Artist Statement:
My name is SVEN, a painter from Northwest Ohio. I “engage”, “inform” and “grace”. I do not offend, preach or castigate. In “art” and in “life” (one and the same) I leave all judgements to the beholder(s). To my Creations I have no umbilical cords attached. I go wherever the creation takes, however far to whichever depth but return in time to record and tell. In other words, I live in the sky and under the seas yet pay my rent to Mother Earth so I don't get kicked out of reality altogether!
Training in the hard Sciences likely contributes to my rigor in process and methods. Theory, Hypothesis, Inference, Conclusion are sprinkled into nearly all forms of my expressions. But it is the poets, the storytellers, the master movie-makers, composers and the photographers, the immortal tradesmen and warriors of Beauty that set me free and made me fly. I “did the Sciences” so I may not starve or flame out. It was a great insurance policy bought by my late father. And I still pay premium! But it is Oscar Wilde, Federico Fellini, Akira Kurosawa, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Rabindranath Tagore, Alexander Borodin, Henri Cartier-Bresson, David Lean, Arthur Schopenhauer, Omar Khayyam, and Vladimir Nabokov that truly ‘Fathered’ me. I have but only one ‘Mother’. She is Emily Dickinson! With parents like that, what choice must I have but to be stuck to the sky?
So here is my (many thousands of years old) ‘Artist Statement’:
"From Darkness lead me to Light, From Truthlessness unto Truth, And From Death to Deathlessness!”
I am eternally indebted to my esteemed private collectors without whose continued and loving support over the years I would never have survived. Though I am the artist and I have created the artwork it is the collector who acquires it and keeps it and is the gatekeeper for an eternity. Keeping this in mind I treat my collectors as the highest. I make sure that they are not only satisfied with the initial purchase but I (if permitted) am intimately available and in contact for any future needs of that client. This is to me as important as my artwork itself.
Training in the hard Sciences likely contributes to my rigor in process and methods. Theory, Hypothesis, Inference, Conclusion are sprinkled into nearly all forms of my expressions. But it is the poets, the storytellers, the master movie-makers, composers and the photographers, the immortal tradesmen and warriors of Beauty that set me free and made me fly. I “did the Sciences” so I may not starve or flame out. It was a great insurance policy bought by my late father. And I still pay premium! But it is Oscar Wilde, Federico Fellini, Akira Kurosawa, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Rabindranath Tagore, Alexander Borodin, Henri Cartier-Bresson, David Lean, Arthur Schopenhauer, Omar Khayyam, and Vladimir Nabokov that truly ‘Fathered’ me. I have but only one ‘Mother’. She is Emily Dickinson! With parents like that, what choice must I have but to be stuck to the sky?
So here is my (many thousands of years old) ‘Artist Statement’:
"From Darkness lead me to Light, From Truthlessness unto Truth, And From Death to Deathlessness!”
I am eternally indebted to my esteemed private collectors without whose continued and loving support over the years I would never have survived. Though I am the artist and I have created the artwork it is the collector who acquires it and keeps it and is the gatekeeper for an eternity. Keeping this in mind I treat my collectors as the highest. I make sure that they are not only satisfied with the initial purchase but I (if permitted) am intimately available and in contact for any future needs of that client. This is to me as important as my artwork itself.
Education:
I am formally trained in the Sciences. I am thankful for a few of my 'mad professors', I am grateful for the training in logical methods, and to the beautiful friends I made. What the Universities taught me are simple and splendid: 1. Nothing at all is 'taught', everything is 'learned'. (B.S.) 2. Men teach of every 'wisdom' in this grand Universe (categorized as 'subjects'), but they carefully skirt 'Death'! (M.S.) and 3. 'Unknowing' is probably the highest (and most difficult) form of 'search'. (Ph.D.). So despite those 'degrees', I try very, very hard to remain stupid.
I do have enormous respect for Artists who have undergone the rigors of formal tutelage. I know by first hand experience in academics what it takes to defend one's Work to her peers. I am just not that formal 'artist'. Likely for the same reasons I elected not to be a 'formal' scientist. I am simply not good enough.
What I did do instead (whether I liked it or not) is undergo ruthless training to be 'me'. In this my greatest 'teachers' have been: Alone, Defeat, Loss, Pain and Sorrow. Others may gasp at those five 'old men'. But they have been marvelous to me. They have slapped and 'detentioned', 'time-outed' and expelled, gently nudged and softly guided my path. They have beaten me over their fire, and sharpened me on their stone so that I remain only 'Sven'........ nothing more.
I do have enormous respect for Artists who have undergone the rigors of formal tutelage. I know by first hand experience in academics what it takes to defend one's Work to her peers. I am just not that formal 'artist'. Likely for the same reasons I elected not to be a 'formal' scientist. I am simply not good enough.
What I did do instead (whether I liked it or not) is undergo ruthless training to be 'me'. In this my greatest 'teachers' have been: Alone, Defeat, Loss, Pain and Sorrow. Others may gasp at those five 'old men'. But they have been marvelous to me. They have slapped and 'detentioned', 'time-outed' and expelled, gently nudged and softly guided my path. They have beaten me over their fire, and sharpened me on their stone so that I remain only 'Sven'........ nothing more.
Artistic Influences:
Vladimir Nabokov, Alexander Pushkin and Balzac (viewfinding and motion)
Victor Hugo and Dumas (story)
Balzac (coffee and staying up at night)
Spinoza (grace)
Cervantes (allegory)
Alexander Borodin (curves and waves)
Federico Fellini (composition)
Akira Kurosawa (cuts and speeds)
Yosa Buson (brevity)
Tagore, Omar Khayyaam and Rumi (all Universes)
Herman Hesse and Oscar Wilde (poetry)
Yeats (epitaph)
Peter Bogdanovich, Steichen and Alfred Stieglitz (Framing)
Schopenhaur (Truths)
Edith Piaf, Hildegard Knef, Birgit Nilsson (force of thrust)
Jorge Luis Borges, Octavio Paz, Pablo Neruda (dreams of earth and sands)
And:
Leonardo (pure intellect), Vincent and Caravaggio (just their mad violence), and Kandinsky (for his thin book).
Victor Hugo and Dumas (story)
Balzac (coffee and staying up at night)
Spinoza (grace)
Cervantes (allegory)
Alexander Borodin (curves and waves)
Federico Fellini (composition)
Akira Kurosawa (cuts and speeds)
Yosa Buson (brevity)
Tagore, Omar Khayyaam and Rumi (all Universes)
Herman Hesse and Oscar Wilde (poetry)
Yeats (epitaph)
Peter Bogdanovich, Steichen and Alfred Stieglitz (Framing)
Schopenhaur (Truths)
Edith Piaf, Hildegard Knef, Birgit Nilsson (force of thrust)
Jorge Luis Borges, Octavio Paz, Pablo Neruda (dreams of earth and sands)
And:
Leonardo (pure intellect), Vincent and Caravaggio (just their mad violence), and Kandinsky (for his thin book).
Artist Tags:
oil painting, modern color style, abstract contemporary, love romance, figurative story beautiful, cubist geometry
Login or register to save your favorites
Login to save your favorites
Adding to your favorites list.