Featured Artist Bob Landström

Artist Bob Landström creates visually delightful works using an unusual medium—crushed volcanic rock. Enjoy and find more by visiting his website.

 

 

I was born and raised near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In my youth, the steel industry there was in full swing. Heavy machinery, smoke, and fire was everywhere, and unavoidable. Earth, fire, air, and water converged violently and beautifully.

 

 

My formal art training is from Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. I also have bachelors and masters degrees in electrical engineering.

 

 

My aesthetic is rooted in metaphysics, ancient religions, and so-called primitive cultures. I often work from subject matter in the areas where art and science overlap. Indeed, metaphysics and theoretical physics increasingly seem to be two sides of the same coin. When an idea captures my imagination, I dive into the rabbit hole carrying a pick and shovel. I’ll conduct experiments, read as much as I can find on the topic, and 12 to 18 months later I’ll have a body of work documenting my journey.

 

 

Materiality is important to me, and the materials used in a work of art should reinforce what the work is about. I used to paint with liquid paint, but it left me unfulfilled. I started experimenting with alternative materials. Ultimately, I chose to paint with the Earth itself. Volcanic rock, in particular, has been important for me. I like its alchemical nature. Once liquid within the Earth, now solid in my hand.

 

 

Painting with matter, rather than liquid paint, can stretch the conceptual as well as the practical directions in the studio. It took a good deal of time and invention to make friends with volcanic rock as a painting medium. Most fundamentally, I’ve had to discover ways to permanently pigment the crushed rock.

 

 

In my studio, there are dozens of bins containing different sizes and colors of gravel. I can do things with color using a dry medium that I couldn’t do with liquid paint because the pigment doesn’t blend between two adjacent pieces of gravel. Every grain on the painting is individually colored before it’s attached to the canvas. There’s a primal experience that you wouldn’t get with paint.

 

 

Because my work grows from the discovery of ideas, I tend to produce work in a series. For example, I once did a series entitled Conjuring Secrets, which was about what it means when a secret is suddenly discovered. A few years ago, I studied about quantum mechanics, and in particular, the notion of multiple parallel universes. I produced a body of work for a solo show in Los Angeles entitled Multiverse.

 

 

Last year, I had a solo show in Atlanta entitled, Florum Somnia or Plants Dreaming. This was about plant communications and the notion of plant sentience. I used a device that connected a house plant to a synthesizer, providing the background music during the artist’s talk.

 

 

Recently, I’ve been thinking about static and electromagnetic interference. In particular, the idea of messages between messages, and information that emerges out of seemingly random signals. It’s a strong metaphor for lots of things in life.

 

Bob Landström invites you to follow on Instagram.

 

 

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