Den Crahl Painting

I am a predominately self taught artist with extensive art school training that made me aware of what I didn't want to become. I create speculative art, driven by the dystopia of an alternate universe and/or a future reigned by chaos. With control I make dark paintings convulsing in texture, with muted complexions and obstinate personalities. I create worlds in my paintings. I began my interest in other worlds through appreciating every day decayed walls, roads, doors that had eroded to something miserable that everyone tries to ignore. I then ventured into a very lengthy quest that involved writing books and creating worlds inspired by cyberpunk movies and stories. Imagine you have a one minute pass to travel through time and perhaps crossed over to explore an alternate dimension. You discover this world is in disorder, a dystopian landscape of deprivation and pain. The streets are dark and wet with misery. Down between two run down establishments there’s an alley littered with garbage, rats and stinking of piss. You have only 15 seconds remaining before your visit is over when you see something lent up against one of the overflowing dumpsters. Lit up by a harsh flashing neon sign is a scrap of cardboard, with something on it that looks otherworldly, it reminds you of something but you’ve never seen it before; a disarray of shapes, lines, smudges. Is it a map, or a relic? Why is it by this dumpster? Will this change everything if I take it? You don’t wait for answers and grab the board and bring it back into this world with you, haunted and intrigued forever by this moment. That is one of my paintings.