Joe Krumpelmann

As human beings, we live in a world that we barely understand. We are surrounded by a universe that is, seemingly, without boundaries. We observe change in the world, so we created the concept of time to help describe it, but in a universe without a beginning, and without an end, time, in a bigger sense, doesn’t really exist. We understand the physical processes needed to create a human being, and that, someday, we will all die, but we aren’t satisfied with this knowledge, and continue to seek an understanding of what lies beyond those two boundaries. We talk about our earthly existence and the next world as if they were the only two stages of existence, but we don’t really know. We could, now, be experiencing stage 47 of a 103-stage existence, and not even know it. 

What makes humans unique in the animal kingdom is that we are the only ones who appear to seek meaning in our lives. We are the meaning-seeking, meaning-creating creatures of the planet. We use science, and create religious mythologies to help give structure to a formless world, yet the structure is really just an illusion of understanding. The questions still remain. The questions compel us forward.

The human compulsion to create art, to outwardly express the inner abstract knowledge that there is more to us, and more to the world around us than meets the eye, is as primal as the basic instinct to survive. The written and spoken word is tremendously useful to describe this concept, but often falls short, so we reach to other, more abstract languages such as music, and visual imagery to carry on. Abstract concepts need abstract languages to describe them. 

I am in the process of finding a personal, abstract language to express my own investigation of the world, and of myself. I, too, want to express that there is more to me, and to us, than what meets the eye. I enjoy working with glass, and making glass panels that glow in the sunlight, but I also enjoy sculpture, architecture, painting, drawing, and working with all sorts of materials to discover, and express what I would like to. 

joekrumpelmann@msn.com
651-332-1421
krumpelmann.com

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