Born in Emleben in 1953, with 3 siblings, she trained as a medical-technical assistant, then obtained her high school diploma at evening school, and in 1973 began studying at the PH Erfurt. She failed there due to the ideologized content of her studies, was expelled in 1976, and imprisoned the same year for protesting against the expatriation of a critical singer. She spent a year in the Hoheneck women's prison. Afterward, she became an important female figure in the male-dominated underground art scene of the GDR dictatorship. Through photography, weaving, Super 8 film, and performance, she developed her own "image of woman" with herself and her friends as models, both as an art and life pattern. Since 2009, she has been exhibited and recognized internationally.