Birgit Amadori and her Hotel Fox Designs

About a week or so ago, I was doing a random keyword Google image search for "fairy tale wall mural."  After scrolling through a few hundred images of the same pink castles and crowned frogs, an image fully caught my attention.  It was a room in a Copenhagen, Denmark hotel called Hotel Fox.  And it was a beautiful and very mythic space done in a minimalist style I'd never before seen or shared on this blog.  I had to know more, so I looked up the artist, Birgit Amadori.

I found her Facebook fan page, and sent her a message on the off chance that she'd be willing to talk a bit further about her room designs.  And a day or so later I heard back from her! 

Can you tell us a little bit about how your designs for Hotel Fox came to be? How many spaces did you design for them, and what was your inspiration for the mood and style?

For Hotel Fox, one of the editors from a publisher I previously had worked with asked me if I wanted to pitch some ideas for the project. The great thing was that I was free to submit anything that came to my mind. I liked the idea of an enchanted room. A room that would include symbolism from mythology, things that could help make the room magical. I did get 2 rooms, some hallway carpeting and a large hallway mural. 

I saw on your Facebook page that you referenced the gorgeous and intricate fairy tale artwork of Ivan Bilibin as an inspiration to you. Are there any other illustrative artists, mythic-subject artists, or artists of any genre who especially inspire your work?

Good question. I think Bilibin, Klimt and Mucha are my biggest inspiration. Countless other artists from the Belle Epoque and Art Nouveau era inspire me, too. But I do like to look and Expressionism, too, to remind me to stay weird and not get too decorative, only.

Ivan Bilibin

Ivan Bilibin

Ivan Bilibin

Klimt wall installation on stucco

Klimt wall installation on stucco

Mucha mural in Prague

I am personally a big aficionado of the work of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement. Morris was known for his phenomenal interior patterns, but also for helping to transform entire spaces in a home through artisan works on all surfaces: tiles, wallpaper, furniture, floor coverings, murals…all was included in his process of creative expression. Was his work, or a similar inspiration, at work in your creation of the spaces at Hotel Fox?

 Unfortunately, no. Morris' pattern is a little too much for me I prefer geometric patterns with less detail. For the room King's Court for example, I had much simpler guidance: I was reading the book "The Buddenbrooks" by Thomas Mann, and there, he describes a salon room in blue and white - I thought that might look interesting, so I used that for one of my rooms at Hotel Fox.

Link

While searching for more images of your art online, I came across a different wall pattern created apparently as a wallpaper. Can you tell us about this design? Do you plan to create more large scale works for interior use in the future? 
 What are you currently working on?

 These large wallpaper designs were created for a print-on-demand wallpaper company. I had been working on a series of angels. Again, I wanted to use positive symbology to create a positive space through the wallpaper.

I am not sure, I am currently not working on wallpaper. The wallpaper thing was more something where one thing led to another. My biggest passion is book illustration. I wrote and published several ebooks that can be found on amazon etc, which feature my illustrations. One of these series from a book was awarded with the How Design Magazine award for this year. I also do book covers. In painting, I do mostly paint scenes from mythology. I just finished a large painting of the Goddess Freya. As a hobby, I draw dream art now and then, whenever an interesting dream comes to me.