Manu Jobst is a visual artist and dancer that works in many mediums. Chameleon-like, she changes her materials and output to suit the vision – but there is still a core view on life that ties all of it together.
manu jobst – gentle giant
Born in Germany, with a German mother and a Surinamese father, she grew up wondering about her brown skinned difference. “Many times I felt it was not so much me, who made me different, but the people around me.”
Expressing that sense of difference, and its alterego, universality, results in work that is other-worldly and multi-layered. She uses painting, drawing, poetry, dance, video and music as part of her repertoire, but it is her photography that she is most prolific in, and that I am drawn to the most.
manu jobst – from real to painting
Richly textured, detached and dreamlike; reflected images of landscapes are a common theme, as are the universal symbols of fragility and strength – butterflies, flowers, and trees populate her works.
manu jobst – in flight
Manu’s list of aesthetic influences is long – Magritte, Van Gogh, Monet, Kahlo, Kandinsky, Paul Klee and many more – but “foremost, I admire people who are and remain creative in life itself. They may not be an artist, but they come up with new ways of cooking a delightful meal, or designing a garden of stunning flowers, or maybe have a way with people to engage them in living life to the fullest in a real and honest way……. Also, my LOVE for people and each moment of life are, and always have been, a great inspiration in my art.”
manu jobst – ranunculas
manu jobst – white vintage blossom
manu jobst – red magnolia abstract
As a child, Manu used to immerse herself in art. “As long as I can remember I loved to create, make believe and harmonize my environment. Any art project I did was a place of shelter from my turbulent upbringing and I excelled at losing myself in my imagination.” She vividly remembers one school project where she made a poster for a hair salon, curling many thin strips of paper and gluing them onto a picture she’d drawn of a head. “It took forever, kept me engaged and it was one of the most memorable projects of my early school years. My teacher told me then, that she believed I was made to be an artist due to my never-ending inventive nature and that made it even more special to me.”
manu jobst – the other side
Manu travelled extensively in her twenties in order “to find myself. I somehow ended up in the U.S.; I got married, got divorced and am still here. I would say Life happened to me and I built my home within it.
“I never lived anywhere in Germany for more than a year or two. Since I moved to America I created my life from scratch, mostly as I wanted it. I brought up my daughter here and wherever my heart is, that is my home. I now realize that is who I am, a lover of life. That is my favorite thing about living here now. I can make a home anywhere.”
manu jobst – manu island
And her best piece of advice?
“There is no limit to what you can do”
You can find more of Manu’s work in her Etsy shop, StaticMovement, and on her own website, kunstfabrik.scriptmania.com.