Tomas Ronse - Artist Statement 

As an artist I am very interested in the visual presence of time, in natural processes of change, and also in the interaction between humans and their environment. I’m seeking to achieve both formal beauty and a multi-layered content that includes the desire for a different relation between humans and nature and between humans themselves. I work in several media, including sculpture and painting. My work is very tactile. I almost always start with a found object. This object may be a piece of driftwood or melted plastic on a Staten Island beach, a discarded painting on a Manhattan sidewalk, a shred of newspaper, a tortured piece of metal, construction debris, driftwood, remnants of a Santeria ritual, an old photograph, a thrown away catalogue of wallpaper, etc. My aim is to interact with the serendipitous find, which comes with its own shrouded history, an original purpose that was lost, altered by natural forces (fire, wind, water, animals...), by time itself. I use lights and natural coloration techniques such as oxidation in order to snatch beauty and meaning from society's refuse. My artistic process is a dialogue with it, rather than the execution of a preconceived idea.

I want to make art that is meaningful by its physical being, rather than by being the carrier or illustration of a narrative. Not that I avoid the stories that images, symbols and figurative elements can tell. Quite the contrary, I look for them but I want them to be part of the history of a sensuous object. That history is partially a magician’s trick. I shock the objects with fire, acids and other chemicals in order to obtain quickly the same transformations which may naturally occur over a long stretch of time. Since these processes are not entirely predictable, there is always an element of surprise. “Controlled coincidence’ may be an apt description. To say that this art derives its meaning from its physical being is not entirely true either. It’s about me, my dreams and nightmares, it’s about us, people, our craziness and need of a new beginning, a genuine revolution, it’s about our interconnectedness with life on this planet which is now more fragile than ever.

I like looking at clouds, they are abstract and figurative at the same time. Sometimes I wish I could mold them. I like working with nature, merging my interventions with natural processes. Beauty surrounds us, we need to see it, we need to save it.

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For more information and visuals visit my Blog and Instagram page.