During the Absurdity of a Pandemic and the Outbreak of War
Even after two years of doing everything we can to dodge the threats of a deadly respiratory virus called Covid-19 that has disrupted our lives in every way possible, and as we, once again, witness the horror of war break out in Europe so close to our own cultural histories, I remain filled, especially now, with a renewed determination that I’ll be able to extend to my children an infinite power of belonging and identity far beyond their citizenship. More broadly, if I can begin to do this through a painting that depicts the launch of infinite ancestors who have the power to break through multiple barriers including gravity, time, and space, it’ll be a crowning achievement for me as a visual artist as I attempt to open a window to a view that unravels and then crafts a new lens to the meaning of belonging and to our abilities to break through any barriers or limitations that hinder us from becoming.
Rattling teeth and bones are appearing now to me to be rising up and launching themselves with boundless fervour and with powerful spirits lifted by a distinct purpose to remind us of what it really means to belong; and to whom and to what. These boundless spirits are pronouncing to us that human beings cannot be contained nor defined by barriers, fences, and walls, nor by disabilities, chronic illnesses, tragedies, and failures, but only by our own powerful narrative through which we live and die within a fluid human journey and by which we are constitutionally founded through extreme rigour of our own grinding teeth and rugged bones.
Temporarily, we belong to our teeth and bones during our short individual human life span. Perhaps our teeth should be crowned for the very fact they usually outlive us and seem to intensely express more importantly the rooted power of belonging not only to our children and to their children, but to boundless beings, such as to our ancestors as we become one of them, and to the reality of “being” and to that memory.
David Klassen
Artist/Illustrator
Absurd Expressionism
I invite the viewer to stay tuned to my blog in which I will write about this style of art that can be identified in the art history tradition of Fantastic Imagery: think Hieronymus Bosch, Francisco Goya, and Salvador Dali to name a few. Absurd Expressionism explores the interior world embedded in myth, dreams, and the imagination. It seeks to express absurdities deeply layered in the human condition. As I've created paintings and drawings throughout my life, I've always been drawn to the human need to express the things that can't be seen in addition to the things that can. From my point of view, that is the present calling of a visual artist and that is the power by which we remain relevant. Absurd Expressionism can and will rise to the occasion in any context be it personal, familial, social, political, or even a religious reality. It will manifest rather than intend; it will feel rather than think, and it will identify and fuse dream and reality together.
"Feast your eyes and deeply breathe on the strength of the absurd; be mindful of your dreams and the details they unfurl; listen for a thousand songs sung far beyond the stage, and come and let's be playful as we dance among the strange". DK
“Launch of the Infinite Ancestors”
Oil on Canvas
Completed March 2022
Price: Can $28,000.00 (unframed)
Produced in the Years from 2020 - 2022
During the Absurdity of a Pandemic and the Outbreak of War
Even after two years of doing everything we can to dodge the threats of a deadly respiratory virus called Covid-19 that has disrupted our lives in every way possible, and as we, once again, witness the horror of war break out in Europe so close to our own cultural histories, I remain filled, especially now, with a renewed determination that I’ll be able to extend to my children an infinite power of belonging and identity far beyond their citizenship. More broadly, if I can begin to do this through a painting that depicts the launch of infinite ancestors who have the power to break through multiple barriers including gravity, time, and space, it’ll be a crowning achievement for me as a visual artist as I attempt to open a window to a view that unravels and then crafts a new lens to the meaning of belonging and to our abilities to break through any barriers or limitations that hinder us from becoming.
Rattling teeth and bones are appearing now to me to be rising up and launching themselves with boundless fervour and with powerful spirits lifted by a distinct purpose to remind us of what it really means to belong; and to whom and to what. These boundless spirits are pronouncing to us that human beings cannot be contained nor defined by barriers, fences, and walls, nor by disabilities, chronic illnesses, tragedies, and failures, but only by our own powerful narrative through which we live and die within a fluid human journey and by which we are constitutionally founded through extreme rigour of our own grinding teeth and rugged bones.
Temporarily, we belong to our teeth and bones during our short individual human life span. Perhaps our teeth should be crowned for the very fact they usually outlive us and seem to intensely express more importantly the rooted power of belonging not only to our children and to their children, but to boundless beings, such as to our ancestors as we become one of them, and to the reality of “being” and to that memory.
David Klassen
Artist/Illustrator
Absurd Expressionism
I invite the viewer to stay tuned to my blog in which I will write about this style of art that can be identified in the art history tradition of Fantastic Imagery: think Hieronymus Bosch, Francisco Goya, and Salvador Dali to name a few. Absurd Expressionism explores the interior world embedded in myth, dreams, and the imagination. It seeks to express absurdities deeply layered in the human condition. As I've created paintings and drawings throughout my life, I've always been drawn to the human need to express the things that can't be seen in addition to the things that can. From my point of view, that is the present calling of a visual artist and that is the power by which we remain relevant. Absurd Expressionism can and will rise to the occasion in any context be it personal, familial, social, political, or even a religious reality. It will manifest rather than intend; it will feel rather than think, and it will identify and fuse dream and reality together.
"Feast your eyes and deeply breathe on the strength of the absurd; be mindful of your dreams and the details they unfurl; listen for a thousand songs sung far beyond the stage, and come and let's be playful as we dance among the strange". DK