"The artist is always and forever painting only one thing  ̶  a self-portrait."

William Carlos Williams

Martina Rall is a designer, artist and author. She was born in Tübingen/Germany on September 12, 1961.

As a child she showed a remarkable talent for language. Martina was able to read before she entered school. She spent much of her time reading all kind of books that she could get. In her adolescence she discovered her love to the visual arts, drawing and painting.

After school Martina studied Italian and German Literature and Language at the Universities of Tübingen and Parma/Italy (Master of Arts in 1991) and later on Fine Arts at the Academy of Arts in Nürtingen.  

In the early 90’s she worked as a freelance journalist for the “Riviera Côte d’Azur Zeitung” (The Riviera Times) and since 1994 she is working as a freelance graphic designer. She started doing publicities for German and international companies. Later on she focussed on fine arts and in creating designs for paperproducts, tableware, bedclothes and watches for the national and international market.  

Since 1998 Martina is a member of the "Alliance of German Designers".

In 2009 Martina started with her mixed media series of self-portraits “Being Marilyn Monroe”, figuring herself as modern day icons like Marilyn Monroe, Frida Kahlo, Audrey Hepburn, Maria Callas, Romy Schneider, Michael Jackson and at least Grace Kelly.    

“My self-portraits series was born due to a range of coincidences: first of all with a portrait of Romy Schneider. My mother, watching it, seriously thought that it was me. Second, a friend, watching my paintings, said that all these paintings were me. And third, reading the quotation of the American poet William Carlos Williams: «The artist is always and forever painting only one thing: a self-portrait.», noticed after being portrayed by an Italian painter.  ̶  I really don’t believe in coincidences, so I immediately knew that I had to do self-portraits!”

Martina’s passion for portraying creative working people leads from her self-portraits to a second series, the portraits of “Artists in Action”. In 2010 it began with the portrait of an Italian soprano. Last year she realized a triptych photocollage of the Prince of Hohenzollern, a passionate German jazz musician. “I absolutely want to continue this series, portraying known and unknown artists, focussing on the magic moment in which art and the artist merge into one.”