Goethe studied aesthetics and discovered that in both nature and artwork, the (Platonic) idea is the starting point. Behind every appearance, Goethe could perceive the idea. In art, humanity itself is the creator, and it is humanity that proceeds from the idea. For Goethe, the artist’s task is to go beyond nature. The artist must not simply imitate nature. He must create an ideal reality. He must place the perfectly divine on this earth. That is the spiritual mission of every artist. It is their task to grasp and develop the idea that underlies the thing but was prevented from unfolding freely in reality. Artists must indeed work according to the eternal laws of Nature, but purely and free of all constraints. Art must not proceed from what is, but from what could be, not from the actual, but from the possible. The artist creates something from sensory reality in the form he himself gives it, and thus surpasses Nature, for his artwork is more perfect. Thus, the Beautiful is a manifestation of Nature’s secret laws, which would otherwise have remained eternally hidden. The Beautiful is truer than Nature because it expresses what Nature would desire but cannot be. A true artist competes with reality and gives the illusion of a higher reality, the perfect world of ideas. The Beautiful is nothing more and nothing less than the sensory reality in divine garb. The artist understands the art of elevating sensory reality into the divine sphere. The Beautiful is an illusion that conjures up a reality for our senses, one that represents an ideal world. The artist carries the world spirit further. Where it relinquishes creation, the artist continues it. Thus, the artist fraternizes with the world spirit, and art is a continuation of Nature’s process. Artists have a cosmic mission, for where the world spirit stops, the artist continues.

That’s a beautiful thought, and I’m certainly not lacking in ideas. I just don’t possess the skill, talent, or technique to translate the idea that manifests in my mind onto canvas, with all its attendant details. Yet, painting has brought me a great deal of peace. It’s a form of meditation, where I learned to focus and sharpen my perception. I now see things differently.

Here (right) you see another image that chatGPT created for me. In this, I do strive for perfection. The machine has to develop my idea exactly as I envision it. Sometimes it takes me several days. In that sense, AI becomes a tool to realize my creative idea. Meanwhile, I’m noticing that AI can’t think, isn’t logical, lacks self-awareness, and isn’t capable of phenomenology. I even doubt whether AI is creative. AI is purely operational.

Up to and including book 9, the cover of my books features a handmade painting, or the print includes details of one or more handmade paintings. From book 10 onward, I create the cover image using PowerPoint. The cover of book 25 was created using Grok and chat GPT.

This website and my blog are my own creations. These are my ideas, which are either developed by myself or a webmaster. AI can also be a tool in this process.

Below you’ll find a triptych. It consists of three self-made paintings, inspired by shamanism, specifically the underworld. Clicking on the triptych will bring up a slideshow of several paintings set to music.