Heinfried Gessinger
Master Joiner

Biography

Actually, I should have been born three times and given three lives. Because the fundamental characteristic qualities which I inherited – creativeness and imagination – have made me grow in three directions.

First of all, there´s what I do professionally: I became a master joiner because wood is my greatest passion. I inherited this from my father. In his joiner´s business I gained access to the world of shaping and designing. To create something extraordinary from a rough board has always been a challenge to me. Here, my above-mentioned qualities, creativeness and imagination, are helpful.

This takes me to the second side of me, the author. After the great many adventures I´d had, it was only a small step toward writing a book - for children. It is an adventure story in the rain forest like that I got to know in Venezuela.

What I see with my eyes, is what I´d also like to put on canvas. Therefore, the third side of me, the artist, is a harmonious complement to my personality. Painting fills me with joy, especially when it comes to watercolor paintings with landscape motifs. Very often it is those motifs that many friends and clients of mine request.

It deserves mention here that I almost would have been born in Argentina, where my parents were living. Eventually, however, I was then born in Berlin. I was at home there for five years, then, in the valley of the river Gurk, in Carinthia, where I was so unfortunate to see still much of World War II. Coming from the high mountains, my parents – and thus my brother and I – ended up in the lowlands of the rivers Thaya and March, in the northeast of Austria. This was another change that has shaped me too.