Subject Landscape Category Mixed Media Mediums, Materials & Styles Mediums Paint, Fabric, Found Objects, Acrylix Gel, Oil Marker, Pastel Materials Acrylic, Canvas, Fabric, Found Objects, Wood, Glitter, Styles Abstract, Expressionism, Contemporary, Impressionism, Outsider-Art Keywords Moods, Textural, Imaginary Landscapes, Found Objects, Crayons, Tomb, Stone, Dirt, Carving, linotype, Sorrow, Blackness, Grey, hopeless, Grief, Etching, Clarity, Confusion, Despair, Light, Shadow, Intensity, Fixation, obsession, INCHOATE, fear, anger, grief, passion, love, enduring, loss, faith, belief, knowledge, insight, loneliness, bond, child, death, life, impermanence, starvation, spirit, longing, ruin, hunger, Weimar, 1920's, Spanish Fevee, Guilt Description I have always been deeply affected by artists who have captured my dark imagination and fears. As a child, Chagall, Klimt and Katie Köllwitz captured my sense of dread and simultaneous whimsy. This has the effect, ultimately, of lifting my spirits, even when the subject matter is wistful, sad, or filled with a sense of grief and isolation. It might seem paradoxical that heavy themes can have a positive, life affirming effect. Yet for anyone who feels alone, misunderstood and bereft of joy, these painters are an empathic reminder that life once held love and hope. And might again. Or in the case of Köllwitz, find empathy in her art's depiction of horrific loss, sorrow and visceral self-loathing. I remember as a child staring in awe at a Köllwitz print that was directly across from my bedroom door. The piece was hung above the staircase landing. I felt it looking down on me, waiting for me each morning. The artwork was of a hovering, menacing wolf crouched next to craggy scrub in a field. Though obscured in tenebrous shadow, it was alert and always ready to strike and devour me. Children can have such vivid imaginations! Yet I completely misinterpreted the painting. Only forty-years later, after my mother gifted the piece to her daughter in law Steffie, did I realize my error. When I saw the piece for the first time in her home, I had a sudden epiphany. The painting clearly depicts despair: a grief stricken mother, leaning over the grave of her dead child. Or maybe it was the body of the child's frozen, tiny corpse? I am still unsure. I always hope that viewers of my work will feel a connection to their own imagination and memories. Freud wrote that Catharsis is healthy for the spirit. Feeling things that upset us can be a positive thing. Have you ever cried while watching a film and felt better afterwards? I created this piece during a time when I was mourning all my lost loves, missed opportunities and full of nihilistic despair. I chose to work with materials I used when I was a child, such as glitter, wooden sticks similar to Lincoln Logs, glue, buttons, jar tops, confetti, glitter and other found objects. For me, the purpose of making the work was catharctic. It is meant to evoke remembrance. And just perhaps a glimmer of hope. I know now that I did not 'misinterpret' the Print over the landing. Like a crouching Wolf, grief can devour us.

Artwork Size & Ink Base:

61x122

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Daniel Aaron Schwartz

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