About Marlene Breitenstein

Art means business.

Head shot of Marlene Breitenstein, smiling, with long hair and a blurry background.

How do you say that?

Pronunciation help for English speakers.

  • Marlene = mar-LAY-nuh (like Marlene Dietrich, German actor)
  • Breitenstein = BRYT-en-styn (as in bright, and yes, it rhymes with Frankenstein 😃)

What is Marlene’s Nationality?

Born a German citizen, in Germany, to German parents, Marlene became a naturalized American citizen at age four. After living a lifetime in the USA, she now resides again in Germany.

Artist’s Statement

Photographs through the eyes of a painter.
Paintings from the liminal edge.

Marlene Breitenstein explores and manipulates nature’s sensual colors, imparting an altered, dreamlike feeling to her naturalistic photography and paintings. Currently, her subjects are the forests, mountains, vistas, and vineyards found in Central and Southern Europe.

Paradoxically, our planet’s beauty can seem otherworldly. When presented with breathtaking loveliness or strangeness, we are transfixed by what is both real, yet unreal. We are made childlike again, a spontaneous and raw state of presence, curiosity, and appreciation.

Awe is one of the markers of life’s peak experiences, those transcendental moments distinct from everyday life. Abraham Maslow posited that the paramount state of Self-Actualization—achieving one’s potential—is reached through frequent peak experiences, those “rare, exciting, oceanic, deeply moving, exhilarating, elevating experiences that generate an advanced form of perceiving reality, and are even mystic and magical in their effect upon the experimenter.”

When photographing and creating, Ms. Breitenstein is transformed by such a state of meditative or ecstatic wonder, imbuing her work with quiet astonishment. Her intent is to spark viewers to seek and create opportunities for their own peak experiences, opening and losing themselves by being truly present in any remarkable moment.

 

Photograph of a dark and steep mountain slope, behind which a rounded peak rises, tinted red in the late afternoon sunset. The lower reaches of the peak are dramatically shrouded by blue mist, which gives way to blaze of reddish-orange clouds streaming from the cool rock.

CV

Marlene Breitenstein (b. 1967, Germany)
Resides in Landau i.d. Pfalz, 76829, Germany
Contact Information

Title: Multimedia Artist

Marlene Breitenstein is a full-time, re-emerging artist.

Education

  • Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts, 1991-1995, 1998
    • Impressionist painting with John Ebersberger
    • Sculpture with Stephen Perkins
  • Bowie State University, Teaching Certificate, Art, 1991
  • Washington College, Bachelor’s Degree in Art, 1989

Mentors

Edo Amin (Ido Ilan), Producer, Illustrator, Composer; 2020 – present
[Name withheld for privacy], Professional Photographer; 2023 – present

Awards

Publications

Exhibitions and Installations

  • 2024, PhotoPlace Gallery, VT — In Honor of Trees
  • 2024, 10th Annual Fine Art Photography Awards
  • 2024, Center for Fine Art Photography, CO — Wonder
  • 2018
, The Bridge Gallery, WV — Group show, paintings
  • 2015 and 2014
, Burning Jam, WV (private festival) — Banjo Effigies (sculpture installation, burned as the event’s culmination)
  • 2013
, Artomatic Jefferson, WV — Group show, photographs and paintings
  • 2008, D.C. Burning Man Film Festival, Washington, D.C. — Exhibitor, photography
  • 2008, Playa del Fuego Festival, DE — Seahorse Effigy (interactive sculpture installation, burned as the event’s culmination)
  • 2007, Burning Man Festival, NV; Wicker Man Festival, PA; Playa del Fuego Festival, DE — Forest Fungus (interactive sculpture installation)
  • 2007, Wicker Man Festival, PA — Sensorium (interactive performance art)

Grants

  • 2008, Playa del Fuego art grant
  • 2007, Playa del Fuego art grant

Private Collections

Works held in private collections in the United States, Switzerland, Germany, Ireland, England, and Scotland.

References

Available on request.

Find Me on Social Media

      

No account needed to view!

I support social media that’s independent of the big dogs.

Are you thinking, "What? I never heard of those."

Okay, since you actually clicked on this, and I’m a bit of an ambassador for things I believe in, I’ll explain:

Mastodon is the most engaging, refreshing social media I’ve experienced. It is a social network based on a non-profit, ad-free model, designed to allow the user fine control over what they choose to see and who they interact with, while retaining full data ownership. It may be smaller, but that’s actually a benefit!

Glass is an image-focused social network, designed by and for photographers, using a subscription-based model, which also provides full user and data control.

Where Am I?

Sometimes in the Washington, DC area.
Sometimes I’m traveling elsewhere.

Otherwise I’m near Landau in der Pfalz, in the Südliche Weinstrasse (Southern Wine Route) region of Germany, characterized by endless vineyards, and bordered by mountains covered with fairy-tale forests. France is 25 minutes away.