ABOUT THE ARTIST

 

LUMINESSENCE

= LIGHT & ESSENCE

LIGHT reveals what’s underneath, the ESSENCE

I.    LIGHT is my foremost medium, modulated by my “physical” media gold leaf and natural stone.

II.   ESSENCE is the expression of my art.

III.  The VIEWER is the third crucial factor to my work. By changing position around my pieces he/she creates manifold shades of gold and shapes in his/her preception. So just like my sculptures offer different perspectives and impression from different angles, my paintings also interact and move with the onlooker creating that important interactive dialogue. Sometimes foot markers on the floor suggest particularly interesting vantage points. But ultimately it is the angle of the natural light during the day that will trigger an ever changing avalanche of luminosity emanated by my work during different hours of the day and light conditions, creating perpetual visual interest as new shades and details in texture emerge.

 

In my work I explore contrasts.  As one kind and very observing reviewer once put it, my art consists of “…an element of structure within a certain free play. Shiny-dull, rough-smooth,
warm-cool, hard-soft, linear-flowing. Juxtapositions of disparate elements […] seem to speak powerfully”.

Contrasts call our attention, focus our gaze and mind on a detail and bring us into the presence of the work of art. The contrast that caught the eye will become a gateway  for the onlooker to explore the rest of the piece close up with the eye being guided by a strong composition, from juxtaposition to juxtaposition, while sensing the underlying stability and balance.

This current body of work is not representational and yet, like music, it can still touch us emotionally, spiritually and intellectually. Moving away from conventionally representational into abstract sculpture and painting affords me increased spontaneity, vibrancy and dynamic in my designs, but also sets new challenges in terms of creating visual tension while carefully balancing the contrasts. An abstract composition is like the ESSENCE, the true nature, of things: beyond content and form and beyond easy mental labeling.

The process of getting to the ESSENCE of things by abandoning mental labeling and rather experiencing them is conveyed in my art through a multilayered process of revealing colors and textures buried beneath the surface. My pictures and sculptures allow you to look below the surface – quite literally.

A progression of painting, pouring, scraping, drilling, layering, carving, sanding, polishing and finally making further incisions through the finished surface reveals earlier information for
the viewer but also exposes a more vulnerable layer of my work. These subtractive processes frequently lead to an ancient or archaic quality in the appearance of my work. The incisions in my paintings reveal an abstract mixed media painting in its own right, onto which a fragile gold leaf composition is superimposed skin-like. At times several layers and formats of gold leaf are required to achieve the desired effect.

My body of work acts on three levels: the visual, cognitive & visceral plane

To me gold leaf is like skin on a person: it covers the being. On a visual level gold leaf covers my abstract paintings; we cannot look at the underlying colorful composition directly, just like we cannot see a person’s character from looking at their skin or appearance. We have to go deeper to see their ESSENCE.

And as we might do with a person who we get to know better after looking beyond the appearances, we may continue to analyze and interpret my pieces on a cognitive level; put a mental label on shapes, textures, patterns, colors or discover the memento universi. By seeing how they are all connected we are invited to experience the energetic flow and depth of the artwork on a visceral level. Visually, we are still perceiving a skin of gold leaf – but we can now recognize from a visceral experience what lies underneath…Go deep and enjoy!