18
Windows onto the Infinite
Arp and P. O. Runge, all of whom believed in the possibility and importance of 
comprehending the world in more holistic and even pantheistic ways, and com­
municating this through their art. Klee and Arp, in particular, also believed in 
the productive qualities of experimentation and chance. This is also an aspect of 
Margot’s creative worldview: 
I don’t like things that are entrenched therefore I never proceed in the same 
way. Meaning that I never start at the same place. And I try to change my way 
of doing things frequently. I like when things are flowing and so then the cre­
ations come about naturally. If there’s a block, then it’s not the right time. When 
I buy my material, I change paper and ink regularly. This enables me to adapt to 
new materials and to be surprised. I have also mixed different techniques, oil 
paint and ink, stitching, but also collage. I sometimes mistreat my paper, my 
drawing. I don’t always want to consider my drawing as a fragile thing. 
The working environment is tremendously important. Her current workshop, 
which is situated in her grandparents’ old house, up a flight of stairs and through 
another room, provides a mixture of familiarity, solitude, and a feeling of protect­
edness. “I like working high up,” she muses, “I am between the sky and the Earth. 
Few people come to the workshop. I need peace and quiet. I even think I need 
to feel that there is no presence around me. I mustn’t hear any noise. There must­
n’t be any interference. It happens regularly that I make a vow to find myself in a 
place for several months without any obligations and to draw all the time.” 
I asked Margot whether she has a clear sense of the meaning of individual 
works? She told me that, “Generally speaking I don’t have the meaning at the 
beginning. It’s in the course of working on a drawing that I begin to under­
stand, and often sometime after its creation. Each time I exhibit a work I dis­
cover something new about it. The act of drawing is constant motion. Like 
ideas, drawing is never fixed.” Artists, of course, are also always spectators, both 
during the construction of a work and after its completion. Margot is no differ­
ent. Perhaps because each completed work is in some way a surprise to her, 

View this content as a flipbook by clicking here.