contact: naomi.bork@hotmail.dehomepage: www.nabartwork.com

Naomi A. Bork

N A B A R T W O R K

p o r t f o l i o

Photography and Illustrations

N A B ARTWORK

N A B ARTWORK

Artwork.Art has been a constant com-panion in my life ever since.That‘s why I decided to go to an artschool in 2010. It was important to me to choose a job, that has got to do with creativity, varied missions and gives me the opportunity to grow. This year showed me that I have the potential to go much further than I did in the past by using depth, love for life and motivation. If you asked me for my specialties, it would be my high variety of

styles and motifs.

Photography.I could never decide between my artwork and photography, although I have to admit that there are certain phases, that make me prefer one method. Honestly I don‘t see myself as a typical photographer, I guess I‘m rather a photoartist. I love shooting situations that, for some reason, touched my heart or persons who-se aura fascinates me. Some-times when a motif comes to my mind I also build my own photo spot, whatever works, to get this picture out of my

mind.

As John Piper once said: I see no thread running through my

work, I simply get on with my life and my painting.

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Trew UnoSB#HooliganzDoing it for NoHo

Portland’sWe Buy

Diamond$

NEW YORK · ISRAEL · GERMANY · LOS ANGELES · PORTLANDO . P. E . N .2.

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Art & Culture

Writing down these words took a lot of bravery. I have been thin-king about various topics that I could write about and make peop-le pay attention; ‚Where do I take my ideas for my artwork from? What does the daily German life look like? or in general ‚How‘s the German culture?‘ (I needed to keep in mind that this is a cul-ture magazine). But I denied all of this. I decided to focus on a topic that is much deeper than that. It is about having mixed blood, not belonging to just one country - or even having a home country. It is about growing up between two borders and having parents that don‘t share the same origin.

Naomi A. Bork

GERMANY / Hamburg

- 12 -O.P.E.N. Magazine

You probably think now ‚God, please, not ano-ther article about hispanics that feel discrimi-nated‘. If you do, you are wrong.But let me start from the beginning:

I was born in Guadalajara, Mexico. My Dad is Mexican, my Mom is German. I grew up in the Mexican culture till my Mom and I left Mexico and went to Ger-many. This is the point when your prejudi-ce against this story starts failing cause this is not another ‚Chicano Story‘.I forgot Spanish. I grew up like every other German kid. When people heard that I am from Mexico, they were thrilled cause in that town Latinos were rare. I didn‘t share this feeling, I didn‘t even understand it. In my eyes I was German, no big deal. Things started changing in the age of around 14 when I started roaming around in the internet. It‘s the typical age when a teenager start asking about their roots. I got to know other Latinos and experi-enced their lifestyle and way of thinking, which (I hate myself for writing that, but I want to be honest) included attitudes like ‚the Mexican culture is the best, all other ethnies are less worth‘ and bullshit like that. I was deeply impressed, I felt as if I found a community that I belonged to. But there was one huge problem: My missing Spanish. I could speak it, but not fluently. My head got so brainwashed that

there were even days that I felt hatred towards my Mom because she stopped speaking Spanish with me. I couldn‘t see that we left Mexico for a better life. To me we had left the only country that I really be-longed to. I was all up in this Mexi-can or Chicano stuff. You can absolutely say that my opinion became kind of derogative about Ger-mans. Or about any other culture in general, that is not Latin. I buried myself in the imagina-tion of a perfect world going on in Ameri-ca. There was even a time that I seriously considered to go back to Mexico because I couldn‘t stand it anymore.Until now it sounds like the story of a Mexican that recovers her culture. But as I already mentioned, I am not a full Mexi-can. And Mexicans made me feel it several times more. You have no idea how often I got to hear that I am not Mexican because I don‘t speak Spanish fluently nor even have an accent. It felt like hell. I was torn between two cultures that both didn‘t seem to be a shelter for me. Making this experience especially in a time when teen-agers needs to know where he/she belon-ged can be the worst feeling. I can‘t remember when I got rid of that craving for a decision between the two cultures. It might have been the fact that I broke the ties to the majority of my Latin circle of friends or simply the growing up of a stupid mind of a child. But I remem-ber that I once wrote about Being Mex-German. It was about making the best out of those two cultures. Not a lot of people can suggest that they know two cultures as well as ‚mixed people‘ do. (Right now I have to think of the ‚Being Mex-Ameri-can Interlude‘ by the Delinquent Habits, (I love them for adopting this issue). That was also the point when art became my cultural home. The most of you probably don‘t know that I used to draw or paint ty-pical Mexican motifs only. It was because

of melancholy, a scream for something that I felt that was missing inside of me. It‘s been like a year now that I stopped pi-cking only that kind of motifs. They still touch me but I went on. I found my place in life AND culture. I will never belong to just one country and I respect it like that. Though I still wish this realization would have hit my mind earlier.

‚Co-Drawer‘, ink 23.4x16.5“

GERMANY / Hamburg

‚Last Rising‘, oil 16.3x19.8“

- 13 -O.P.E.N. Magazine

www.NABartwork.com facebook.com/NABartwork

GERMANY / Hamburg

My friend and artist Jesse aka INKtellekt/PsykoINK

New York City (photo at the bottom: Egyptian demonstration against the murder of Christians in Egypt)

- 14 -O.P.E.N. Magazine

I would like to mention as a sidenote that my Mom and I came to Germany with empty hands. We had that typical life of a single mother and her child. I remember sitting in the Kindergarden‘s entrance, waiting for her to pick me up and wat-ching the sunset. I was often one of the last kids that got picked up. Writing these words still make me cry but not because of sadnes. Not at all. I could never put into words how proud I am of what my mother has reached in life. By now we have a bet-ter standard of living than a lot of other families that I know. I appreciate that to the fullest. It is only because of her hard work and support I was even able to make it this far. You could pretty much say that the biggest part of my motivation is to show her that it was all worth it and that I am able to use her support to make it. Not only because of that I dedicate every piece I create to her.

GERMANY / Hamburg

- 15 -O.P.E.N. Magazine