Hedwig Maria Scharlipp (Yadwigah)
Artist & Sustainability Expert
Freiburg, Germany
​Art and creativity have always played a role in my life. Nevertheless, I never thought about becoming an artist or studying art when I was young. During my childhood in Wuppertal, I painted one picture after another like crazy and at school I voluntarily took extra art lessons. After my Abitur and a stay abroad in Brazil, I went to Alanus University, where I was able to study business administration, art and philosophy in one degree programme. This enabled me to combine my various interests, including sustainable business and art.
My time at Alanus University was very enriching. Surrounded by artists and entrepreneurs, I found ample inspiration and was able to realise my own art projects. After completing my bachelor's degree, I worked as an exhibition hostess and did an internship abroad in Cameroon. Inspired by my experiences in Cameroon, I carried out an art project in which I interviewed people who had lived in several cultures, illustrated the interviews with drawings and exhibited them and the interview texts in the Bonn Tannenbusch neighbourhood library (‚Between Here & There: Own Foreign Culture - Foreign Own Culture‘). I also crossed the city of Cologne on foot from one city border to the other in one day and recorded my impressions in texts and photographs (‚Across a city in one day: Cologne’).
​​Then came the "serious side of life". My first job and "Organic Farming Trainee Programme", a Master's degree in "Sustainable Development" and a job as a student assistant at the University of Basel. Then a second job - finally doing what I had studied for so long: advising companies and cities on their paths to sustainable management. I was able to make a difference and learnt a lot, but it also cost me a lot of energy and time and my art took a back seat. I could only rarely bring myself to paint. After five and a half years in sustainability consulting, I resigned and took a sabbatical. I wanted to find out how I could integrate my creative interests more into my life. Since then, I have developed an ongoing artistic practice and joined the Kolleg Kunst in Freiburg to further my artistic education and exchange ideas. Inspired by the book "The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron, I developed the courage to see myself as an artist and to show my art.
