Beach and ocean, modulation 2 Painting

The aim of my artwork is to inspire the individual person to dig into their own emotional world. The human emotions are rich in variety and the very same painting can inspire a diversity of very different emotions, or perhaps no emotions at all. Therefore, the value of an artwork is primarily created in the mind of the viewer. I hope as artist to be the catalyser of diverse personal experiences. In my view any intellectual interpretation of an artwork is less interesting, as it does not create a lot of value for the individual person. Bringing to the surface and accepting the emotional diversity among us is the purpose of my art. My history I paint because I have a passion for it. Yet, it took me many ears before I got the opportunity and courage to “jump out of the closet”, because I was busy doing my job as medical doctor and scientist. The early years I have now (2022) lived approximately 2/3rds of my life (statistically speaking). For 30 years, I have painted semi-professionally until 5 years ago when I decided to become a full-time artist. Specific events in my life formed my relation to visual arts. In my first 20 years, I had a moderate production which I exhibited and sold to private company-based art clubs in the Copenhagen area. After having done some surveys, I learned that specific paintings that were adored and loved by some, were often deemed disgusting or awful by others. There were also paintings which were deemed boring by some and very interesting by others. The general picture was clear: Art is not a democratic process. I also examined what was the rationale for this difference. Here came the next big surprise and learning: For most of my paintings, people were inspired to very different emotions. It was obvious that the observers were more often inspired by their own life and psychological experiences as compared to the intentions I had when I made the paintings. For me it was very liberating to learn that any experience of art is strictly personal and cannot be democratised into common aesthetics or rules. Since I could only vaguely guess what exactly my viewers experienced, I had to give myself full freedom to paint what I personally felt passionate about – sometimes not knowing the origin of my passions. I used to say that it came from the “universe”. Therefore, the conclusion is that the value of a painting is defined primarily by the single viewer and less by the artist or by the curators.