Artist Statement
The medium of handmade paper has been a vehicle for artistic expression and storytelling in my life since 1977. The attributes that attracted me the first time I dipped mould and deckle into a vat of pulp are still prevalent today. Handmade paper is a source of constant celebration and discovery. Because it is my tool for visual language, it allows me to grow as artist and human being. It lets me tell of memories, impressions, beliefs, dreams and daydreams. Through it I can speak of things that mean the most in my world: family, community, love of nature and the joy of creating. This language is implied in symbolism and abstraction, the power of jewel-like hues, deep embossing, casting and impressionistic surface painting.
From the beginning I have viewed handmade paper as reconstructed fabric. These "fabrics" have told of my German peasant ancestry with their tradition of growing flax, spinning, weaving, embroidery, tapestry and lace making. My assimilation into American life with its rich heritage of Native American art, the glorious art of the patchwork quilt and making everything fabric for my home and growing family also influenced my work. I have and continue to draw from a visually and emotionally rich store of childhood images and memories. My early visual impressions came from heavily carved and painted furniture on the farm where I grew up as a refugee kid. The carvings, paintings, and floor to ceiling organ pipes in the historical Bavarian church that my family attended, grottos and wayside crosses, rich fabrics and tapestries in homes and castles, all added a colorful measure of terror, wonder and spirituality. In nature I found refuge from a poverty-stricken and chaotic home life and from the growing knowledge and shame about the Holocaust. My playgrounds were the woods and meadows. There I built my houses – my mansions. Nature, with her color, texture, symmetrical balance and organization added a measure of tranquility, a place to dream and for my imagination to develop.
My works reflect the celebrations, sorrows, growing pains, losses, gains, insights, understandings and misunderstanding of my life. I feel a neverending passion and commitment toward my art. It has become a visual counterpart to my spiritual life. Over the years much of the darkness has fallen from my soul and instead a more playful and whimsical woman has emerged. I work often with children and I hope that my art will always be a positive voice for my thoughts, feelings and convictions.
More about Gisela Magdalena Moyer
My name is Gisela Magdalena Moyer. I was born in 1943 in the former German province of Silesia (Schlesien, now part of Poland) as the third child of farmers. In 1945, when the Russians came over the horizon, my family fled in a wagon over the mountains to Bavaria. I grew up there with five siblings, parents and grandparents – first in a very small village, and then a larger town near the Main River. At 14 my father apprenticed me to a local bank, where I worked for four years.
At the age of 17, I met my husband of 45 years, Dave, who was stationed in the U.S. Army near my town. We married and I immigrated to the U.S. in 1962 and I became a proud U.S. citizen in 1978.
My first 16 years in America were spent at home with our four children. When the youngest went to school all day, I went to college for my dream of a Fine Arts Degree, from the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay – which I attained in 1981.
After college, my career as an artist developed very quickly. My husband and I started Moyer Art Studio. For the first 20 years of my career in art, I have exhibited my work in shows and Fine Art Galleries all over the U.S. Ten years ago, I withdrew all my art from them and my husband and I started a new phase in our lives – art fairs! I love to talk with clients one-on-one.
My other passions include our 8 grandchildren, gardening and cooking.
