"One piece of paper can change the world"

Switzerland’s most famous folk stories are the ones about Heidi. The young, orphaned girl who grows up with her peculiar grandfather in the Alps of Switzerland. Heidi sees good in everyone, is grateful for what she has and has a great love for animals and nature. Piroska finds herself relating with the character a lot, and sees much of herself in Heidi. She even lives twenty minutes away from the famous Heidi Village, right outside Chur. Piroska and Heidi also share the same values: to be noble and good. Piroska wanted to develop the strong connection she felt for the girl in the stories, but didn’t exactly know how. The only thing she knew was that she was destined to be an artist. Her biggest wish when she was a child was to paint. She was sent to an art school with a famous artist as a teacher, and the classes were late in the evening. Piroska was only ten years old - the youngest student at the school - but probably the most dedicated.

– My teacher thought me, that as an artist you live through your painting. When you paint, your ears hear the painting. You can smell and even taste your painting. In the end, you become the painting. Today, when I paint, I lose track of time and space, I forget to eat and I disappear into the painting and its creation. It’s amazing that I can be such an organized person outside the atelier, but when I create I really let go of that control, says Piroska.

The dreaming of ideas

In order to know what kind of art people wanted and to create the right styles, Piroska also studied Management of Culture. She wanted to know as much as possible about how the industry and market worked, and how, for example, gallerists looked at art and artists. Being able to stand with one foot in the artist’s creative world and one foot on the other side, where she understands how the art business works, has been of great benefit to Piroska. She explains that she sometimes feels like two people - in addition to her connection with the Heidi character – one of whom is very structured and organized and the other who doesn’t even remember to eat a proper lunch.

– I like both my sides, they have shaped me and made me who I am today. My mind and my thoughts are like a theater. It’s like I’m watching all the ideas that come in and which I then can process like an audience. It may sound strange, but it works for me, says Piroska.

The ideas for her artworks and her books, which often involve paper, come to Piroska in her dreams.

– What I imagine and then later create often has a starting point as a dream. In a book, for example, I can dream whole sentences, which I write down as soon as I wake up. Because of that, I try to keep an open mind, so I can be as receptive as possible to the dreams, says Piroska.