Tobias Tambornino deliberately celebrates imperfection in his works. His style is experimental, playful, and allows space for chance to remain visible. Mistakes or irregularities are not flaws to him but rather an important part of the artistic process.
In his work, he loves to just let things flow. His approach is spontaneous and open to everything that happens in the process – it is precisely the unplanned that makes his art so intriguing. He works with various materials and techniques, without committing to any single direction.
What's your name?
Tobias Tambornino
Where do you live?
Monschau, North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW)
What type of art/creativity do you primarily engage in? (Painting, sculpture, photography, digital design, etc.)
Drawing, painting, and creative writing
Have you had formal training, or are you self-taught?
No, I haven't had any formal training. I grew up in an environment that constantly sent me the message: "Sweet, your drawings, but you're not good enough. Do something real instead." And I believed it. But it kept calling me, so I continued to experiment and learn in secret.
Where can people see your work? Do you have a website or social media profiles you'd like to share?
My art can be seen on Instagram and found on my website.
Willem Dafoe
Oh, this is almost a bit embarrassing: tracing Clever & Smart comics. Then I tried my hand at superhero comics and really wanted to draw like the artists from Marvel and DC Comics. Besides this pop culture influence, there was a sort of "awakening moment": I was 19 years old and visiting my godmother in San Francisco in 2001. It was an amazing trip. We went to the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, and one of Monet's Haystacks paintings actually moved me to tears. Since then, art has been an indispensable part of my life.
I draw inspiration from pop culture, literature, and philosophy. Additionally, there are small, quiet moments when time seems to stand still; when reality peeks through the conventions, rules, urgencies, and vanities of humanity. Children inspire me with their openness and directness. Small traces in everyday life inspire me.
Recently, I came across a nice metaphor for what I mean: when you embroider or weave something, there’s a front and a back. On the front, you see what you’re meant to see. On the back, you see the “shortcuts” and “traces” of the process. The front and back are never identical. Anyone who claims otherwise is lying to themselves. I'm inspired by the moments when the discrepancy between front and back becomes visible.
Oh, this could be a long list, so I’ll just let it out unfiltered:
Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, Renoir, Magritte, Lovis Corinth, David Shrigley, John Romita Jr., Frank Miller, Mike Mignola, Hayao Miyazaki, Jango Edwards, Alan Watts, Paolo Bigelli, Frida Kahlo, Matisse, Frank Frazetta, James Gurney, and so many more...
It usually starts with an idea.
It can hit me at any time: when shopping, consuming media and art, in the shower, or when I'm observing the world out of the corner of my eye. Then I usually sketch and gather references. I always have to wait a little until a certain "tipping point" is reached, when enough ideas, visions, and motivation to bring these ideas to life have built up.
Then things can move quickly, or a piece might take several days to weeks to complete (usually life gets in the way, or my concentration wanes).
OR I make one line, then the next, and suddenly I’m done.
The process is also shaped by different parts of myself: a certain child in me is impulsive and quite sure of what it's doing, while another part hesitates and doubts; some parts want to work precisely, others are rough and quick. Over the past months, I've learned to listen to these parts, give them space, and observe what emerges.
You can see in my art that different parts are always at work, and I struggled with that for a long time because I wanted to develop a "style" – something that people would always and everywhere recognize as my own.
I've let go of that desire because what's better than a single "own style"? Exactly: many "own styles"!
This also explains my use of materials: sometimes it has to be a pencil, sometimes thick paint – depending on who’s "at the front" at that moment. Recently, I’ve come to realize that I want to embrace this "multiplicity" in my pictures: traces of work and traces of the different parts of me. Guidelines or notes in the pictures are actually part of the "back" of a work – you’re not supposed to see them. Differences between naturalistic and stylized depictions reveal my "back," which I ignored for too long, not even knowing what it looked like.
I don’t particularly like when artists speak about the therapeutic aspect of their work, because it risks trivializing the art itself. The work no longer stands on its own but is seen as a part of my inner healing, etc., which is why I don’t want to say too much about that. But I do want to show this "back" of mine because it might add a new aspect to the question "What does it mean to be human?" To truly understand something, you must know both the front and back.
The pictures I’ve painted or drawn for friends and family mean a lot to me. Through these pictures, I could express my love for them without words. Also, the recent pictures (the ones attached). Through them, I could recognize my love for myself and express it without words.
Calling myself an artist. Showing my works and recognizing their value.
It’s very important. Each of us needs that affirmation that what we do is right – in whatever form. We must fight a lot – with ourselves and with the world – to survive as artists. There must be a place where you don’t have to fight, where you can lift each other up.
Art shows that, at their core, humans are good.
Art shows that, at their core, humans are good – time and time again. Artists are people who know this and constantly find new ways to remind us of it.
There’s a book I often turn to when I feel creatively blocked. "The Art of Looking Sideways" by Alan Fletcher. It’s 1,000 pages long and a library for looking at the "backside" of things and people. "Seeing the world from the corner of your eye" is how I’d translate it, and it’s a fitting slogan for my ongoing engagement with reality – both the external reality I share with everyone, and my inner reality, whose beauty I’ve only recently begun to love.
For a long time, I carried around the unconscious belief that the world is dangerous and people are unpredictable and malicious. Everything is serious, and everything is at stake. But what if it’s not? What if the world is a playground, and I’m allowed to be here?
It’s an adventurous thought, one worth exploring.
Thank you, Tobias!
If you’re an artist or creative of any kind – whether in painting, music, literature, or any other form of art – and would like to talk about your work and creative process, feel free to get in touch with me.
I’m excited to showcase the diversity of creative expression in my interview series and read about your perspectives and experiences.
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