Jason Engelbart – Circle Foundation for the Arts

What themes does your work involve?

The more our world is unsteady, the more the intentions for positive charging and balancing become stronger in me. It is not about painting the things in my works looking beautiful, but rather about using the tools at my disposal to trigger reflection and create a positive awareness of our daily togetherness. Here is the source of my sacral-abstract emotional artworks. In the creative process I feel deeply connected with my soul, my spirit… with God. My so-called digital neopaintings of the work cycle THE JOY OF BEING (2016 until today) are created in a purely intuitive creative process and are reflections of my personal feelings and experiences. My art is a testament to a cultivation of wholesome, human qualities, for positive change and development, which I state as my artistic vision.

Describe your creative process.

Using my characteristic digital painting technique, developed over the years, I abstract selected original works of the Baroque art epoch by superimposing picture levels, blurring, overpainting and re-composing them. In the process, my very own flowing structures and pictorial rhythms emerge, while the original colour composition remains largely untouched. In sum, colour and form transform into a single aesthetic-abstract event that is experienced on a purely emotional level and independent of time and space as a holy moment. Through this form of digitally painterly, an abstract re-staging of the original, I build a finely balanced bridge to contemporary art without disenchanting.

What influences your work? What inspires you? Why do you make art?

The trigger for my abstract-baroque serie of works was a visit to the Würzburg Residenz in Germany in 2016. Overwhelmed by the opulent ceiling frescoes by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Antonio Giuseppe Bossi and Johannes Zick inside the Baroque castle, a deep desire arose in me to mirror this splendour of spirituality in the form of an abstract translation into the present. I closed my eyes while looking at the exuberant works on the walls and ceilings, except for a narrow slit of vision, until the figurativeness of the paintings dissolved into abstraction. Thus the foundation stone for my work cycle THE JOY OF BEING was laid.

What is good art? What makes a piece of art great?

In my opinion, good art is timeless and at the same time enables reflection on the respective present moment. It touches on an emotional level, inspires the viewer and encourages him to pause and to contemplate.

What is the role of the artist today?

From my personal point of view, all forms of art are expressions of human existence. They are instruments for dealing with the past and at the same time have a dimension directed towards the future through visionary content, that can be guiding for the further development of society. This is why it is particularly important for an artist to use his/her possibilities of artistic expression in a respectful and responsible manner. In our multi-ethnic world, art therefore has a particularly high status. At best, it is an engagement to support integration and to highlight the positive elements of cultural diversity. In this sense, art is an invitation to a dialogue between the most diverse cultures and it offers the opportunity for self- reflection – for the artist and also for each recipient.