My name is Marta. In the world of digital artists, I am known as Marta Van Eck. I live with my husband and two kids in Germany but I come from Poland. I studied computer aided systems and IT technology. My scrapbooking adventure began when I discover macromedia flash and started making short comedies. I realized that scrapbooking kits had almost everything I needed in them, but not quite everything. I was forced to make elements for my movies myself. I downloaded GIMP, which I use even today, bought a graphic tablet and started creating.
My most favorite thing about digital scrapbooking is...that it is digital. There are no limitations. You can create anything and be carried away by your imagination I also like that you can delete or undo your last step. I miss it in my real life e.g burned soup because I gape at the computer to long.
Why did I decide to start designing?
I already had a graphics background. Then, I met some nice designers on a community for mothers and they informed me about possibilities of selling, applying for designer calls, etc. I started with an unknown shop and made $10 my first month. I was so happy that someone found my art so cool that he decided to buy it and make some pages with it.
Designing is my escape from day-to-day life. I love to design new stuff. I love inventing new kits and products that do not really exist in real life, like flying pigs or unconventional steampunk tools. It is like making illustrations for a non existing book and then watching people create stories to fill it, sometimes, magical stories and extraordinary art but also simple pages about daily life.
At this moment, I design a lot of elements using old photos and antique books. But I also create a lot of stuff myself, painting it with my graphic tablet. Sometimes, I try not to use any elements from the other artist to create product which would be solely created by me and only me. I think what I do now it is not my final style. I am still searching for new ways to express my artistic soul. What I can say for sure is that I like bizarre themes, weird elements and quirky character and always look for unusual inspiration like great movies and amazing books. My favorite products are movie inspired, with inspiration coming from Sweeney Todd or the Others. I love Tim Burton movies and I make quite a bit inspired by this artist. I have many fantastic characters perfect for journaling pages, art journals or any kind of scrapbooking. If someone is looking for that kind of stuff, they should check out characters from the sets Bohemian, Hotel Hell, Anatomy Lesson or Symphonie Fantastique. But if you are looking for some steampunk ora ssemblage like stuff, try Cabinet of Curiosities, The Future is Steampunk orAssemblage kit. Some of my favorite kits to work on was the series of products about Evolution and Darwin, my (R)evolution kit and also some CU collections of butterfly, birds and bugs.
I try to choose unusual themes for my products. Themes that are not so easy to find. These make my products unique. I also try not to concentrate on one style. I do hand-painted elements, alter old photos and also do some realistic elements. At the beginning, I was doing products that contained only hand painted elements but then I decided to mix it with some other stuff. I still like to create my elements myself. I try to use only my own products but if I do use CU stuff I try to find unusual pieces from lesser known shops and designers. I do not like to use stuff I've seen in five others kits. You'd be surprised what kind of cool stuff you can find in small scrapbooking shops, sometimes real treasures.
Here is my working area...
My most unusual hobby is restoring old furniture and making some little furniture like wooden boxes of little wooden cupboards. I grind, polish, and paint the furniture with stain. I like shabby chic style. I also like using decoupage technique.
Besides this I also play piano, my father is a musician so I had to get my musical education. I also paint. Most of my home painting were made by me. I am not an outstanding painter but my paining are quite tolerable.
I love making videos and animation in Monty Python style. I publish some of them on youtube.
I love playing piano and singing. My favourite song is Make you feel my love of Adele. We have two cats: Mintaj ( eng.: Pollock) and Frodo. I really like cats. Cats are very extraordinary animals.
I hate violence , wars and politicians who pull the wool over our eyes. Live could be some beautiful without lies, hate and weapons. I wish some day politicians will invest most of the money in inventing new medicines then in developing new guns... The reason why I love scrapbooking is that this kind of art give me and the other the possibility to create some other reality, other world - better, more colorful fill with happiness and laugh. Scrapbooking is my escapism...
