The Organic Collection

This organic collection, created between 2009–2011, was born out of introspection during periods of deep nostalgia, stress and darkness during the two Nordic winters in Sweden (2009 through 2011), as well as the changes taking place in our own country Sweden. I did not need to look outward for inspiration in real material, everyday objects — so foreign to my nature.

Instead, I turned my gaze inward — into my mind and towards the imagined objects that had always been there, in my imagination. In a spontaneous act, I sought shapes and elements to dissect with the brush, imagining how they might appear on the canvas, in the artistic creation. The black line, ever present like the black ink in my drawings, marked and defined each of these organic elements that emerged in the works, on the canvas.

In that space, full of rich shapes and colors, I managed to survive the boredom and regained the joy of continuing to be creative. But something strange happened to my body — something made me feel that parts of my body were trying to establish some kind of communication with my mind. My body was trying to tell me something, but I couldn’t understand what it was. Eventually, I put aside that strange, early thought and returned to my everyday life, unaware of what was really going on with these strange sensations that called me to careful and introspective observation.

I painted as if I were dissecting an animal — without stopping — in search of an explanation for why I painted what I painted. When I finished the last painting, the doctors informed me of the existence of a fatal disease that needed to be cured within a month. It all culminated in a major operation, September 2011, where they removed a kidney that had died — it had turned into a large, snail-like mass. During these two creative years, my mind and body had been trying to communicate with my consciousness, sending signals that I failed to interpret correctly.

Therefore, I personally believe that the technique I used in these works was not the most appropriate — I should have painted with a more direct, more spontaneous and perhaps simpler approach, instead of the contemplative one that oil painting offered me. The entire collection of thirteen paintings is now in the hands of a person who knows what happened to me. The works are so personal that this person has promised to preserve them as a frozen moment in time, preserving within them the essence of what I painted in oil and ink.

Gustav DeGaacz