Lord of the Rings (J.R.R. Tolkien), Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontё), The Book Thief (Markus Zusak), Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen), The Inheritance Cycle (Christopher Paolini)
Artists: Valeria Martinyuk (Mariinsky Ballet), Seneca, Emma Watson, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Cornelia Funke
Occupation: Studying German and Latin at the Karl Ruprechts University, in order to be a secondary school teacher.
Creative Works:
www.lisa-kossmann.de
“Everything flows.” – Heraclitus
I think this says a lot about the world. The world consists of change and transformation, and therefore gives us the opportunity to keep discovering new things.
My philosophy in arts:
Art should be understandable. It should be fun instead of frightening. I think it is a shame that some artists consider their own ingenuity more important than reaching other people through their works. In order to find the right balance between a high self-demand, a beautiful form and straightforwardness, you need one thing above all others: exercise.
My subjects:
Everything I deal with somehow influences my work. On my blog I record unusual conversations by other people on the train; it is fascinating to examine communication among people, especially from a psychological point of view. Why do people say what they say? I find their unconscious behaviour especially interesting.
My inspirations:
I started to write when I was very young. Definitely one of my big inspirations was the German author Cornelia Funke whose books still have that special magic that is able to take me to a different world, in spite of that “loss of magic” that many books I used to love suffer due to the passing of time and the gathering of my own experience as a writer.
I never followed any concrete models, but there are many artists who I admire, for example, the Brontë sisters, whose faculty of speech is incredible, or the film director Peter Jackson, whose movie version of The Lord of the Rings is something that beforehand nobody had considered possible. I enjoy looking up to people who do things differently or go a long way in their art like, for example, the world-famous Mariinsky Ballet of St. Petersburg.
Paperblanks:
I saw Paperblanks books for the first time in a bookshop. I was looking for a new diary, and I liked Paperblanks right away. The paper is ideal for writing both with ballpoint pen and fountain pen, and due to the great cover design, with manuscripts by famous writers or pieces of art, the books are quite different from any other journal I have had. Paperblanks journals have the charm of precious ancient books that need to be treated with care, and at the same time they are strong enough to survive everyday travel inside my bag.
What I like most is the design of my dayplanner: a manuscript by Goethe from his Italian Journey, which I really enjoyed reading.
My advice for other creative people:
I think you need two things in order to carry out your creativity: an attentive perception, and the tools to help you transform what you perceived into art. Both can be strengthened by exercise. It also helps to expose yourself to other people’s opinions, but without depending on them. And most important of all: have fun.
