From Nothingness, a Vision

  I remember, very clearly and to this day, coming upon a painting by Odd Nerdrum in a museum and being completely captivated by it.  It captured this almost surreal yet tangible distress.  It was classical and in the same moment entirely out of time and place.  The notion of being able to obtain this sort of dichotomy never left me since that day.  I didn’t realize the impact it had at the time, but, when you are a young adolescent as I was at the time, so much seems to be happening it takes some time to untangle and analyze all the aspects.

  Around the same time I was stumbling upon literary works such as Dante’s Inferno and the stories of H.P. Lovecraft.  I was also discovering music that not only intrigued me with it’s sound but also their visuals, the album covers and images they painted with their lyrics.  It began with bands like Napalm Death and Sepultura, quickly moving toward others such as Ildjarn and Darkthrone.  I still, to this day, love those early works and those old album covers that adorned many of their early works. Had it not been for Celtic Frost’s ‘To Mega Therion’ album it may have been years before I discovered the artwork of H.R. Giger.

  Whether or not you come from a similar place or have any of the same interests shouldn’t matter though.  People often want to know my journey into what I do.  The above are all bits and pieces that fall into each work.  Every work has it’s own unique story and background that comes from personal experiences, feelings, thoughts, and interests conjured through meditations on them or allowing them to coalesce through imagery of my own association with them.  Attempting to explain the works any further or in more detail involving these things would be futile.  There is a wide array of stories.

  Just so, every person has their own unique story, and this aspect is often on my mind while creating.  It’s important to me that the people who look at my work to connect with it in their own way, find their own story within it.  The work can speak, be healing, captivating, thought-provoking, mysterious, and remain this way.  Sometimes, the way I see it, the more you know the more imagination is hampered and the light is dulled.

  The deep connection others may find is the true binding between us.  Every work I create I have a unique connection to and the connection goes further than history, interests, and stories.  What I create, I strongly believe, originates from a source beyond me.  This may be the most important aspect of my work and what I do.  Oftentimes while I am working I am either strongly focused on this energy or sometimes find myself somehow subconsciously aware of it.  Resting in the background of the mind.

  It could be applied to any medium or any calling we have in life, that the interests or skills come from a source beyond us if we have a true passion for them.  I trust you find this spark and this essence in what you find here.

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      -Ryan Cramer

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