I contribute regularly to Mendocino Arts Magazine which features local (Mendocino County, CA.) artists. Now, just to be clear, I'm not an artist (as evidenced by my very 1st grade-like drawings), have never studied art (except when my mother put me in art class when I was six), nor do I have any knowledge of art whatsoever. But I've always been fascinated by the creative process in every form—writers, artists, movie creators. And one of the reasons I enjoy writing for this magazine, is that I get to interview and visit with amazing artists of various mediums and learn their creative processes.

In the last ten years, I've had the pleasure of writing about and discovering the inner workings of artists who create beautiful work out of glass, metal, stained-glass, ceramic and clay, oil, sculpting, dramatic and theatre arts, and even an illustrator and author of children's books.

This week, I interviewed Ukiah, CA. photographer, Volkhard Stürzbecher. Here are 5 amazing things I learned about Volkhard:

1) He currently lives in Ukiah, California, but hails from Karlsruhe, Germany. He grew up in northern Germany close to the Dutch border, but moved to Karlsruhe after high school where he attended the Academy of Fine Arts.

2) He met his wife of 46 years, Leslie, while traveling around Nepal with friends in a VW bus.

3) He primarily photographs landscapes, and often travels around the nation, hiking to remote places to find an incredible shot of nature. His favorite photographic locale is the Badlands of New Mexico. He loves the stunning wild rock formations there.

4) At 73, he still travels a couple of times a year in search of that perfect shot. In April, 2020, he'll be heading to Utah and the four regions of New Mexico.

5) He is fascinated and utterly intrigued by how science and art can blend together to create images that emulate the objects and forces of nature: planets, plant growth, stars, moving landscapes. Volkhard has performed these stunning "living art" presentations all over the world using a projector, screen, pipette, inks, dyes, solvents and other chemicals, and—a petrie dish.