Biography in the arts
I was born as Rudolf Friedrich Bliem in Graz. My mother was a preschool teacher and my father worked at the opera house as the head of stage art. My father left the opera house to continue as a freelance artist. This first took us Switzerland for nearly a year, where he restored the murals of a church. We then moved to Australia when I was 4 years old, where I subsequently grew up. Motivated by my father´s work as an artist, I began to practice the skills of drawing and painting at an early age and in my later teens had prepared to enroll in art school.
Having learnt to play the classic guitar, in the wake of the folk movement, I co-founded a folk-type Austrian music group, the Misthaufen. This resulted in 3 years of intense, but successful work, with 5 singles, an LP and much press attention, before I left the group in late 1972.
At this time I developed an interest in the connection between music and art. Realizing that the pursuance of this subject matter required an education in the sciences I decided to enroll in a science and technology degree course at a Viennese university. And, given what I had experienced with my father and later with Rudolf Macek (see below), I realized that I would not have the time for such a study once I had committed myself to a livelihood as a freelance artist. So art had to wait a little and continued with extra-mural art education and training. This allowed me the freedom to allot my time between art training and studies in science and engineering. In 1979 I was very fortunate to be taken into the studio of Rudolf Macek, a graduate from the Prager Academy of Fine Arts and a member of the Royal Academy of Arts, who had established a notable career in Australia, before moving to Austria. At this time I was already exhibiting in a small gallery in Währing, Vienna.
Two years later I moved to England, where I soon found regular work as a science illustrator, cartoonist for several science journals. The increasing demand for this work provided a steady income.
Following a number of smaller exhibitions, in 1984 I was able to hold a successful exhibition on Science Art, titled "Art in vivo", at the Cambridge Central Library, which was the central venue for public exhibitions. This was the first exhibition in the UK devoted entirely to science art that I had been aware of.
In 1988 I was offered work in the US in a field of science and technology, based on some work I had previously done at the university. I had projected this for an interim period of only 3 years. However, this "interim" opportunity evolved into a lengthy stay in science, engineering, business and academia. Although, I had not entirely left the arts, I no longer pursued the work as illustrator and exhibitions.
Since dedicating myself once more to art I have been very fortunate in finding interest in my work and some exciting projects, especially in the area of robotics and AI.
Here are some links for complemenary information:
Early career as musician
Having studied classical guitar while at highschool, as learning to play the harmonica and the "Saw", I joined two fellas in Vienna to form the german-language folk band "Misthaufen". The "Saw" is an instrument derived from the mechanical saw, but designed to be used as an instrument. It is brought to vibrate using a violin bow and can produce sounds a little akin to electronic music, but nicer ;). Thus the new group was started off with a singer, two guitars, greek bouzouki and the Saw, which led the band´s idiosyncratic sound and to early successes between 1969 through 1972; see a selection of newsclips below. I left the group late 1972 to concentrate on art, in preparation for art school.