Building the Bridge

John Kneifl, MFA

My quest as an artist is to bridge the gap between the conscious and unconscious, the spoken and unspoken, the known and unknown. For me, art is an apparatus to making that connection. It has the power to move people to a new illumination of what it is to be human. It communicates societal concepts, heart-felt thoughts, ideas and emotions.

I try to build an artistic bridge to give myself and the viewer a path to a better awareness. Often, my inspiration comes from the paradoxical world. I watch myself and others interact with the world around us. Sometimes differing emotions and belief systems generate interesting illogical actions. My conceptual ideas are also heavily influenced by the unnoticed world of innate human reflexes such as eye blinking or swallowing. I take these responses and find a visual way to portray them. There have always been culturally specific icons for the human condition. Through my artwork, I strive to present these symbols as abstract universal interpretations of life.