Heike Kirsch - Transforming Baltic Sea Stones Two

Artist: Heike Kirsch, born 1966, a Hamburg native, Germany
Artwork: Transforming Baltic Sea Stones Two, 2/2026, acrylic on photo-canvas
Dimensions: 70 x 70 x 2 cm
Signature: on the back, bottom right, in pencil
Certificate of authenticity issued by the artist
Condition: very good
Shipping: canvas on stretcher packaged as a UPS shipment
Artist info: https://heike-kirsch.de/ueber-mich
Exhibitions: https://heike-kirsch.de/ausstellungen-messen

Text for the series "Transforming Baltic Sea Stones"
In the north of Fehmarn island there is a stretch of beach at the level of the Belt camping site, lined with large Baltic Sea stones. Walking is hindered by the accumulation of numerous stones, and it is difficult to focus on a single stone, as each is uniquely beautiful. Many are black-and-white flint stones, dating an impressive 60 to 70 million years.
The transformation from a lifeless object into a living work of art through charging with artistic energy and integration into a new context occurs on multiple levels over an extended period.
Lifting a stone and looking at it closely, moving it, feeling it, listening to it, and smelling it opens the process. The stone becomes an object of study and a trigger for all senses, provoking various feelings, thoughts, and actions. Sometimes it tempts one to throw it back into the Baltic with a dull thud created by its weight in the water, or it falls onto the other stones with a loud clack.
If a stone wanders into the backpack, it becomes a maritime keepsake for one’s own home or a decorative memento for friends or family. For me it becomes part of my studio and is repeatedly handled, connecting me with the day by the sea and strengthening my longing for the ocean as my place of well-being. Some of the stones also become motifs (mixed media) or part of a work of art (room installation). In my exhibition I AM ON THE BEACH. in Wismar I placed many Baltic Sea stones at the center of the room together with my Baltic Sea photos on the floor. Thus they became an exhibit in a context that created a space for greater attention and perception.

Another level of transformation of Baltic Sea stones is the immediate connection between a flint and my abstract painting, where the aim is to artistically work with features such as structures, colors, surfaces, and damage, e.g., through breaks, and to bring them into a new form. In doing so, the 3D object becomes a 2D artwork, which on the surface—like in a landscape—provides viewers, of all genders, with a new access to the stone’s uniqueness and beauty.