Theo von Weiss 

I am a very curious person by nature who enjoys exploring different materials and ways of creating artwork. I have a hard time understanding borders and where one medium or discipline stops and another begins. I am a painter, photographer, philosopher, and poet. However, to me these things are not separate: the lines between them are blurred and blended. Art gives me the means to convey myself without limits, labels, or concrete divides.

I learn through the process. Creating is one of the only times in my daily life that I am able to stop thinking. My artwork is created through an intuitive process, where ideas develop as I go, with very little planning beforehand. When I’m in the darkroom and allowing the light to paint the image onto paper, I feel as if I’m just the guide, watching the image unfold on its own. Painting, as a process, is similar to me. It’s a way of allowing my innermost feelings to shine through into the world and out from my deep subconscious. Writing poetry continues in this vein, and I often realize that my poems have truths I didn’t know until they were out on the page. This is a spiritual experience and I feel like everyone is capable of having these experiences as well. I invite others to explore their intuition while they create.

Another part of my artistic process is being playful. My animated music video became a big act of play as I explored an idea, with no certainty that it would resolve the way I wanted it to. Through the process of making this work, I played with the technology on my phone to create the movie. I played with different settings and different amounts of photos. Photography, and image-making, in general, is also very playful for me. I often find myself laughing as I take hundreds of shots, all in different ways. I use manual settings because I love the process of constant trial and error.

My dream is for each person to have a unique spiritual and philosophical experience with my artwork. My poems, photography, and paintings are only a starting point; hopefully, they will stretch out further and further away from me and impact others. Ask questions. Explore it in your own way.