Were you always into art from a young age or did that only begin in the last ten years?

Art at school was one of my favorite subjects. In the burnout, it slowly started that I am interested in art. Always as the strength gives, if I can speak of strength at all, because I was so exhausted.

Are there artists who inspire you ?

I was fascinated by Andy Warhol's style because of the colorful pictures. In terms of content, of course, this has nothing to do with my art.

How and why did you start painting icons?

I've only been painting with acrylic since October 2018. The whole thing had a rather sad background. I used to be a hobby musician, I studied violin for 10 years, trumpet for 13 years, saxophone for 10 years and piano for 2 years, I gave lessons during training periods, was in big bands, had recorded CDs, was in a gospel choir and had composed 100 pieces of music myself.
my life changed in 2017. I got a burnout in March 2017 which lasted until June 2018, so 16
Month. After that I had tried to make music, but it was no longer possible. So I was very frustrated.
A friend drove me to Dresden to sing in October 2018 and there I got the inspiration,
that I should paint acrylic paintings.

For someone who has never heard of F-Droid or Flathub, what are you actually painting?

F-Droid is the free app store for Android. In February 2026 I had painted the last app icon for Android.
And Flathub is the App store for Linux. I have been painting these app icons since May 2026.

You paint a lot of icons from open source apps. What does open source mean to you?

I mainly paint logos of open source apps, that's right.

Occasionally I also paint other things, such as emoji, action banners.
FAITH, HOPE, LOVE and WELCOME HOME I had painted in 2019 with the idea that I was 5 or 19
Find people who hold that up and others take pictures.

Open source software means that the source code is public and can be viewed, modified and used Open source software can be used and distributed free of charge in compliance with the license terms.

So I can participate, also with programming, search for and report errors, translate software, help others, test and promote apps.

Do you have to like the software to paint its icon?

I paint as it happens, whether I have the colors for it, whether I have the time to paint it now.
And it depends on whether I can reconcile it with my conscience.

Can a bad app have a beautiful logo?

It depends on the purpose of application. If I don't have anything there, I can't use it.
For me, every app is actually worth the same amount.

How long does one painting take you, on average, from start to finish?

For the size 20x20 10 minutes, although that also varies. It took me 30 minutes to paint for Gadgetbridge. Before that, I had thought about how I would implement it and then the acrylic painting still dries. So with this picture it was maybe 1 hour.

Do you aim for a certain number each month, or do you paint when you feel like it?

Not so common from painting with acrylic. After the first 6 months I had painted 150 and if I want to release a new version of my icon theme for Linux, I think about how many more acrylic paintings I would have to paint. I don't have a plan for a certain number.

What do you enjoy most about painting these?

I would like to show it to others by analogy, so not just a digital image. At exhibitions, visitors have it right in front of them. Otherwise I would have to hold my smartphone in front of people's noses every time.
This is a crazy idea. I can also do other things with it. I have licensed all my acrylic paintings under CC BY-ND 4.0, which means, among other things, you can use my acrylic paintings, but you have to name me.

What does one painting cost you in materials?

I can't name a price. It costs the canvas, the brush, the paints. Then comes another
the time, the way I implement it and the drying of the paint. It's not just the acrylic painting.

What paints do you buy, and where from?

There are acrylic paints with water, without water, acrylic oil paints, acrylic metallic paints
and artists acrylic paints. Mostly I buy those without water with (little ?) Waterseveral types of acrylic paints. Most of the paint is from Action Nederland, that is, from Nederland, that is, from supermarkets or from discounters. Sometimes I also get acrylic paints from people as a gift. I am happy about that of course, very much.

Do you sell them at all? If someone wanted to buy one, what would it cost?

I rarely sell a picture. Expenses exceed revenues.
From October 2018, that's when I started painting, until October 2023, for example, I had
3000 Euros in expenses for canvases, brushes, paints and boxes. And since the Corona period and
now everything is getting even more expensive. I can't talk about revenue.
But yes, you can also buy acrylic paintings from me.
In general, I can not name a price, it depends on what we are talking about then imd which
The situation is just.

You bought SuSE Linux 6.0 on four CDs in 1998, then stayed on Windows for most of the next few years and used Windows 7 until May 2026. What kept you there for so long ?

I bought SuSE Linux 6.0 at that time because I was amazed that it was so inexpensive in contrast to Windows. I had tried to use Linux from October 2003 to October, but I couldn't cope with it. That's how I installed Windows. How I finally made the leap to switch from Windows to Linux can be read in this blog. I was in Halle at a Linux Interessengemeinschaft in 2019, in September 2023 in Zwickauer Hackspace for my fifth exhibition opening
and the hackspace in Jena had also recommended Linux Mint to me. I have now installed the
Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE7).

Has a developer ever seen your painting of their icon? What did they say?

The exhibition in Berlin has been open to the public since 2020. And the programmer of the app Fitotrack visited my first exhibition in 2023 and he said: "This is awesome."
The MediLog programmer has ordered 2 acrylic pictures of his app at once.

Have you ever heard from someone who started using open source software after seeing your work?

From my last exhibition in Radebeul / Germany (September 2025 to January 2026) I remember that visitors had installed 5 opensource apps. I suspect this was also the case at other exhibitions, e.g. in Berlin.

Where did the idea of scanning QR codes from KEKILA water or juice bottles labels come from to install Acrylicons icon theme on a Linux desktop PC ?

I am always looking for ideas to show my art to others:
I paint acrylic paintings and show them in online, I exhibit in Germany (so far it has been in Berlin, Dresden, Meissen, Zwickau and Radebeul).
From February 2023 to October 2023 there were 17 acrylic paintings with QR code on jam jars from a manufactory in Freital. I had met this company at the autumn market Meissen 2022, but this one no longer exists.
In October 2025, I had the idea to ask KEKILA at my favorite juice factory. This is then already a step higher, because a juice factory is not a small company. At that time I still had Windows 7 and my Android 15 smartphone on my PC. And for Android I had programmed my Acrylic Iconpack Moon Star Acrylic Icons from 2021. Unfortunately, this will only be possible until August 2026
and so I had to put this idea on hold for the time being. I had to rethink. I have seen that this is also possible with Linux.
From February 2026 to May 2026 I had asked if someone could give me a used PC and in May 2026 I had been given one: a PC, a monitor. one keyboard and one PC mouse.
Since the end of May 2026 there is my Acrylicons, an acrylic icon theme for Linux desktops. The first version currently has 62 acrylicons. It no longer shows the original icons for those app icons, but my acrylic pictures.
Our family had been drinking KEKILA juice since its foundation in 1986. The way to get acrylic pictures on KEKILA juice bottle labels is not so easy and will take some time. It's one of my goals.
My KEKILA bottle with Acrylicons, the acrylic icon Theme for Linux desktops, does not exist yet, but you can already install the icon theme.Vielen Dank für Deine Fragen, die diesmal aus Australien kamen.

I had the interview with Matt artbase.au